Booker T. Washington Essay

To me it is obvious why many whites agreed with Washington and many blacks disagreed with him. I agree with Washington by not demanding our rights because making demands would be met with opposition and nothing will be done that is necessary to bring blacks up to the equality line. On the contrary, I disagree with the way that Washington believed that blacks should just ignore how whites treated us with violence then turn around and try to earn their respect. African Americans during this time wasn’t trying to hear this because just 3 years before his speech in Atlanta, 156 blacks were lynched in one year alone. To the blacks of that time, forgetting that

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

In contrast to Douglass, Washington’s famous speech known as the “1865 Atlantic Compromise” was not a protest or challenge of the political system, nor did he speak about the lack of social equality. Instead he focused his efforts on what blacks could accomplish, how they could compromise. He believed the militant rhetoric of Douglass and others distracted blacks from the path of liberty, equality, and economic success. Washington’s speech emphasized that it was the dual responsibility of blacks and whites to make the blacks a more

The phrase “cast down your buckets where you are” is especially significant in his attempt to glorify common labor, referring to the abundance of resources present in this world (Washington 2). In sections five through seven, Washington repeatedly uses this phrase in the beginning of consecutive sentences, exemplifying anaphora; this literary device reiterates the significance of his words, strengthening his argument as to why freed slaves would benefit from common labor. Another literary device employed in “The Atlanta Exposition Address” is metonymy, which can be found in the phrase “separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress,” as well as in “the organs of religious bodies, joined in the general chorus of condemnation or demands for retraction” (Washington 2,5). This representative “part-of-a-whole” strategy directly links the subject to the writer’s key points, thus creating a deeper connection and increasing their impact on the audience.

The Afro-American Almanac located on Professor Tygiel’s “Sites of Interest to History Majors” have a copy of Booker T. Washington’s famous “Atlanta Compromise” speech that he delivered in 1895. Neither before, nor since, has one speech had such a profound effect upon the career of a politician and the people that he sought to represent. Indeed, Washington’s primacy was assured when he in dramatic fashion promised (eye witness accounts have him thrusting his hand forward to underline this point) the south that: “In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.” The south, indeed America quickly embraced

The author convinces his audience that everyone should be treated equally by using facts. In his Atlanta Compromise speech, Washington said, “One-third of the population of the South is of the Negro race” (Washington 1). Washington uses this fact to emphasize that there were many African Americans in the South; therefore, they weren’t the minority. The inclusion of this fact is important because it shows that more than one-third of the population does not have the same equality as everyone else in America. With this being said, the author is attempting to show that white people are excluding one-third of the population in the United States by not giving them rights. Booker T. Washington shows how blacks and whites are not that different from each other based on the population size. He shows how the black people make up a majority of the population in the South. Washington was fighting for the friendship of the two races by showing that they are similar in population size. This fact helped show that because they make up such a large part of the South, they should have the same rights.

Is it possible to fix the relationship between two teams, friend, and races for just a few days? What about convincing a gathering of persons divided and with prejudice and racial discrimination over many years to live and work side by side? It some how seems unreasonable but maybe is it not. Nevertheless, ignoring the traditional notions concerning the taxing relationship between whites and blacks, Booker T. Washington, through The Atlanta Exposition Address from Up from Slavery Chapter 14, notices the importance of mutual progress regardless of the conflicts or challenges the races had before. Booker T. Washington was a prominent educator and the lone founder of Tuskegee National and Industrial Institute. In his speech, Washington makes use of rhetorical devices like repetition and metaphor, pathos and logos to support the collaboration between the white race and the black race to promote the development of the financial success within the South. In this particular speech, he opts to caution his fellow blacks against a feeling of claim to accompany their new attained freedom, while at the same time soothing his audience of whites that the eradication of oppression and servitude is nothing to be worried about, since the whites and blacks have similar mutual objectives in pursuing the renaissance of the South.

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

and got a job as a waiter. Soon after this period of time he got a

Washington, who had faith in the future of his race in the country, believed that hard work, patience, and self pride would build their character and eventually earn them their civil rights. This is evident in Washington's The Future of the American Negro. He shows the "impatient extremists" within the Negroes of the North whose "ill-considered, incendiary utterances tend to add to the burdens of our people in the South rather than relieve them." ("Washington," Discovering Authors)

In the speech “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution” Dr. King stated his thoughts about segregation, racial justice, and war. Dr. King thought segregation was the worst thing a country could do, he couldn’t see how people could live this way. He’s basically saying that we had to be united and form a “Brother Hood” not with

Washington’s Atlanta Compromise Speech was one of the most iconic speeches about racial injustice in American history. Washington’s plan, which he explained in his speech, definitely has its strengths, however had some weaknesses as well. The plan requested that white Americans help to fund education for black Americans. One of the strengths of the plan was that it was not asking for a lot. Caucasian Americans were not likely to get offended or angry about his plan when he asked for so little. Another strength of the plan was that it was very easy to carry out. It was one step, and although it may have been a small step, it was still a step in the right direction. His plan was simply requesting to improve racial equality by just a bit. This small-scale goal was easy to accomplish and very reasonable. On the other hand, Washington’s plan had its weaknesses. The main weakness of the plan was the lack of political action proposed to end or at least lessen racial inequality. Booker T. Washington basically agreed to submit to white law and segregation, only if black Americans received education. His plan was rather insufficient. Giving African Americans an education was not even close to reaching social, political, and economic equality in the nation. Therefore, Washington’s plan was a beneficial plan on the small-scale, but long-run proposed no major ideas to lessen racial

Booker T. Washing had a view of what it was to be American. In “Up From Slavery”, his address made in Atlanta, Booker T. Washington says “Cast down your bucket where you are.” In effect, he proposed that African Americans should accommodate themselves to racial segregation and political disenfranchisement in order to enjoy a greater degree of economic security. “In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.” Booker T.

Booker T. Washington was one of the most well-known African American educators of all time. Lessons from his life recordings and novelistic writings are still being talked and learned about today. His ideas of the accommodation of the Negro people and the instillation of a good work ethic into every student are opposed, though, by some well-known critics of both past and current times. They state their cases by claiming the Negro’s should not have stayed quiet and worked their way to wear they did, they should have demanded equal treatment from the southern whites and claimed what was previously promised to them. Also, they state that Washington did not really care about equality or respect, but about a status boost in his own life. Both

The further into the speech he got the stronger the points were. This developed the speech in a way that drew in the audience’s attention. Washington also payed attention to whom he was delivering the speech to. He arranged the speech in a way that would be most effective for them. The speech was directed toward an esteemed crowd of whites and blacks, so with this as the audience, Washington wrote a formal speech. He did not include any contraction words. Washington also avoided using first person in his speech. The words he used were technical making it seem like a serious concern to the crowd.