W. E. Dubois was the leading African-American figure in America in the first half of the twentieth century. Dubois is remembered chiefly for his stance against the ideas of Booker T. Washington. Dubois felt that Washington's call for African-Americans to learn a trade in order to increase their economic prospects was failing to deal with the root of the problem. Dubois called for the African- American community to strive for political power through economic gain. In this sense he is the father of the civil rights movement.