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...pensatory laws. One of the principal objectors of compensatory laws was Booker T. Washington. Washington believed the best interests of black people would be attained through education in the crafts, industrial skills and cultivation of the virtues of patience, enterprise, and thrift. He urged his fellow blacks, most of whom were impoverished and illiterate farm laborers, to temporarily abandon their efforts to win full civil rights and political power and instead to cultivate their industrial and farming skills, so as to attain economic security. Blacks would thus accept segregation and discrimination, but they’re eventual acquisition of wealth and culture would gradually win them the respect and acceptance of the white community. This would break down the divisions between the two races and lead to equal citizenship for blacks in the end. Such rhetoric infuriated many black and white liberals, who were in favor of such programs. For behind reformers clamor against class legislation and the belief that the new freedmen must work out their own destiny, they were refusing to acknowledge blacks unique historical experience. To black and white liberals these beliefs demonstrated a cruel indifference to the African American fate. One such program, which was fervently debated, was the aforementioned Freedmen's Bureau. The Freedmen’s Bureau was established in 1865 by Congress to provide practical aid to 4,000,000 newly freed black Americans in their transition from slavery to freedom. Headed by Major General Oliver O. Howard, the Freedmen's bureau might be termed the first federal welfare agency. Despite handicaps of inadequate funds and poorly trained personnel, the bureau built hospitals and gave direct medical assistance to more than 1,000,000 freedmen. Its greatest accomplishments came in education: more than 1,000 black schools were built and over $400,000 spent to establish teacher-training institutions. All major black colleges were either founded by, or received aid from, the bureau. The radical William Whipper told liberals opposing the Freedman's bureau and other special efforts on behalf of the former slaves: “the white race has had the benefit of class legislation ever since the foundation of our government.” Another liberal who acknowledged the need for such programs was W.E.B. Dubois. Although Du Bois had originally believed that social science could provide the knowledge to solve the race problem, he gradually came to the conclusion that this was not possible. In a climate of virulent racism, disfranchisement, Jim Crow segregation laws, and race riots, social change can only be accomplished through protest and reform programs facilitating black education. “The system of education must strengthen the Negro’s character, increase his knowledge and teach him to earn a living”. In this view, he clashed with the most influential black leader of the period, Booker T. Washington. Constant debates on the necessity of federally subsidized programs culminated in the Supreme Court case, Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896). The decision established that states have the authority to segregate the races into separate but equal. Separate but equal signified that public institutions could be separated by race, but facilities must be equally funded. This decision initially benefited those whom argued that the government did not have the responsibility to improve the social capabilities of African American’s. Although the decision was an initial victory for conservatives, it also came with a tremendous drawback. The negative aspect can be attributed to the words of Supreme Court Judge John Marshall Harlan. Asserting that "our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens," he expressed the justified fear that the majority of the court was consigning black citizens of the United States to a permanent "condition of legal inferiority." Justice Harlan’s declaration, that blacks would not become equals unless measures were taken, proved to be accurate. Black and white supporters of Affirmative action type programs took this pronouncement to heart, and vowed to keep fighting for their beliefs. The prayers, of those whom sought such programs, were answered in the Supreme Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education Topeka. On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that racial segregation in public schools violated the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which says that no state may deny equal protection of the laws to any person within its jurisdiction. The 1954 decision declared that separate educational facilities were inherently unequal. Based on a series of Supreme Court cases argued between 1938 and 1950, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka completed the reversal of the earlier Supreme Court ruling (Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896) that permitted "separate but equal" public facilities. This decision gave hope to those who pleaded for government intervention. The government felt precedence to intervene because time was not proving to be a worthy solution in regards to racial inequality. From that day forward education became the driving force of the civil-rights movement. American schools would never be the same, and the Brown decision paved the way for future Affirmative-Action decisions. The contemporary debate in regards to educational Affirmative-Action, which is whether educational institutions can set quotas for accepting minorities, came to fruition nearly a decade after the Brown decision. President Lyndon Johnson's administration began the use of modern Affirmative-Action programs in order to improve opportunities for blacks, while civil-rights legislation was dismantling the legal basis for discrimination against them. Johnson’s feelings towards Affirmative-Action programs became clear in a speech he made to the graduating class at Howard University: “You do not take a man who for years has been hobbled by chains, liberate him, bring him to the starting line of a race, saying, "you are free to compete with all the others”, and still justly believe you have been completely fair”. The federal government began to institute Affirmative- Action policies under the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 and executive order 11246 in 1965. Businesses and educational facilities receiving federal funds were prohibited from using criteria that tended to discriminate against blacks. Affirmative-Action programs were to be mon...