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The Atlanta Exposition Address, By Booker T. Washington

1241 Words5 Pages
Imagine a world in which it is common knowledge that the black man is inferior to the white race. Imagine a world in which the supreme court case, Brown v. Board of Education had never taken place. Imagine a world in which the shooting of Michael Brown would have been normal. This world is the dream of the segregationist. This is the world one would have seen today if segregationist views influenced the people. This is the world one would have seen if men like Booker T. Washington successfully imposed their dream throughout the American public. In the “Atlanta Exposition Address,” Booker T. Washington clearly portrays this “dream world” of segregationists. Throughout his speech, Washington makes it obvious the segregationist ideas he aspired to bring to the real world.
In the “Atlanta Exposition Address,” a major segregationist theme seen throughout is Washington’s logic that blacks will never advance in the way white people hold. One of the first ways Washington shows his segregationist ideas is through an allegory that describes the state in which black people were in. He compares blacks to whites by saying black people are part of a distressed vessel seeking help to find water from another “friendly” vessel who represent the white people. He concludes this analogy by stating if the distressed vessel just casts down a bucket into the water around them, they will be able to find clean water. But as he explains what the water represents for the black people, his
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