Atlanta Compromise: Booker T. Washington

The time period of 1877 to 1915 was a period in history when the people of the Black race were being granted a free status, but equality, on the other hand, was not an option to some higher white officials. During this time period, many leaders started to fight for what they believed in by appealing to the white governing body for social equality. Two of the leaders that came out of that uproar were the well-known Black equality activists of that time, Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois. Both of these leaders ultimately had the same goal, however, the paths that they took to achieve

Booker T. Washington believed that blacks should not push to attain equal civil and political rights with whites. That it was best to concentrate on improving their economic skills and the quality of their character. The burden of improvement resting squarely on the shoulders of the black man. Eventually they would earn the respect and love of the white man, and civil and political rights would be accrued as a matter of course. This was a very non-threatening and popular idea with a lot of whites.

(Setting the scene) In 1881 a man named Booker T. Washington started a school in Alabama called Tuskegee Institute. His thoughts were very controversial because he said that black people should stop trying to get integrated into white lives and live in their own society. He was once a slave so that changed his perspective to see that blacks were not treated the same. He felt with many others black would have to same rights as whites, but they should also be dependent on themselves. Much later his school became the first school to train black people for war. They were known as the Tuskegee Airmen.

W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington were two very influential leaders in the black community during the late 19th century, early 20th century. However, they both had different views on improvement of social and economic standing for blacks. Booker T. Washington, an ex-slave, put into practice his educational ideas at Tuskegee, which opened in 1881. Washington stressed patience, manual training, and hard work. He believed that blacks should go to school, learn skills, and work their way up the ladder. Washington also urged blacks to accept racial discrimination for the time being, and once they worked their way up, they would gain the respect of whites and be fully accepted as citizens. W.E.B. Du Bois on the other hand, wanted a more

Booker T. Washington’s philosophy and actions betrayed the interests of African Americans because he was more interested on the blacks getting educated and getting the respect of the white authorities, instead of worrying on getting their political and social equality right away, which was the main interest of the African Americans. In “The Atlanta Exposition Address”, Washington said that blacks would sacrifice their civil rights and social equality for the time being, as long as whites guaranteed that they would receive industrial education and jobs because he believed that in order to fully obtain equality, the blacks should improve themselves. “It is at the bottom of

Booker T. Washington is one of the most respected and influential African American figures in American history, Mr. Washington was born into slavery and was freed by the Emancipation Proclamation. His peaceful personality along with his exceptional education in many different studies turned him into a well-rounded individual. Washington wanted blacks and whites to become partners and strive for both races to succeed. He delivered his most famous speech in 1895 known as the “Atlanta Compromise”. In Atlanta Georgia, Mr. Washington expresses himself with exceptional rhetoric and tone throughout his speech. He states that African Americans should take benefit of what they know and endeavor

Booker T. Washington delivers the 1895 Atlanta Compromise Speech to a white and black audience about the equality blacks and whites deserve. As a black speaker in the north, Washington influences and impresses many of the northern citizens with his moving speech. Washington brought with him “...evidence of racial progress in the South”. His audience contained the president and the board of directors as well as citizens.

Intellectual freeman, Booker T. Washington, made one of the most famous speeches in American history in the year 1895. The Atlanta Compromise speech was a call for change made by Booker T. Washington towards the President and government in America. Washington’s primary purpose for the speech was to insure that change is needed in the country in order to create a nation equal and fair for all races, specifically the African American ethnic group. He makes his speech extremely effective by using all three of the rhetorical strategies, causing the audience to reflect back on the past and look forward to making alterations in the future. Washington’s speech contains reasoning, emotion and logical thinking to make it one of the most effective speeches he has ever delivered in his life.

Booker T. Washington was known as the premier of black activist. His theory for the African American progression or “racial uplift” was that African American’s would remain without objections and silence themselves regarding the issues of disenfranchisement and social segregation if whites supported the black progression in education, economics, and agriculture.

Booker T. Washington rose up from slavery and illiteracy to become the foremost educator and leader of black Americans at the turn of the century. He was born on April 5, 1856 in Franklin County, Virginia. As a child he worked in the salt mines but always found time for education. Washington constantly dreamed of college but as an African American this dream was nearly impossible. His scrupulous working habits from the mines set him out for college at the Hampton Institute. He graduated in 1876 and became a teacher at a rural school. After 2 years of teaching, he went back to the Hampton Institute and was a “professor” here for 2 more years. His next challenge would be at a new all black college, Tuskegee Institute where he would become president. Under Washington's leadership (1881-1915), Tuskegee Institute became an important force in black education. Washington won a Harvard honorary degree in 1891.

The era of Jim Crow began after the end of Reconstruction in 1877, in which through the rebuilding of the South, whites established laws and customs that forced freed slaves to stay marginalized and targeted by Southern whites. The purpose of these Jim Crow ideas was to keep blacks and white separated, and to also keep blacks from progressing in society. For instance, Southern whites forced blacks to take literacy tests before they could be considered able to vote. From the start of this Jim Crow era, racial compromise was already occurring. One of the most obvious examples of this compromise comes from the real name of the era. “Jim Crow” was a name used in a

A well-known African-American spokesman and leader, Booker T. Washington, in his speech, The Atlanta Compromise, describes how the treatment and equality aren't the same for African American people as it is for white people. Washington’s purpose is to try and persuade his audience that black and white people should have the same rights and be treated equally. He adopts a passive tone in order to convey to his audience that the black community does a lot of services for white people and aren’t treated as such. Booker T. Washington effectively convinces his audience that everyone should have equal rights through diction, facts and statistics, and figurative language.

The compromise was announced at the Atlanta Exposition Speech. The primary architect of the compromise, on behalf of the African-Americans, was Booker T. Washington, president of the Tuskegee Institute. Supporters of Washington and the Atlanta compromise were termed the "Tuskegee Machine."

Booker T. Washington was persuaded early on of the economic irrationality of discrimination. Educational advancement, trades and skill acquisition, capital accumulation: these goals, not agenda political protests, was Booker T. Washington's pathway to African American progress in the U.S. Yet, later research that was later conducted has found that Tuskegee University, and Booker T. Washington himself indirectly financed some of the most notary court cases on segregation during the late 1890s and the 1900s. Washington had to work in secret because of the need to protect Tuskegee University from threats and violent danger that was purely derived from bitter hate of another human's skin color. Washington had a complicated choice at that time to

Booker T. Washington was a leader who saw power and success in passiveness and patience. He believed that African Americans would attain their rights in time through hard work, improved education and self-help. His journey from slave to leader was evidence that the black race was highly capable of helping themselves reach a degree of success and he was ultimately convinced