Writing Proposal & Lesson Plan: Exploring the Binary Opposition Between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois

 Name: Michaela Malcolm

Professor: Dr. Jessica Harris

Subject: English 2016

Date: December 1, 2025


Writing Proposal & Lesson Plan: Exploring the Binary Opposition Between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois

Ninth grade is a valuable time for students to start thinking more deeply about history, society, and their own place in the world. At this stage, students are ready to explore complex ideas, analyze different perspectives, and connect historical events to today’s world. Teaching the debate between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois gives students a chance to understand how different strategies for racial progress were proposed and argued within the African American community. This lesson plan uses primary texts, discussions, and creative activities to help students explore how Washington’s idea of gradual accommodation contrasted with Du Bois’s call for immediate civil rights and higher education. Learning about these opposing views helps students think critically about leadership, strategy, and social change.

Ninth graders usually study topics like Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the beginnings of the Civil Rights Movement. But often, lessons skip over the debates happening within the Black community at that time. Washington believed that Black Americans could gain progress by focusing on education, vocational skills, and economic independence while accepting segregation for the moment. Du Bois disagreed, arguing that fighting for civil rights, political involvement, and higher education was necessary for real equality. Looking at both sides helps students understand that progress does not come from just one idea or one path; it comes from discussion, disagreement, and action. This lesson encourages students to compare perspectives, question assumptions, and reflect on how people fight for justice.

Students will read “The Atlanta Compromise” by Washington and “Addressing the Atlanta Compromise” by Du Bois. They will analyze the main ideas, arguments, and strategies in each text. Activities like annotation, discussion, and comparison charts help students break down the leaders’ ideas and see how each one thinks about progress and equality. Students will look at themes like education, work, political power, and resistance, and consider why each strategy might have worked or not at the time.


Lesson Objectives

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

  1. Understand and explain the main ideas of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois.

  2. Analyze how Washington’s and Du Bois’s strategies represent binary position: accommodation vs. agitation.

  3. Compare and contrast the arguments in the two texts.

  4. Discuss how historical context influenced each leader’s philosophy.

  5. Reflect their own perspective on strategies for social change.


Lesson Goals

  1. Help students think critically about historical debates and leadership.

  2. Encourage analysis of primary sources and historical arguments.

  3. Foster discussion, debate, and creative thinking.

  4. Connect historical strategies to modern ideas about activism and social change.


Activities


  1. Annotation & Close Reading: Students highlight key arguments and examples in each text and take notes on Washington’s vs. Du Bois’s strategies.

  2. Comparison Chart: Create a T-chart listing Washington’s accommodation ideas on one side and Du Bois’s agitation ideas on the other.

  3. Gallery Walk: Display quotes from both leaders around the classroom. Students walk around, read, and write their reactions to each perspective.

  4. Mini Debate: Students take on the role of either Washington or Du Bois and defend their leader’s approach to racial progress in small groups.

  5. Creative Writing Exercise: Students imagine themselves as a young African American student in 1900 and write a short letter responding to one of the leaders’ adv ices.

  6. Class Discussion: Students discuss which strategies might have been most effective historically and how these debates relate to modern civil rights movements.


Assessment

  • Participation in class discussions, debates, and gallery walk reflections.

  • Completion of the comparison chart showing understanding of binary opposition.

  • Creative writing exercise demonstrates comprehension and critical thinking.

  • Short reflection essay: Students argue which leader’s strategy they think would have been most effective and explain why.


Work Citation

  • “The Atlanta Compromise” – Booker T. Washington (1895)

  • “Addressing the Atlanta Compromise” – W.E.B. Du Bois (1903)

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