Booker T. Washington
By 1905, Booker T. Washington, who was born a slave in Virginia and who lived and worked in the coal mines and salt works around Malden, West Virginia, became a national spokesperson for race rela- tions. Washington, who was educated at Hampton College in Virginia and later established Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, emphasized vocational education, cultivation of good work habits and morals, and cooperation with whites in a segregated society. He did not promote the mixing of the races socially but believed they should work together for the common good. Washington favored educational and economic advancement for blacks, but he believed civil rights and social equality were less important. Not all blacks agreed with Booker T. Washing- ton’s point of view on race relations. One man, W. E. B. DuBois, offered another approach, based on the principles of the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal.” DuBois favored a vigorous protest against all racial injustice. Out of his differences with Booker T. Washington, DuBois became the leader of a group, which, in 1905, became known as the “Niagara Movement.” The Niagara Movement took its name from the town in Canada where DuBois and his followers issued a declaration, calling for civil liberties, an end to discrimination, and the recognition of human brotherhood.