The Atlantic Compromise Speech Analysis

In W.E.B. Du Bois’ The Souls of Black Folks and Booker T. Washington’s The Atlantic Compromise Speech, both authors shared a common goal of helping African Americans during the Reconstruction Era. During this time period, Booker T. Washington and Du Bois were two of the main active leaders that fought for African American education. Despite this common goal, they both had different ideas about exactly what kind of education that African Americans should receive in order to help Blacks rise both politically and socially. Washington believed that with a vocational industrial education, Blacks will be able to slowly gain political power, while simultaneously allowing for the Whites to get accustomed to the Blacks in their newly attained position …show more content…
Washington and Du Bois believed that their system of education would bring about political rights. Washington believed that Blacks need to gain the Whites’ trust then will they be able to have political power. Washington states, “To those of my race who… underestimate the importance of cultivating friendly relations with the southern white man who is their next door neighbor, I would say cast down your buckets 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 2). Washington believes that Blacks should not ostracize the Whites, but rather accommodate them. He argues that the Blacks need to prove to the Whites that they are hard working, in order to make the Whites slowly get used to them. In order for the Whites to believe that the Blacks are hard working, the Blacks must learn more about their job so they can be good at it. Once the Blacks have proven themselves to be worthy to the Whites, then will they attain political power. He states, “It has been claimed that the Negro can survive only through submission. Mr. Washington distinctly asks that black people give up, at least for the present…political power” (Du Bois 39). Washington believes that Blacks need to submit themselves first to the Whites and then political power will follow. Earlier Washington states, “They do not expect that the free right to vote…will come in a moment; they do not expect to see the bias and prejudices of …show more content…
Washington believes that because Blacks have a vocational education, it will allow social integration between the two races. Washington states, “We shall stand by you with a devotion that no foreigner can approach, read to lay down our lives, if need be, in defense of yours, interlacing our industrial, commercial, civil, and religious life with yours in a way that shall make the interests of both races one” (Washington 2). Washington believes that it would be smarter for the black to work in an industrial field since the Whites are familiar with Blacks who worked for them. Du Bois continues to advocate for higher education for African Americans because he believes only through higher education will there be social integration. Du Bois realizes that “There is almost no community of intellectual life or point of transference where the thoughts and feelings of one race can come into direct contact and sympathy with the thoughts and feelings of the other…there is little or no intellectual commerce” (Du Bois 144). Du Bois is trying to tell the readers that even though two groups of people can be in physical contact, there can still be a void of intellectual conversation, mainly because in the case concerning the Blacks and the Whites, the Blacks are not properly educated and cannot hold their own side of the conversation. Du Bois makes it clear that black

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The Atlantic Compromise Speech Analysis

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