ABSTRACT
During the period 1895-1925 Booker T. Washington and Marcus Garvey were the best known and most influential black spokespersons in the United States. If the Wizard of Tuskegee was the dominant figure in African-American society between 1895 and 1915, Garvey enjoyed an equal, if not greater, ascendancy from 1917 to 1925. The careers of the two men were also highly controversial. Other black American leaders of his day were sharply critical of Washington, and many of these, most notably W. E. B. Du Bois, went on to oppose the policies and ideas of Garvey during the 1920s with even greater vehemence.
