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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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Signs of Progress Among the Negroes, by Booker T, Washington. The Century Magazine, January 1900. New York City, New York. 11 pages. Reviewed by Jozlyn Clark Booker T. Washington (April 5, 1856 – November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author and leader of the African American community.

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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

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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.

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Because of this, Washington was less concerned about political rights and more on promoting the policy of accommodation. In other words, Washington felt that equality could be achieved by appealing to the white Southerner. Washington urged Blacks to accept segregation for the time being and focus on proving their equality through financial independence (Painter, 155). On the contrary, W.E.B Du Bois sharply disagreed with the idea of accommodation.

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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.”

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Washington believe African Americans deserve equal rights, yet the government continuously declines these rights on the notion that African Americans are an inferior race. Washington argues that it is important for African Americans to have equal rights, but he also believes African Americans need to find a way to be prepared for their newfound privileges. In his Atlanta Compromise speech, Washington states, “It is important and right that all privileges of the law be ours, but it is vastly more important that we be prepared for the exercise of these privileges. ”(Washington 2) In this quote, Booker T. Washington evinces his viewpoint by crediting privileges in the constitution must be presented upon every citizen of the United States, but he advises his fellow African Americans to be wary of their newfound rights.

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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.”

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Atlanta Exposition Argumentative Essay Civil rights activist, Booker T. Washington in his address “Atlanta Exposition” delivers and influential speech about equality of race in the South. Washington's purpose is to appeal to white southerners and importance of the common interests between African-Americans and whites. He adopts a persuasive tone in order to convince both African American and white southerners that they can achieve progress but separately. Washington begins by addressing the population of African Americans in the south.

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Booker T. Washington was born a slave and worked as a janitor to get through school. Whereas W.E.B. Du Bois was born in the North and faced very little discrimination, and had an easier time getting into College. They were well educated, and the only difference between them was how they were raised in different environments. Both were on the journey to improve African American’s social and political status in America. However, they had different methods for getting what they wanted.

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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

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Booker T. Washington is by far one of the brightest and strongest minds from his time. During his Atlanta Exposition address he displays his intellect masterfully. From Mr. Washington’s use of language he was able to seamlessly piece together a speech that we still analyse to this day. Mr. Washington use of rhetoric explains and enlightens the circumstances of freed African Americans trying to fit into communities in the south. From mistreatment and racism still present in the newly freed people.

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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.

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It was there he experienced the Jim Crow laws and began to analyze the problems of American discrimination. William Du Bois philosophy on race was different compared to educator Booker T. Washington(Booker). They did not come to terms with a significant amount of topics, had different ideas on progressivism, yet still were able to merge their ideas to help Blacks gain equal rights. W.E.B. Dubois and Booker T. Washington had one of the biggest rivalries in the 20th century. They were both accomplished scholars and activists, but it was their differences in black progress and background that shaped blacks’ communities’ future.

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Washington stated “Cast down your bucket among these people who have, without strikes and labour wars, tilled your fields... builded your railroads and cities….and helped make possible this….progress of the South” (Washington, Atlanta Exposition Address). He repeats the phrase “cast down your bucket” to emphasise his message to blacks, to remain where they are. Specifically, he is telling whites to NOT seek immigrant workers, but instead reach out to millions of blacks who are unemployed in the South. Washington is asking whites to give blacks the chance to prove their worth, and influence economically. He also highlighted the fact that southern blacks were loyal workers, AND that they built the South without going on strikes and labor wars, which were common in northern industrial society.

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