Comparison-Contrast Biography Essay Sample

The two people under analysis are Andrew Johnson, who is the seventeenth President of the United States and who was the head of the country in the period of 1865-1869, and Booker Taliaferro Washington who was a principal advisor, educator, orator and author of the American Presidents. The two famous persons are famous for their contribution into the history and state of the US government. Andrew Johnson has gained his popularity when he became the US President after Lincoln’s assassination, as he served as Vice-President at that time. Johnson’s governing years are characterized by a political conflict between him and the other branch of the US Government, Congress; A. Johnson had democratic political views and was eager to gain more rights for Americans, though he opposed the rules initiated by the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution which were aimed at giving citizenship to African-Americans as at those times the Blacks had just been emancipated from the slavery in the United States when the Civil War ended. Booker T. Washington was an African-American author and educator for the American Presidents who proceeded from the generation of the last African-American slaves, and thus, he tried to fight for the rights for African-Americans in the United States (Trefousse, 1975).
The two leaders have both similar and different features of their personalities as well as their activities. The similar features, first of all, are reflected in the field of their activity which is the political one; secondly, both political personalities chose interesting and forcing methods when they were trying to implement their ideas and make them real: Booker T. Washington pushed on the leaders who tried to oppose his idea of implementing civil rights for African-Americans where the US citizenship took the first place. Andrew Johnson forced Congress and the other political forces to accept his rules and treat him as the main leader whose opinion was the most significant and the decisive one.
Though, both leaders under analysis had more differences than similarities which have been reflected in their activities and the way the community accepted it. Andrew Johnson’s goal as the political and the head of the country was to gain more rights and possibilities for Americans, he didn’t take into account African-Americans, though. It was unacceptable for Andrew Johnson as for the President of the United States to oppose to the Constitution of the country which, no doubt, made Congressmen impeach the President and vote against him in the elections; the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution comprised enactment of the laws initiating rights and the US citizenship for African-Americans. The community has not accepted such a negative mood of the politician and his personality has not been accepted in general by the US population and Congress in particular. Booker T. Washington was born as a slave in Virginia and he was one of the last people who lived as a slave in the United States; Booker decided later to fight with the community for the rights for African-Americans which made him a leader between the African-American community. Serving as an author and educator of the American Presidents, Washington had been approached to the governing system and the possibilities. Gradually, Booker T. Washington started to convince the political leaders in the necessity of enacting laws giving more rights for African-American people. Nowadays, we can observe the results of these inceptions initiated by the President’s advisor: the rights are almost equal for Whites and for Blacks in education, work and other spheres of the society (Norrell, 2009).
Both personality described above are similar by their way of thinking and sphere of activity, though there is a huge difference between their intentions which has an absolutely opposing to each other features. Andrew Johnson was trying to decline the idea of enabling African-American community in the United States, while Booker T. Washington opposed to such views proclaiming a determined position of empowering African-Americans giving them the equal rights with the White population of the country.

Works Cited

Norrell, Robert J. Up from History: The Life of Booker T. Washington. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap of Harvard UP, 2009. Print.
Trefousse, Hans L. Impeachment of a President: Andrew Johnson, the Blacks, and Reconstruction. Knoxville: U of Tennessee, 1975. Print.