What was the main debate in setting up colleges and universities for African Americans?
1 Answer
There were competing visions by Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois.
Explanation:
The last generations born into slavery and the first generation born into emancipation had three main leaders in the late 19th Century, each with a somewhat different vision of how to best benefit African Americans:
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Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), a radical abolitionist and a living counterargument to the view that Blacks lacked the capacity to function as free citizens, demanded complete equality of the races.
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Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) advocated the pragmatic but ideologically impure "Atlanta Compromise" which placated the white establishment in return for funding and support for Historically Black Colleges and Universities and economic opportunities.
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W.E.B. DuBois (1868-1963), a founder of the NAACP and a critic of Booker T. Washington, believed in focusing efforts on the "talented tenth," the ten percent of African Americans who could best benefit from a formal education, in the hopes that their progress would inspire and enable others.
