“the way for people to gain their reasonable rights is not by voluntarily throwing them away.” do you think this statement was made by booker t. washington or w. e.b. du bois? explain your answer.

W.E.B. Du Bois

Du Bois actually made this statement in an essay criticizing Booker T. Washington's approach.  The essay, titled, "Of Booker T. Washington and Others," was published in the collection of essays that Du Bois published in 1903, The Souls of Black Folk.  

The context of the quoted line goes further:  "The other class of Negroes who cannot agree with Mr. Washington ... are absolutely certain that the way for a people to gain their reasonable rights is not by voluntarily throwing them away and insisting that they do not want them; that the way for a people to gain respect is not by continually belittling and ridiculing themselves."

At the end of the essay, Du Bois speaks directly against Washington in this way:  "So far as Mr. Washington apologizes for injustice, does not rightly value the privilege and duty of voting, belittles the emasculating effects of caste distinctions, and opposes the higher training and ambition of our brighter minds,—so far as he, the South, or the Nation, does this,—we must unceasingly and firmly oppose them."