Although Du Bois only appears once and he is mentioned only in passing, he figures prominently into the historical and critical reception of
Washington’s ideology. Du Bois and Washington were public political and philosophical rivals. Du Bois vehemently opposed Washington’s proposition of gradual racial uplift and industrial education for black Americans, and he even dedicated a chapter of his book,
The Souls of Black Folk, to refuting Washington’s “Atlanta Exposition Address.”