University of Maryland University College Education and Empowerment Student Response

Debate responses

Student 1 (Kuiana)

Good people, I greet you warmly. 

My name is Mary Allen Winton. I was born in Erie, PA on April 20, 1893. I am a graduate of Oberlin College and I teach English and Latin at The Rayen School in Youngstown, Oh. I was never enslaved like many of my race. I stand here today to proudly proclaim and vehemently defend that my position for the advancement of Negroes is firmly aligned with that of the good sir from Massachusetts, Mr. Dubois. It is my conviction that Negroes can only assert their place as free men through education, political involvement, and the complete and immediate status of equality, parallel to that of any white man. 

The condition of enslavement was predicated on keeping Negroes in the fields and away from any semblance of an education. Thus it is primarily through education and not in the field that Negroes will find purpose and dignity, despite what Mr. Washington would have us believe. Adherence to segregation laws does not shield us from white violence, it shackles us to white supremacy ensuring that we will never escape it. Mr. Washington tells us that we )ve by the production of our hands though the production of our hands primarily benefits former enslavers and their progeny. The value of Negroes does not rest in our labors. Our true value rests in the ability of our minds. The mind is the soil from which true change grows. 

Mr. Washington tells us to make peace with our neighbors. ást down your bucket where you are  The neighbors that waged war to keep us in chains. The neighbors that look upon us as property. No different than a horseàsaddle where he rests his rear, though still deemed less valuable. The fruits of our manual labor can be stolen and destroyed by our neighbors. Common labor may keep us alive, but live)s a bare minimum that Mr. Washington and those that follow him are delighted to settle for in the name of so-called %ace Mr. Dubois understands that to truly live, we must reach beyond the bare minimum. 

Proper education is the cornerstone by which we uplift the Negroe race. We must identify and nurture those in our masses with the aptitude to learn and lead us. Through education, we can cultivate the political power necessary to create real freedom. Freedom from indebtedness from sharecropping. Freedom from being exploited by landowners. Establishing our own self-sufficient communities that operate outside of white society but are equal to it is how we manufacture power, change, and freedom for generations of Negroes to come. 

 tlanta Compromise peech. (2021). In Encyclopedia of African-American Politics (pp. 207°8).

Student 2(Eboni)My name is Selma Smith and I went to Fisk University with Du Bois a long time ago. I grew up free in Massechusetts, and was the first in my family to go to college,I¥ always admired is radical behavior and always looked up to him for that. I`a firm believer that we as African Americans need make big moves to get big attention, such as protesting and lawsuits. With him founding the NAACP, he made the framework for the change we need. He specified that education was key to the success of blacks and it would lead to our complete freedom. Du Bois says we should not give up our voting rights, civil and political equality and he is right! He believes we can rise up and become great leaders with his beliefs in (e talented tenth Du Bois involvement in The Niagara movement was the most impressive to me, bringing forth the civil rights movement. Du Bois knows we should not be ok with racial inequality because it only makes the whites deny what we are owed and thatàequal rights. That Booker T Washington guy believes we should segregate and basically keep our mouth shut and I just can agree! After reading the tlanta Address see why Du Bois combated it. Segregation is for weak people, we deserve all of our rights! He doesn want us to vote unless there are all of these extra stipulations and thatànot ok in my book. Yea he has the Tuskegee institute but, all he’s doing is training our people to be servants as Du Bois says. Maybe in the South thatàok but not here!