W.E.B. du Bois criticized Booker T Washington because Washington felt that the best way to end racism was for African Americans to take low-skilled jobs en masse in order to prove their worth in society. Du Bois, on the other hand, believed in the Talented Tenth - an idea that the talentend 10% of the African American population must strive to become lawyers, doctors, and other highly educated figures in order to end racism. Du Bois believed that this 10% would show white people that African Americans can be just as, if not more so, skilled than others.
