Liberalism: Power, Economic Crisis, Reform, War 95ist movie “Birth of a Nation.” The KKK became strong in both southern and
northern states and boasted that it had over 4 million members—probably a
vast overestimate but likely to be in the vicinity of one million—all “true”
Americans who wanted especially Blacks, but also Catholics, Jews, radicals,
and immigrants out of the country.
Amid such conditions, Blacks pressured the government for their civil
rights, and none were more well-known at the time than Booker Taliaferro
Washington and his ideological rival, William Edward Burghardt [W.E. B.] DuBois.
Washington was the head of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, a historically-
Black college, and rose to fame in 1895 with his Atlanta Compromise speech,
which was better received in the White community than among Blacks. It
was not time to challenge Jim Crow, he said, and African-Americans should
focus on education, vocational training, and slowly working with Whites to
create a more just racial system, politely and passively. Both Presidents
Roosevelt and Taft, who had negative ideas about Blacks, consulted with
Washington on racial issues because they knew he accepted racial inferiority.
DuBois was at the other end of the spectrum on the issue of race. DuBois
was the first Black to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard University, in 1895, and
FIGuRE 2-10 Ku Klux Klan