The Debate on The Vision of Manhood between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois

Abstract

This article explores the ways in which black intellectuals Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois develop models of black masculinity that serve the purposes and needs of their respective historical moments. By navigating the trajectory of the competing yet overlapping visions of masculinity Washington and Du Bois constructed, I argue that these black intellectuals sought to rebut the primitive, “unmanly” images projected onto blacks to become part of the dominant (white) society. For both, establishing the terms of leadership for racial uplift was intimately connected with the definition of black manhood. Therefore, Washington and Du Bois actively strove to defy the stereotype of the black rapist by demonstrating the extent to which they are civilized. Simultaneously, Du Bois and Washington’s insistence on civilization runs the “risk” of effeminizing them and African American men in general, when both figures urgently seek to construct their masculine identity as a representative African American leader.