Neither source explicitly discusses a range of factors with regard to the role of each individual mentioned, and the individual’s involvement in this. Washington’s “solid programme of economic and social progress” was largely managed through the Tuskagee Institute, Alabama, of which he was head. The phrase to which Garvey is perhaps most closely associated, “back to Africa” is not mentioned- linking to the source, which mentions blacks’ “place in the world”, this is where Garvey ultimately saw it. The source does not explain this or that his use of the UNIA and its auxiliary organisations to improve the economic position of afro-Americans.
A major deficiency in using the quotes as a singular source for explanation of the role of individuals is also the fact that they refer to only two individuals in the context of an eighty-year period. This, coupled with the above mentioned non-explicit division of improvements means that further explanation is required for a full overview.
During the said period, a number of great advancements in the political position of afro-Americans were made, as well as the establishment of links with the Whitehouse by Washington in the early 20th century. It was the work of individuals such as William E.B.DuBois and Martin Luther King, who campaigned for equal voting rights that enabled afro-Americans to be able to have, at least in one sense, equal political footing as their white counterparts. Later individuals, notably Jesse Jackson, would work to encourage afro-Americans to actually take advantage of this right- Jackson doing so by running for a presidential candidacy. Thurgood Marshall was able to use his position as Solicitor General and later a Justice of the Supreme Court, to alter the political position of afro-Americans. Being himself a black man, his appointment is evidence of the success of his predecessors.
The efforts of individuals other than Garvey and Washington in tackling afro-American economic inequality is something worthy of note. The individual who perhaps was most directly concerned with this, other than the above, is Jesse Jackson, whose work in with such things as “Operation Breadbasket” and “PUSH” attempted to not only to find afro-Americans work (through placements and education), but also attempted to achieve equal working rights (conditions) through things such as boycotts. The work of other individuals appears to reflect a view that social and political equality should lead to economic equality, and hence had precedence in importance.
Such social equality, which is not explicitly noted in the sources, was something which the individuals mentioned in the sources actually, effectively, worked against. While other individuals challenged segregation in both its de facto and de jure forms, Garvey and Washington both appear to accept this, and this is the basis of their work. Neither quote sets out that that this is the case and that this is in contrast to other individuals in the period. For example, de jure segregation was challenged by Du Bois’ challenging of the Jim Crow laws and Marshall’s outstanding legal record in a number of important civil rights cases, as well as his stance in the Supreme Court. It was schemes such as Jackson’s rainbow coalition that aimed to bring about de facto equality.
However, historian Maldwyn Jones suggests that Washington’s apparent aim was a cause of the circumstances in which he was in- that he perhaps believed that separate was the only way equality could, but not necessarily should happen, and uses Washington’s private contributions to cases challenging de jure segregation as evidence. The fact that Malcolm X was to change his stance from separatist to integrated could also be used as similar evidence that overall individual’s roles have been important in improving the position of African-Americans, but also the context in which the individuals have worked have been a large influence in doing so- economically, politically, and socially, in the period 1900-1980.
