Later Life
At the turn of the century he became embroiled in the debate between W. E. B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington over social change. Siding with Du Bois, Abbott believed that Black access to higher education was essential and should not be compromised. Believing that blacks would be culturally assimilated, Abbott wrote "It is just as natural for two races living together on the same soil to blend as it is for the waters of two river tributaries to mingle." With Canada’s black population on the decline, he thought this was especially true in his own country and wrote "by the process of absorption and expatriation the color line will eventually fade out in Canada."
At the age of 76, Abbott died in 1913 at the Toronto home of his son-in-law Frederick Langdon Hubbard, son of his black municipal reformer and long-time friend William Peyton Hubbard. He is buried in the Toronto Necropolis.
Read more about this topic: Anderson Ruffin Abbott
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