The African American population had endured a long struggle for justice and equal rights. Having arrived in the United States as slaves, their struggle for equality in an all-white nation became a daunting task. The liberation and rights that are now enjoyed by the contemporary African-American population did not come at a low price. The focus of this essay is comparing some of the ideas espoused by the liberators of the African American people with those of Marcus Garvey. The Progressive Era was a crucial period in the quest to advance the rights of African-Americans. However, many of the liberators differed on the most appropriate way to grant African Americans justice.
Marcus Garvey moved from Jamaica to the United States and was the founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. His ideology focused on the mental liberation of the African American people. He argued that for proper freedom of the Black American people and the black population at large, the change had to begin from their minds. He urged the black people to find pride in their race; he also preached that African Americans should return to Africa. His movement attracted millions of supporters but later collapsed after he was arrested.
His fundamental ideologies were based on the mental liberation of African Americans to allow them to be proud of their race and the return of black race to Africa. Henry McNeal Turner was a bishop in Georgia, who supported the idea of returning to Africa. He was an agitator who struggled to address the frustrations and hopes of African Americans in the ninetieth century. Having witnessed the never-ending struggle and treatment of the black people who lived in the south, he took to advocating for the return of the black people to Africa. This ideology was largely centered on the African Americans establishing, developing and thriving on the continent they had been taken from.
Booker T. Washington was one of the most notable liberators during the Progressive Era. From his perspective, the problems of African Americans could be solved through economic development. Contrary to the ideology of Marcus Garvey, his argument was that the black Americans would be guaranteed of their freedom by being incorporated within the white supremacy power. His strategy was to make the African Americans economically indispensable to the whites in the south. He argued that the way out of the challenges of racial discrimination, injustice, and violation of the rights of the black Americans was by cooperating with the whites and thus be accommodated in the society (Racial Alternatives in the Progressive Era 117).
His ideas were largely criticized for a greater part of the population was not ready to be incorporated into the white supremacy. For them, it meant continued suffering and domination by the white population. Du Bois was another crucial figure in the Progressive Era. Du Bois heavily criticized the proposition that had been made by Washington. His argument was that rather than freeing the African American population from bondage, the strategy that was being proposed by Washington would perpetuate the suffering and oppression of the people. Du Bois was an ardent advocate of equality regardless of the race of an individual. He discounted the concept of making the black race a minority in the white society.
Originally, he argued that social science was one way through which society could learn to fight racial injustice. However, aspects such as peonage, lynching, race riots and disfranchisement led him to the conclusion that protests and agitation were the only solutions that would bring equality. John Hope was another civil rights activist and educationist who believed that the freedom and liberation of the African American population could be attained through educational attainment. He argued that it was the only way through which the black community would challenge the status quo.
His ideology was partly supported by W.E.B. Du Bois. One of the most radical movements during the Progressive Era was the women suffrage struggle that wanted to find an equitable platform for the women. The African-American liberators awoke the voice of women and their expectations, and one such woman was Ida B. Wells-Barnett. She was a suffragist woman who vehemently resisted the lynching movements (Racial Alternatives in the Progressive Era 113). She was a journalist and activist who is most remembered for the anti-lynching crusade. She leaned towards the Native Liberation theory, which struggled to ensure that African Americans would attain justice and equality through education, agitation, and protests.
In conclusion, the liberators had divergent ideologies on how to attain freedom for the African Americans. Pan-Africanists argued that the racial inequality could not be attained in America. The suffering of the black population in the south largely informed the ideology of returning to Africa. The struggle for justice and equality had been a long one, and it seemed to be grappling to attain its goals. For the Pan-Africanists, the idea of returning to Africa was a way that would ensure an end to racial inequality and allow the black race to rise and challenge the other races on an equitable platform.
Work Cited
Racial Alternatives in the Progressive Era. Retrieved Web. 11 Apr. 2016.
<http://www.ahsd.org/social_studies/williamsm>.
