Slavery Dbq

African Americans at the turn of the twentieth century were faced with many problems. Economically, very few were able to secure their own land, which resulted in depending on white landowners and peonage. Blacks were also faced with severe discrimination when it came to voting and federal courts. They were offered little to almost no protection and were threatened by Jim Crow laws and violent lynchings. Fortunately a number of spokespersons in the new south offered different strategies for improving the situations of African Americans. The best alternative would address the problems in the most realistic, safest and long term way. The best alternative may not be the most widely accepted, but it would be the most effective. Although Henry McNeal Turner and W.E.B. Du Bois proposed solutions that would help only the problems of African Americans in short, Booker T. Washington and Ida B. Wells proposed more realistic and effective solutions that would benefit African Americans along with America as a whole in the long run.

W.E.B DuBois' alternative addressed the fact of racism and economic achievement among African Americans but it failed to propose a solid alterative to help blacks develop the education they need. DuBois was focused on achieving a higher education by putting in charge a "talented tenth" of the black population to educate other blacks. In W.E.B Du Bois Writings, Du Bois states that, "the Negro race, like all races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men." (Doc 2, 48) by this he means a few educated blacks are supposed to be the ones to save the whole race. The problem with putting in charge a certain group of higher class "best" people is it leads to the neglecting of the lower class or "worst" of the race. He later addresses the issue of training the talented tenth as he states, " the training of men is a rather difficult and intricate task. Its technique is a matter for educational experts," (doc 4, 48) yet he fails to mention or describe a way to educate the one in every ten blacks to be the educators.

While W.E.B Du Bois proposed strategies that would help blacks reclaim their manhood in American society, Henry McNeal Turner's strategies prove he does not have much faith in the African American race and would rather send them back in time to unrealistically claim their manhood in Africa. Tuner had no faith in the African American race. In his speech The American Negro and His Fatherland, turner states, "the black man can demand nothing." (doc 3, 27). He believes that without work and ability to vote, a man is not a man. He goes on to say " the supreme court of the united states decided...that the colored man had no civil rights under the general government...even with the argument we are equals with the white man in the aggregate, notwithstanding the same opportunities may be enjoyed in schools" (doc 3, 28)He simply accepts