Analysis Of Booker T. Washington's Atlanta Compromise Address

Booker T. Washington who was an African-American Spokesman representing black Americans spoke before a predominantly white audience On September 18, 1895 at the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta. The speech which came to be known as the “Atlanta Compromise” address is regarded as one of the most important speeches in American History and became the call for progress and shared responsibility that would provide a foundation of prosperity for both white and black Americans in the south. Prior to this historic speech black Americans were frustrated at the lack of social and political equality they felt they were entitled to since receiving their freedom some 30 years before and white southerners were concerned likewise about …show more content…
Washington had seen as with other blacks that discrimination and laws/codes set in place by the white establishment prohibiting African-Americans of gaining further rights without certain restrictions being placed negated any advancements they had made and only by the casting down of the bucket by each group to mutual benefit would eventually change idea’s and perceptions by white southerners. By emphasizing in the speech on positives in giving African-Americans a chance to further the prosperity of both men white and black would better serve the needs of the advancement of the south was the basis of his speech. He stressed that equality was not to be handed out, but instead to be earned, by hard work and perseverance with “common occupations of life; shall prosper in proportion as we learn to draw the line between the superficial and the substantial, the ornamental gewgaws of life and the useful.” Acceptance did not have to mean equality, a point he stressed to alleviate the concerns of white Americans, and he used the analogy of each finger being separate, but still part of the same hand as an example as to how blacks and whites could coexist in the south. The emphasis to “Cast down your bucket among these people who have, without strikes and labor wars, tilled your fields, cleared your forests, builder your railroads and cities, and brought forth treasures from the bowels of the earth, and helped make possible this magnificent representation of the progress of the South.” (paragraph 5) emphasized that blacks had a vested interest in the land and culture as opposed to Europeans who came from another land and had different cultural