W. E. B. Dubois And Marcus Garvey Essay

929 Words2 Pages

Johnny Zangrillo 11-28-14
DNY-Section 566 Professor Turner

Final Research Project

Question 4: Compare and contrast the thinking of Marcus Garvey with that of W.E.B. Du Bois. Why were these men such bitter rivals, given that both sought to improve the status of African Americans?

In the 1920s, African Americans had a much much lower social status than whites, as it had been for years before. While many African Americans, experienced continuing poverty and hardship especially in the South, the 1920s can also be considered as an era of opportunities. The pursuit of a higher standard of living, increased will to self-rule, and less discrimination led many African Americans to migrate to the more urban North from rural areas in the South. Once in the North, their employment status benefitted from 1920s legislation restricting the number of immigrants allowed into the country. Two men that tried very hard and dedicated their lives to African Americans’ equality to whites were W.E.B. Du Bois and Marcus Garvey. Although they both were trying to improve the lives of African Americans, they were bitter rivals due to their ideas of how to do that. W.E.B. Du Bois had a Pan-African ideology, which is the idea that encourages the solidarity and life …show more content…

Du Bois and Marcus Garvey. They held two competing views of how to uplift the African American race. Du Bois viewed Liberia as evidence of the ability of Blacks to govern themselves without whites having control over them. Garvey viewed Liberia as the ideal place to start the return of African Americans to Africa, and Liberia as the center of the African Diaspora, which refers to the communities throughout the world today that are descended from the historic movement of peoples from Africa. Marcus Garvey’s back-to-Africa vision and Du Bois’ Pan African ideology would meet in Liberia and eliminate Garvey’s Pan African dream of a homeland in

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