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Booker T. Washington's The Atlanta Exposition Address

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Booker T. Washington was the most influential representative for black Americans between 1895 and 1915. During the time that the white and the black were rivals, he gave a speech before the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta. In his speech The Atlanta Exposition Address, not only does he awake the black Americans to get involved into the industrialization, but he also asks for more working opportunities from the white. To reinforce his argument that the two races to cooperate together to push the South to prosperity, Washington employs multiple stylistic elements including parallel structures, peaceful diction and metaphor.
Use of parallel structure strengthens Washington’s argument. In paragraph 2, “it is not strange that …show more content…

At the very beginning, Washington addresses “one-third” to point out the huge population of the African Americans, emphasizing their importance at first (417). This diction reminds the white people that the black is significant to the whole industrial success. However, he uses an approximate fraction instead of accurate statistic to avoid being aggressive. Moreover, it responds to the description later that whether the one-third of population would motivate the industrial era or not depends on how the white values them. Throughout the whole speaking, Washington uses “we” to address the black, and “you” to address the white (418). The use of “we” builds up a emotional connection between Washington and the African Americans, making them share a common ground. Due to their same race and the constant repetition of “we”, the black people will believe that Washington is actually speaking for them. “You” creates a sincere tone, making the white feel that they are involved. These diction appeals to pathos, making the audience feel that they are invited to a conversation rather than a formal speech. By doing so, his audience is more likely to listen what he suggests. Through using these point of views, Washington appeals to emotional evoke, making his argument more

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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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Which bring us to the next rhetorical strategy, parallelism. Some of the parallelism used in Obama’s speech such as “…we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction.” (Pg. 688) makes the reader feel a sense of emotion from the writer and get an overview of the past. It allows them to be more engaged and gives them something to relate to. Which in this case, lead to a better approach of Obama getting his audience to interact and connect with him, and helped to put forth

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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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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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Achieving African American Equality Booker T. Washington and W.E.B Du Bois were two of the most influential advocates for African American equality during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (Blatty, 1). Although both men ultimately had the same goal, their methods for achieving African American equality were remarkably different. To begin, the men had conflicting ideas about what constituted as African American equality. Booker T. Washington argued that the accumulation of wealth and the ability to prove that Blacks were productive members of society would be the mark of true equality for African Americans (Painter, 155).

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Booker T. Washington believed that in order to eventually achieve racial equality African

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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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Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois. Prior to the riot, African Americans had listened to Washington’s advice. Washington believed that African Americans should be sublevel to whites and focus all their time working diligently and progressing in blue-collar society. This would allow whites to feel supreme, but also allow African Americans to make something of themselves and provide for their families. Washington wanted blacks to be educationally ready for the argument of equality.

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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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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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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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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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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.

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Theses rhetorical strategies make his argument affective because he makes a connection with the audience, not only blacks but all minorities going through the

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