From the mast of the unfortunate vessel was seen a signal,“Water, water we die of thirst!” The answer from the friendly vessel at once came back, “Cast down your bucket where you are.” A second time the signal, “Water, water send us water!” ran up from the distressed vessel, and was answered, “Cast down your bucket where you are.” And a third and fourth signal for water was answered, “Cast down your bucket where you are.” The captain of the distressed vessel, at last heeding the injunction, cast down his bucket, and it came up full of fresh, sparkling water from the mouth of the Amazon River. Ignorant and inexperienced, it is not strange that in the first years of our new life we began at the top instead of at the bottom that a seat in Congress or the state legislature was more sought than real estate or industrial skill that the political convention or stump speaking had more attractions than starting a dairy farm or truck garden.Ī ship lost at sea for many days suddenly sighted a friendly vessel. Not only this, but the opportunity here afforded will awaken among us a new era of industrial progress. It is a recognition that will do more to cement the friendship of the two races than any occurrence since the dawn of our freedom. President and Directors, the sentiment of the masses of my race when I say that in no way have the value and manhood of the American Negro been more fittingly and generously recognized than by the managers of this magnificent Exposition at every stage of its progress. No enterprise seeking the material, civil, or moral welfare of this section can disregard this element of our population and reach the highest success. One-third of the population of the South is of the Negro race. President and Gentlemen of the Board of Directors and Citizens: Washington soothed his listeners’ concerns about “uppity” blacks by claiming that his race would content itself with living “by the productions of our hands.” Although the organizers of the exposition worried that “public sentiment was not prepared for such an advanced step,” they decided that inviting a black speaker would impress Northern visitors with the evidence of racial progress in the South. His “Atlanta Compromise” address, as it came to be called, was one of the most important and influential speeches in American history. Washington spoke before a predominantly white audience at the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta. On September 18, 1895, African-American spokesman and leader Booker T. Washington Delivers the 1895 Atlanta Compromise Speech
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