Lecture 10/31: Washington's Atlanta Exposition Address

Question 1

Washington’s AEA: Importance: Makes BTW a national figure

Answer 1

1. Overnight success
2. Before this speech he wasn’t well known
3. Didn’t have national press or attention
4. Speech represented what the state of and progress of the south after the Civil War
5. Governor of Georgia shook BTW hand when the speech was over
   a. White man almost never shook a black man’s hand in front of the public eye

Question 2

Washington’s AEA: Importance: Representative of BTW’s ideas & rhetoric

Answer 2

1. Clear philosophy of racial problems in the U.S. and clear set of solutions for them
   a. Nobody announced that the problems existed before
2. Didn’t deviate from his core ideas
   a. Have a handle on what BTW believed from his life perspective

Question 3

Washington’s AEA: Importance: Continuing controversy over the speech

Answer 3

1. Not everyone agreed with him by the early 20th century
2. Almost everyone agreed with him when the speech was given
3. By 1905, W.B. Dubois criticized him that he was being to conservative with race issues
   a. Along with other African American leaders
4. Many believed he was too moderate
   a. Thought he was thinking of his race as sub-servant

Question 4

Washington’s AEA: Two keys to understanding the speech

Answer 4

i. Read the speech in context of 1895
1. Way words were use back then are not the way words are used today
a. Meaning of words have changed in both minimal and massive ways in different cases

ii. Read speech in its entirety
1. Can’t cherry pick certain contexts and excerpts from the speech without missing the message of the whole speech

Question 5

AEA Structure and Content: Introduction (1)

Answer 5

i. “one-third of the population of the South is of the Negro race”
1. Bringing black people in will serve the U.S. in a huge economic aspect
ii. “no enterprise seeking the material, civil or moral welfare of this section can disregard this element of our population and reach the highest success”
1. Thesis
2. If you want to reach the full level of achievement, you can’t close out the African Americans

Question 6

AEA Structure and Content: Address to Southern Black people (2-6)

Answer 6

i. “the opportunity here afforded will awaken among us a new era of industrial progress” (2)
1. Economic/ Industrial progress for the south and U.S. in general

ii. “cast down your bucket where you are” (3-4)
1. Allegory was wildly reprinted
2. If you want progress, you cannot run away
3. In the fourth paragraph he targets black people
a. Blacks should remain in the south and cast their buckets down in the south and not try to migrate to the north.
b. Cast your bucket means to make friends and connections where you are
i. In context of the speech

iii. “when it comes to business, pure and simple, it is in the South that the Negro is given a man’s chance in the commercial world” (5)
1. The chance for economic progress was greater in the south than it was in the north.
2. BTW believed that the south, and black people controlled manual labor in the south.
a. White people didn’t have to be blacksmiths, carpenters, and such

iv. “the masses of us are to live by the productions of our hands… it is at the bottom of life we must begin and not at the top” (5)

Question 7

AEA Structure and Content: Address to Southern White people (7-12)

Answer 7

i. “cast down your buck where you are” (7)
1. Among the black people around you

ii. “as we have proved our loyalty to you in the past, … we shall stand by you with a loyalty that no foreigner can approach” (8)
1. Late 19th century was a time of mass migration from European countries

iii. “interlacing our industrial, commercial, civil, & religious life with yours in a way that shall make the interests of both races one” (8)
1. Looking to interweave these areas of life so that people can become one
2. BTW knew one area would not come together which was social equality
a. Racial mixing

iv. “in all things that are purely social we can be as sperate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress” (9)
1. Knows his plans won’t go anywhere if he tries to advocate for social equality

v. “there is no defense or security for any of us except in the highest intelligence & development of all” (10)

vi. “close as sin and suffering joined, we march to fate abreast” (11)
1. Blacks and white march conjoined together to discover their fates of the future

vii. “sixteen millions of hands will aid you in pulling the load upward, or they will pull against you the load downward” (12)
1. Great visual description of what will happen to the south if they don’t accept the African Americans of the south.

Question 8

AEA Structure and Content: Address to Gentlemen of the Exposition (13-14)

Answer 8

i. Thanks organizers of Expo and Northern philanthropists for support (13)
ii. “agitation of questions of social equality is the extremest folly” (14)
iii. “no race that has anything to contribute to the markets of the world is long in any degree ostracized” (14)
iv. “The opportunity to earn a dollar in a factory just now is worth more than the opportunity to spend a dollar in an opera house”

Question 9

AEA Structure and Content: Conclusion (15)

Answer 9

i. Calls for “a blotting out of sectional differences and racial animosities & suspicions, … a determination to administer absolute justice, … a willing obedience among all classes to the mandates of law”
ii. “This, coupled with our material prosperity, will bring into our beloved South a new heaven and a new earth”

Question 10

Assessment of AEA: Masterpiece of situational adaptation

Answer 10

i. Delicate situation because of the platform with a national audience
1. Never had in the south. Didn’t have a platform of equality with whites before
2. Some wondered why he didn’t speak with militance, but that would have been a big mistake economically and socially
a. It would be bad to criticize whites rather than sympathize and compromise

Question 11

Assessment of AEA: BTW’s program (Atlanta Compromise)

Answer 11

i. Give up immediate civil rights and social equality…
1. Social equality means interactions between races that are strictly social
2. Not long-term civil rights, but short-term civil rights

ii. In exchange for the opportunity to develop economically (as means to achieve, eventually, full equality in all spheres of life)
1. Sought because in his view, it was a means to achieve future equality in all areas of life
2. If a race would be allowed to develop economically, they could gain enough respect and power to gain access to equality in other spheres

iii. BTW knew the depth of Southern racism
1. Held out the hope of moral change
2. Never speaks optimistically about changes in southern racism
a. Doesn’t think moral appeals would work to change opinion or it would even be likely to happen, so he sought to evade

iv. His program sought to evade racism rather than overcome it
1. Sought to let white people (with all the power) would allow for his race to develop economically so they could gain means to other forms of equality, trying to make this run around.
2. Didn’t have a time-table for when this would be accomplished just like Lincoln’s “ultimate extinction” but he did believe he had a program would work

Question 12

Assessment of AEA: Rejection of BTW’s program by white south

Answer 12

i. Willing to take what BTW offered
1. The abrogation of civil rights in the short-run

ii. Not willing to grant what he asked
1. Economic advancements by the African Americans