Washington's conciliatory approach to civil rights had made him adept at fundraising for his Tuskegee Institute as well as other Black organisations, and he had also endeared himself to the white establishment, including President Theodore Roosevelt, who frequently consulted him on all matters pertaining to Black people.
Du Bois, on the other hand, had become the country's foremost Black intellectual by that time, having published numerous influential works on the conditions of Black Americans. Unlike Washington, Du Bois believed that education and civil rights were the only ways to achieve equality. They believed that the only way to achieve equality was through political action and agitation.