Booker T Washington and WEB Du Bois had very different ideas about how the newly freed African Americans should proceed as citizens of the United States. Washington believed in accommodating the white man's comfort, or discomfort, with African Americans in a position of political or economic power. He believed in moving forward gradually while acting carefully not to step on any white toes. Washington asserted that African Americans should be happy to learn a vocation from which they could make an acceptable living. Du Bois believed that African Americans had earned their place in American politics and should have every opportunity to experience higher education and economic success. Booker T Washington was born into slavery on April 5th, 1856 in Virginia. He witnessed the harsh reality of living in bondage. When he and his family were emancipated, he witnessed the turmoil that existed between African Americans and white southerners. As he grew in age, education, and prominence, he witnessed the rise of the KKK and lynching across the south. He witnessed the persistent threat that existed against any African American who tried to exercise their political rights. These experiences may explain his hesitancy to agitate the environment of racial tension that existed. Instead, his idea for coexistence was one of compromise and accommodation. These ideas found their way into public view when he addressed the Atlanta Cotton Exposition. The speech that he gave in front of a racially mixed audience in the south would come to be known as the "Atlanta Compromise  due to its conciliatory nature. In his speech, he asserted that African Americans should understand their place in society. That they must work their way up by starting at the bottom and be happy working with their hands doing what they knew how to do best, farm. He felt that the newly freed African Americans were ignorantly over reaching for a higher place in society than what they we