Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Dubois were the true initiators of the civil rights movement, which lasted until the 1960's. Washington was born in 1857 into slavery. His slave master's wife thought he was very smart and she began to tutor him. After slavery was abolished, he attended a university on a scholarship. He then went on to become a teacher and then a university professor at Tuskegee University. W.E.B. Dubois, on …showed first 75 words of 738 total…

…showed last 75 words of 738 total…wasted on dead languages or superfluous studies of any kind. What is practical, what will best fit these young people for the work of life, that is taught, and that is aimed at" (Doc. I). Booker T. Washington was the ideal civil rights activist during this time period because he did not use radical ideas to make his point. Washington made an attempt to compromise and took a less aggressive movement to achieve his goals.