Study Questions for DuBois

1.  Booker T. Washington urged young African-Americans to become trained in the skills which would make them useful and desirable members of the broader community. Why, and how does DuBois dispute Washington’s proposal?

2. In what sense does DuBois think that there is ‘no difference’ between African-Americans and Caucasians in America, and on what dimensions does he think there are important differences?

3. DuBois is often described as a precursor of the civil rights movement in the 1960s and later. In what ways does he describe/explain the violation of those rights during the Reconstruction in the South?

application 1: Compare the discrimination in the US against African-Americans with that against women, homosexuals, Native Americans, Latinos, Asians?

application 2: Dubois spoke of the ‘Veil’ between Caucasian and African-Americans. Does something similar exist with respect to Muslims?