26 pages • 52 minutes read
Booker T. WashingtonAtlanta Exposition Speech
Nonfiction | Essay / Speech | Adult | Published in 1895A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Essay Topics
Washington opens his speech with the sentence, “One-third of the population of the South is of the Negro race” (Paragraph 1). How does this premise inform the remainder of his speech?
According to Washington, what mistakes did Black Southerners make during Reconstruction? Why did they make those mistakes?
Washington frequently instructs his audience to “Cast down your bucket where you are” (Paragraph 3). To whom is he speaking and what does he mean?
In what ways does Washington seek to win his white audience over to the cause of Black progress? How does he allay their perceived fears?
What is the connection between work and manliness in Washington’s speech? Why is this important?
When Washington states that “there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem” (Paragraph 4), what does he mean? How does that statement relate to his later comment that “the opportunity to earn a dollar in a factory just now is worth infinitely more than the opportunity to spend a dollar in an opera-house” (Paragraph 9)?
What evidence does Washington use to suggest the goodwill of Black Southerners towards their white neighbors? Is he convincing?
How does Washington make his argument that the futures of Black and white Southerners are inextricably bound to one another? What does this mean in terms of their present segregation from one another?
What does Washington see as the consequences if Black Southerners do not successfully integrate into the Southern economy?
Why does Washington call “the agitation of questions of social equality” the “extremest [sic] folly” (Paragraph 9)? How does he see social equality developing without such agitation?
