Hope's criticism resulted in the diminution of
financial support to Atlanta University where Hope was president.
W. E. B. DuBois, who was a professor at Atlanta University at
that time, charged that:
"Mr. Washington distinctly asks that black people give up, at
least for the present, three things,--First, political power;
second, insistence on civil rights; Third, higher education of
Negro youth,--and concentrate their energies on industrial
education, the accumulation of wealth, and the conciliation of
the South. . . . As a result of this tender of the palm-branch,
what has been the return? In these years there have occurred: 1.
The disenfranchisement of the Negro. 2. The legal creation of a
distinct status of civil inferiority for the Negro. 3. The steady
withdrawal of aid from institutions for the higher training of
the Negro. These movements are not, to be sure, direct results of
Mr. Washington's teachings; but his propaganda has, without a
shadow of a doubt, helped their speedier accomplishment. The
question then comes: Is it possible, and probable, that nine
millions of men can make effective progress in economic lines if
they are deprived of political rights, made a servile caste, and
allowed only the most meager chance for developing their
exceptional men? If history and reason give any distinct answer
to these questions, it is an emphatic No "
He believed that beginning at the bottom with a humble trade was
the best way to stay at the bottom, respect should be worth more
than material advancement.
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