In this M.A. thesis I will explore and compare the ideas introduced and expressed in the works of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois, focusing on the topics where they overlap. The reason I chose these two authors and this subject matter is because I believe it to be extremely relevant today. These works of literary art were written over a century ago and yet almost all the issues these authors talk about are omnipresent in the world today except on a global scale. These works deal with issues of racial relations in the United States of America at the end of the 19th century/beginning of the 20th century and while some progress has definitely been made there is still much work to be done to achieve the kind of equality these authors, their forefathers and successors like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X talk about. I feel these issues can be translated into others we face as a society today, ranging from feminism to LGBTQ+ rights to religious discrimination. The reason I chose these two authors is because they present two very different approaches to achieving the same goal. It is interesting to see different perspectives on certain issues and to understand where they come from and why they are in opposition. The goal of this thesis is to explore how the authors’ philosophical and political agendas are expressed in their literary work and, in a smaller capacity, how they influenced the movements that followed.