The Atlanta Exposition Address, By Booker T. Washington

Governor Bullock introduced Booker Washington and Washington opened with statements that nurtured unity between the races as a sign of good faith. Washington then goes on telling a story about a ship that has been lost at sea for over a long period of time. The sailors were in desperate need of fresh water; they spotted a ship and called out to them for help. The other ship told them to lower their buckets and the sailors did and were surprised to find fresh drinkable water in the water below them. Washington told this story to represent the status of race relations by expressing that African American should excel in what they are good at and know for instance: agriculture, mechanics, and commerce which can prove their value.

This was not a good piece of advice that Booker T. Washington gave especially with the hostility after the Civil War but Washington believes that it will be alright for African-Americans to cast down their buckets because “...people have tilled your fields, cleared your forests, built your railroads and cities, and brought forth treasures from the bowels of the earth” (Washington, paragraph 4). Washington is saying to cast down their bucket and thrive where all the fields have been tilled, where the railroads and cities are, and where the forests have been cleared to help the country continue to thrive. Washington also says, “casting down your bucket among my people … you will find that they will buy your surplus land, make blossom the waste places in your fields, and run your factories” (Washington, paragraph 4). Washington is telling his fellow African-Americans that someday, they will have their own land and will have people running their factories for them. They just need to cast down their buckets and wait for that day to come because Washington believed that African-Americans and whites would be equal, it would just take some

The “fire of African freedom still burned in the veins of the slaves”(DuBois) and the “Atlanta Compromise” caused a rage of anger in the black people. Blacks heard of revolts in other countries where discriminated populations demanded their civil rights from oppressors and it inspired the African Americans to start a civil rights era. Washington believed that his speech would help his people gain their civil rights rather than demanding for equality but many realized that Washington’s way was making people lose their rights they already achieved such as voting, working, and moving as freemen. DuBois uses lists of three to help get his points across that Washington’s ideas were ridiculous and caused even more troubles for the African Americans than there already were. Washington asked blacks to give up

Following his Atlanta Compromise speech his stock and influence was hailed by whites and blacks alike, and was further enhanced through the establishment of the National Negro Business League in 1900. On the strength of his autobiography he came to the notice of President’s Roosevelt and Taft and became the chief black advisor to both. Harlan asserts that Washington secured and nurtured his white following through his conservative policies and his restrained statements. Despite the fact that he faced opposition from black and white liberals both in the Niagara Movement and NAACP he still managed to withstand his critics. Harlan argues that he did this at times through “underhanded means”.

This is done by Washington basically claiming that though the black people can't accomplish much now, they will be able to. He is focused on white support instead of total equality. He makes it seem that the black community can't prosper while being treated equally economically because they have only recently been on their own and aren't capable of keeping up with the white men who have been free to work for

The Impact of Booker T. Washington Booker T. Washington was a man with highs standards a great work ethic and he was one of the most respected African Americans of his time. Born to a slave on a plantation in Hale’s Ford, Virginia, Booker T. knew from a young age the importance of a good education. Booker T is mostly known for his part in founding the Tuskegee Institute in 1881 along with George Washington Carver and Lewis Adams. Booker T. Washington was undoubtedly one of the most respected African Americans of his time. His values and beliefs established an imperative relationship with spiritual and political leaders of his time.

Thesis statement: The two great leaders in the black community debating about the issues that face the Negro race and Du Bois gave a compelling argument by using pathos, logos and ethos to create an essay that will appear to all readers. Outline: This essay will showcase the contradicting philosophies between W.E.B Du Bois and Booker T. Washington. Also, paying close attention to the different types of leadership between the two historic leaders in the black community. Both W.E.B Du Bois and Booker T. Washington contributed to and helped shape the future of African Americans.

However Booker T. Washington believed in having a more skillful education, consisting of learning how to trade, mastering agriculture skills and more things one would need to get a job. However, W.E.B DuBois also put many efforts to achieve equal rights towards African Americans which Booker T Washington put on hold. Booker T Washington’s plan was to make it so that “Blacks would [have to] accept segregation and discrimination but their eventual acquisition of wealth and culture would gradually win for them the respect and acceptance of whites”. This vision that Booker T Washington had “practically accepts the alleged inferiority of the Negro race”. W.E.B commented on this process saying it was an attempt, “to educate black boys and girls simply as servants and underlings.”

