Black Leaders Of 20th Century Essay -- essays research papers

BLACK LEADERS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY In the time after the fall of radical black reconstruction of the nineteenth century, African Americans were being oppressed by rural farming, civil rights, economical advancement and sharecropping. Booker T. Washington charged the fight for economical and political accommodation with his dream of equal civil rights. Timothy Thomas Fortune was an influential black journalist that fought for the rights of African Americans through literal resistance. The Lonely Warrior, Ida B. Wells was an outspoken voice against lynching throughout America and fought against the oppression of men and woman everywhere. Booker T. Washington was one of the last great African American leaders born into slavery. Washington emphasized political means and civil rights along with economic means and self-determination. Washington was the founder of the Tuskegee Normal and the Industrial Institute in 1881, for the development of skilled trade. The Instituted was the largest self-black supported Institution in America at the time. The school taught the arts of trade, self-determination and economical independence of sharecropping. Washington gave the Atlanta Compromise Address in 1895, to disclaim the notion of white supremacy and social equality to the south. Booker T. Washington sought to influence whites, but sought out the solid programs of economical and educational progress for blacks. Washington was one that thought that speaking out against injustice was self-defeating and should be suppressed. Washington founded the National Negro Business League in 1900, helped put a stronghold on substantial black population and did little for black business. As the chief black advisor to President Roosevelt and Taft, Washington devoted much of his time to securing federal jobs and used political power to win over key political figures in the North. He aided many blacks businesses but also hindered the activities of those who spoke against him. He also helped appoint the first black assistant US Attorney General. Many of Washington's ideas and concepts are still being used today in black communities. Booker T. Washington was in control of many black newspapers that agreed with his views and opinions.... ...hting for all possible rights. Ida B. Well's kept up her fight for black equality for all African-Americans. Her fight stayed alive for some time until mutual friends such as Washington and Fortune decided to push her out of newspaper journalism for black rights and eventually out of the NAACP. All three figures that are talked about above are some of the greatest leaders in the fight for African-American rights. Booker T. Washington was a fine leader in (towards starting) the movement to push black equality, however he lacked the courage to be a true leader because he only wanted to keep whites pleased. The "Agitator" as Thomas T. Fortune was a great editor of black newspaper, next to Du Bois. Fortune is not all that and a bag of chips. He is a man that lived on hiding behind Washington and his ideas, was just a toy of Washington. "Joan of Arc", Ida B. Wells was the anti-lynching spokeswomen and the true heart and soul behind the fight for black equality in America. She is the only true independent leader out of the above. Wells spoke her mind, which was the truth, and she never looked back even when it was her life that mattered.