Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois were both extremely influential racial activists at the turn of the 20th Century. Washington, who delivered his famous Atlanta Compromise speech in 1895, advocated for the advancement of the African American community through economic productivity and prosperity; as he said, his people were to "cast down their buckets" in commerce and industry as a means of earning capital and therefore independence. DuBois, on the other hand, declared that the African American community could best reach complete equality through the attainment of an academic education and political representation. DuBois produced a series of essays (collectively called The Souls of Black Folk) and founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP, to emphasize the importance of civic and political activism. Although different in argument (and sometime approach), both men were highly regarded for their art of persuasion. In this unit, you will be asked to deconstruct their arguments as well as determine, evaluate, and synthesize their rhetorical approaches.