Repetition is found all throughout Washington 's speech. He repeats the phrase "cast down your buckets where you are" to strengthen his allegory. The more it is said, the more it is clear that he is not just talking to the African Americans, he is also talking to the "those of the white race". He is implying that the Whites could look to the African Americans for the prosperity of the South, instead of looking to "those of foreign birth and strange tongue and habits" (Line 74-75). He is telling both sides to notice what is around them and use what they have.

Washington believed in working simple labor jobs and starting from the bottom and progressing up in order to gain the respect necessary to achieve racial equality, Du Bois believed in not submitting to lesser occupations and demanding racial equality. Washington says that the key to prosperity is through learning to dignify common labor. Whereas Du Bois states that “Becoming a gospel of work and money to such an extent as apparently almost completely overshadow the higher aims of life.” “Common Labor” is viewed by Washington as the only way to make progress toward a higher quality life, however, Du Bois views “common labor” as a social setback. Washington’s views can be summed up, almost completely, in the following quote “It is at the bottom of life we must begin, not the top.”

As claimed by Booker T. Washington, “keep in mind that we shall prosper in proportion as we learn to dignify and glorify common labour, and put brains and skill into the common occupations of life; shall prosper in proportion as we learn to draw the line between the superficial and the substantial, the ornamental gewgaws of life and the useful” (Paragraph 2). The African American people will and over time work to get to the top, and that they will prove to the white man that they do belong whether success of the field or in the new world they have finally allowed to be successful in. In this paragraph Mr. Washington uses a emotional point and turned it into motivation for Africans to work hard and try their best no matter what lay ahead. “It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top. Nor should we permit our grievances to overshadow our opportunities” (Paragraph

This work by Booker T. Washington, “The Atlanta Exposition Address”, or also known as “The Atlanta Compromise”, was a speech given in 1895 at the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta that had a lasting impact not only to the crowd listening, but to the nation as a whole. Booker T. Washington was admired and appreciated by many black Americans. Although, everyone in the African American Community admired his overall achievements leading up to his speech in Atlanta, some of his ideas and thoughts became very controversial within the black community and possibly encouraged the Jim Crow era by proposing the ideology of separate but equal. “The Atlanta Exposition Address,” was significant in shaping history because it; sparked a split and debate within the African American community over the ideas Booker T. Washington proposed in the address, and simultaneously affected the nation as a whole with future laws passed off the basis of Washington’s ideology. To understand the context of where Booker T. Washington’s stance is in the address, people must first understand Washington’s background and his audience during the speech.

Racism and racial inequality was extremely prevalent in America during the 1950’s and 1960’s. James Baldwin shows how racism can poison and make a person bitter in his essay “Notes of a Native Son”. Dr. Martin Luther King’s “A Letter from Birmingham Jail” also exposes the negative effects of racism, but he also writes about how to combat racism. Both texts show that the violence and hatred caused from racism form a cycle that never ends because hatred and violence keeps being fed into it. The actions of the characters in “Notes of a Native Son” can be explain by “A Letter from Birmingham Jail”, and when the two texts are paired together the racism that is shown in James Baldwin’s essay can be solved by the plan Dr. King proposes in his

Black American History had a major role in the development of the present day United States. Slavery was the foundation of the Confederate states economic growth. This essay will focus on Booker T. Washington a man born in Virginia as a slave and with dedication earned a decent education and processed to do good deeds with it. As a slave he would package salt and work in mines and was allowed to walk to school during his free time. Booker T. Washington's accomplishments were founding Tuskegee University and being the first African American to dine in the White House and publish more than forty books.

In his 1963 speech, “I Have A Dream”, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. asserts that now is the time to conquer racial inequality and it can be done neither alone nor through hate. Martin Luther King, Jr. begins his speech where the freedom began- The Emancipation Proclamation. The slaves were freed, but have those empty promises of the constitution been fulfilled? Segregation, as well as subconscious discrimination, have deprived even the free man of their unalienable rights.