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Analysis Of Booker T. Washington's Speech: The Atlanta Exposition

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In Booker T. Washington's speech "The Atlanta Exposition", he proposes that in order for African-Americans to become finacially established and to feel safer in their home towns they must trade their equality for economic freedom. In his philosphy, it is impossible for any man to demand the laws of freedom if he does not contribute to the production of the country. "the agitation of questions of social equality is the extremest folly... progress in the enjoyment of all privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than of articical forcing" (Washington 7:19). To Washington social equality should not be African-Americans main focus during this time period. He believes that once African-Americans can prove theirseleves loyal to their …show more content…

Through his acts, Washington was able to earn a name for himself. Many African-Americans took this economic route. Now that they were freedpeople many of them took on domestic and heavy labor jobs. According to Creating Black Americans even when African-Americans continued to work, they still could not get fincaily stable. When African-Americans took on labor jobs like sharecropping or tenant farming, it was a never ending circle of debt. This would ended in one of two ways: basically becoming a slave o your debt or becoming a slave to the convict leasng system. African-Americans could find jobs, but there were not a lot of well paying jobs offered to them. Back during the Civil War we see a disparity in pay between African-American and Caucasion soldiers even in the nineteenth century there is still a great difference in pay. There were more African-American male workers, female workers, young workers, and elderly workers than Caucasions. Yet, African-Americans are still under payed. Even while working the same job a Caucasion male teacher made $479.79 each school year, while the an African-American teacher made $91.45 each school

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