Two Page Lit Response: The Atlanta Exposition Address

Siarra Williams
November 24, 2008
AP English III Period 11
Two Page Literary Response: Booker T. Washington

In the Atlanta Exposition Address by Booker T. Washington, he address the people at the expo and give a speech on his view of the coming together of the races of the South. He believed that the races would eventually come together and realize that they depend on one another for survival. He expresses in his speech his values and ideas for this new union of races.
“To those of my race who depend on bettering their condition in a foreign land or who underestimate the importance of cultivating friendly relations with the Southern white man, who is their next-door neighbour, I would say: ‘Cast down your bucket where you are’- cast it down in making friends in every manly way of the people of all races by whom we are surrounded.” (Washington Page 1) Washington includes this example of “Casting down your bucket” to show that every man should be open to help from others, even the people who you feel have betrayed you in the past. He wants the colored people to have an optimistic outlook on things because he believes that the way to get ahead is with the help from those who know more about the surroundings than them, no matter the past situations or the setbacks that they have experienced. He feels the only way to grow as one and move on is through unity.
“I think, though, that the opportunity to freely exercise such political rights will not come in any large degree through outside or artificial forcing, but will be accorded to the Negro by the Southern white people themselves, and that they will protect him in the exercise of those rights.” (Washington Page 7) Washington includes this opinion to show that he believes that the only way a colored man will be able to share in political rights is if it was offered to him. And not just offered to him by any white man, it must be a Southern white man, so that the white man will support this decision and protect the colored man as he is exercising these political rights which were presented to him. He believes at the end of the day that if the Southern white man agrees with the colored man taking part in political rights then everything will be ok. If the public requests that a colored man be offered any form of political rights, the Southern white man will feel obligated to consent. The obligation to give a colored man any type of rights is the most degrading thing a Southern white man could find himself doing. He feels this way because it pains him to see a man who was just beneath him, rise to a higher level in society. And it just pushes the knife in deeper when the rest of the country compels this man to give this Negro any sorts of rights, when just last week he was working the plantation. Washington was only stating that in order for the Negro to receive any sort of political rights, he must do so at the consenting of the Southern white man if he wishes to keep peace while doing so.
In conclusion Booker T. Washington’s address at the Atlanta Exposition gave a whole new view on the relationship between the Southern white man and the colored folks. He showed that colored people did not receive all their freedom at once. And although they were no longer property of the white man, they still depended on them mentally so that they may get ahead or even are on a leveled playing field with the white man. He brought to light that the colored man still needed the aid and approval of the white man.