Despite a Union victory and Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, unthinkable in the previous century, a new form of suppression and violence descended on the African American population. “Reconstruction” is employed as a generic term for the period that followed the American Civil War. Suggesting a successful rejuvenation of a war-ravaged South, it lamentably gave way to a resurrection of the same white ruling class and slave-owner mentality, protecting the status quo in the legislatures and courts. The arduous task of overthrowing Jim Crow codes and legislation marked one of the first strides toward the modern struggle for ethnic equality in American society and required nearly a century of struggle. 

That effort spawned a multitude of heroic African American activists, but it is remembered in large part for the work of two iconic African American men of stature. Much like their later counterparts, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, the debate between gradual integration through temporary accommodation and overtly insistent activism was led by Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois. 

From 1890-1915, the most influential black man in America was Booker T. Washington, who less than 35 years earlier had been born into slavery. The young boy worked laboriously until emancipation before going on to seek an education, and by the time he was 40, he was consolidating a network of supporters that came to be known as the “Tuskegee Machine”, helping coordinate action with the support of black businesses, religious communities, and others. Using his position of power, Washington spoke out against Jim Crow laws and Southern disfranchisement of blacks. 

Despite being so recognized, and perhaps in part because of it, by the early 20th century, Washington’s tactics were questioned by other black leaders, notably W. E. B. Du Bois, who wanted to protest more vehemently in an effort to secure civil rights. Washington, 12 years Du Bois’ senior, entered the field of education and founded the famous Tuskegee Institute based on his vision of what a population emerging from generations of slavery required in order to successfully integrate into modern life. He urged blacks to accept discrimination in the short term and concentrate on elevating themselves, thereby proving themselves through hard work and material prosperity. Du Bois would have none of that, believing it amounted to an approval of the Jim Crow regime of the South and a passive acceptance of racism. In opposition, he and other black leaders organized the Niagara Movement, citing opposition to Washington’s moral leadership of the movement and marking their determination to fight for full civil equality for black Americans. The movement did not gain much traction, but it was in direct line of ascension to the much more influential National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).