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A Rhetorical Analysis Of Speech By Booker T. Washington

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Booker T. Washington has been considered one of the most predominant leaders in the African American community. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington acted as a key spokesperson and was very influential in the movement towards equality. During this time African American citizens were still transitioning from slavery to freedom. Although they were now considered free, the social and economic divide that was a consequence of many years of slavery, resulted in the two races having distrust of one another. Opportunities for black Americans were scarce and Booker T. Washington addressed this issue at the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta in 1895. In his powerful speech, Washington presented whites with ideas on how to close the …show more content…

Washington stresses “it is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top”. Cast your bucket into agriculture, mechanics, and other manual labor opportunities and learn to prosper. To his white audience, Washington uses the bucket analogy to encourage them not to recruit immigrants, but to “Cast down your bucket where you are” and hire from the eight million free blacks who have been loyally doing the work all along. By employing and also educating the black population, the economy will prosper for both races. Washington is wise because of his experiences and is well aware that even the whites Exposition organizers and attendees that largely support him have fears and reservations about how much opportunity they truly want his fellow black Americans to have. He knows that the white leaders feel threatened by the possibility of blacks achieving economic success and expecting to be equal and fully integrated with whites. Washington soothes these fears by saying that “in all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress”. Booker T. Washington understood that great progress requires great patience, and his choice of language in this speech is

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