Black Leaders Under Jim Crow (1890-1930)

The turn of the twentieth century is known as the "nadir" (low point) of American race relations. In the age of Jim Crow, African-Americans debated how to best address inequality and respond to the epidemic of lynchings documented by Ida B. Wells. Booker T. Washington sought to bring about his vision of economic equality and self-help at the Tuskegee Institute, while W.E.B. Du Bois sought political equality through the NAACP. In the 1920s, Marcus Garvey advocated black nationalism and created the largest black mass movement in history when he founded the UNIA.