Booker T Washington's Atlanta Compromise Speech

278 Words2 Pages
On September 18, 1895, the African American educator and leader Booker T. Washington, delivered his famous "Atlanta Compromise" speech at the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta. It is widely one of the most significant speeches in American history. Washington’s Atlanta Exposition Address was presented in the auditorium on the exposition grounds. The auditorium was packed, mostly with whites, but there was also a segregated Negro section. This speech is often called the "Atlanta Compromise" because Washington encouraged African-Americans to worry less about social segregation and more about achieving economic security. He used lots of imagery “separate fingers on the same hand”, to suggest to his white audience that blacks