| Line | In a 1918 editorial, W. E. B. Du Bois advised African |
| Americans to stop agitating for equality and to |
| proclaim their solidarity with White Americans for |
| the duration of the First World War. The editorial |
| (5) | surprised many African Americans who viewed |
| Du Bois as an uncompromising African American |
| leader and a chief opponent of the accommodationist |
| tactics urged by Booker T. Washington. In fact, |
| however, Du Bois often shifted positions along the |
| (10) | continuum between Washington and |
| confrontationists such as William Trotter. In 1895, |
| when Washington called on African Americans to |
| concentrate on improving their communities instead |
| of opposing discrimination and agitating for political |
| (15) | rights, Du Bois praised Washington’s speech. In |
| 1903, however, Du Bois aligned himself with Trotter, |
| Washington’s militant opponent, less for ideological |
| reasons than because Trotter had described to him |
| Washington’s efforts to silence those in the African |
| (20) | American press who opposed Washington’s |
| positions. |
| Du Bois’s wartime position thus reflected not a |
| change in his long-term goals but rather a |
| pragmatic response in the face of social pressures: |
| (25) | government officials had threatened African |
| American journalists with censorship if they |
| continued to voice grievances. Furthermore, |
| Du Bois believed that African Americans’ |
| contributions to past war efforts had brought them |
| (30) | some legal and political advances. Du Bois’s |
| accommodationism did not last, however. Upon |
| learning of systematic discrimination experienced |
| by African Americans in the military, he called on |
| them to “return fighting” from the war. |