W. E. B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington were the two most influential black men in the country in the late 19th and 20th century.
They worked collaboratively in the Exhibit of American Negroes at the Exposition Universelle of 1900 in Paris, to challenge stereotypical representations of black people as inherently inferior.
Yet, they differed on strategies for black social and economic improvement. Washington had a conciliatory strategy to civil rights, and compelled black people to accept discrimination for the time being. In contrast, Du Bois maintained that education and civil rights were the only way to equality and demanded full civil rights.
At the time, their dispute polarized African American leaders between the conservative supporters of Washington and his radical critics guided by Du Bois.
