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Atlanta Exposition Address Analysis

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The Atlanta Exposition Address by Booker T. Washington (1856-1915), written as a strategy in order to combat racial tensions in the South. Washington was born into slavery, where he worked on a Virginia plantation until emancipation in 1865. He then moved to Virginia with his mother, and taught himself how to read and write. After many years of saving he enrolled in the Hampton Institute (later called Hampton University) in 1875 and Wayland Seminary from 1878-1879. He would later become a teacher at Hampton, and after recommendation from Hampton’s president, he was selected to lead Tuskegee University. He served as principal and founder at the newly built normal school that trained blacks to become teachers and agricultural industrial workers. …show more content…

He believed that blacks should focus on economic elevation by concentrating their efforts on farming and industry. He thought it would lead to black socio-economic progress, opposed to the outright demand of social equality. Atlanta Exposition Address argues three major points: 1) blacks should focus on industrial education (to accumulate wealth) instead of higher education, 2) give up the insistence of civil rights, and that 3) whites should give black southerners a chance to prove …show more content…

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. All things considered, this argument was convincing. In reality, one-third of the South’s population was black, and held an economic weight in society especially because of the emancipation of slaves. If whites ostracized blacks from working in the South, even as meager farmers and industrialist, the southern economy would falter as a

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In chapter II, Anderson explores the different modes of educational training black students in the South. More specifically, he sheds light upon the Hampton Model of industrial education founded by Booker T. Washington and Samuel Chapman Armstrong. The Hampton-Tuskegee Model emphasized (trade) industrial education—ex. the development of technical skills for manual-labor. “Armstrong represented a social class, ideology, and world outlook that was fundamentally different from and opposed to the interests of the

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Booker T. Washington was born on April 5, 1856 and passed away on November 14, 1915. He was a well known educator and civil rights activist. In the year 1895, Booker T. Washington openly set forth his reasoning on race relations in a discourse at the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia, known as the "Atlanta Exposition Address of 1895. " In his dialog, Washington conveyed that African Americans ought to acknowledge the dissatisfaction and social isolation the length of whites permit them financial advancement, instructive open door and equity in the courts. In the North, this started a chance for activism for other African Americans.

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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.

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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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W.E.B DuBois’ plan was smarter than Booker T. Washington’s because DuBois’ plan was to fight for the rights of African Americans, and give people a good and equal education. Booker T Washington’s plan was to ignore segregation and discrimination so he can just focus on the wealth and education of former slaves to win over the whites acceptance. One part of DuBois’ plan was the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, NAACP. This Association was one of the most influential civil rights organization. It “focused on legal strategies designed to confront the critical civil rights issues.”.

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Regardless, they were able to aid in ending discrimination and received equal standing in education, labor, acquiring of land, etc.. If it had only been Du Bois fighting for equality, then he would have achieved the fight for equality sooner. On the contrary, Du Bois only provided one view to how African Americans were being treated; Washington had a friendlier approach. This may be due to his fear of being lynched or placing African Americans in a harsher situation than they already were. Washington seemed more methodical—he was thinking about African Americans having the full rights of the 14th and 15th amendments. At the same, he was also concerned about the consequences of his speech, and if it angered the whites more than it relieved the situation they were all facing.

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Washington. He was an educated African American, born in slavery, and saw as the leader of the black folk. His main agenda was to promote the policy of submission since black folk could only survive in it. They wanted political power, civil liberties, higher education, accumulation of wealth, and consolidation of the south, and for their values and beliefs, Washington publicly shamed them. Th black folk further internalized the propaganda that slavery was justified, they neglected their own education, and their future depended mainly on their own efforts.

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He says that "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" (Washington). Because of Washington's acceptance of inferiority of his race, at the time, economically, he again appeals to the white audience in front of his speech, at the African American expo. He almost apologizes for how low the blacks are starting by saying "Gentlemen of the Exposition, as we present to you our humble effort at an exhibition of our progress, you must not expect overmuch" (Washington). This puts the pressure of equality on the black community, and takes pressure off the white community.

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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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