Cotton States and International Exposition - Booker T. Washington "Atlanta Compromise" Speech

Booker T. Washington "Atlanta Compromise" Speech

Further information: Atlanta Exposition Speech and Atlanta Compromise

The Atlanta Cotton States and International Exposition Speech was an address on the topic of race relations given by Booker T. Washington on September 18, 1895 at the exposition. The speech laid the foundation for the Atlanta compromise, an agreement between African-American leaders and Southern white leaders in which Southern blacks would work weekly and submit to white political rule, while Southern whites guaranteed that blacks would receive basic education and due process in law. The speech was presented before a predominantly white audience and has been recognized as one of the most important, influential, and controversial speeches in American history.

Read more about this topic:  Cotton States And International Exposition

Famous quotes containing the words booker t, washington, compromise and/or speech:

    “No race can prosper till it learns there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.”
    —Booker T. Washington (1856–1915)

    “Women have had the vote for over forty years and their organizations lobby in Washington for all sorts of causes; why, why, why don’t they take up their own causes and obvious needs?”
    —Dorothy Thompson (1894–1961)

    “Children treat their friends differently than they treat the other people in their lives. A friendship is a place for experimenting with new ways of handling anger and aggression. It is an arena for practicing reciprocity, testing assertiveness, and searching for compromise in ways children would not try with parents or siblings.”
    —Lawrence Kutner (20th century)

    “If we would enjoy the most intimate society with that in each of us which is without, or above, being spoken to, we must not only be silent, but commonly so far apart bodily that we cannot possibly hear each other’s voice in any case. Referred to this standard, speech is for the convenience of those who are hard of hearing; but there are many fine things which we cannot say if we have to shout.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)