Booker T Washington

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Booker T Washington a very well respected scholar of the African American community was definitely an advocate for the education of the Negro race. While making it evident that education was a necessity to survive, he also made it very clear that he agreed with the “white man” that Negro’s has a certain place in society, and that, that place was not equal to the “White Man’s” place. In the eyes of Washington this was perfectly okay because while the Negro race stayed in its place it would slowly begin to build its own economy and completely separate from the “white” economy. Satisfying the belief that Negro’s should go back to Africa, without actually going to Africa. This ideal is partially revealed in Washington’s “Atlanta Exposition Address.”
In this speech Washington tells the negros and whites to cast down their buckets and get to know their neighbor of the opposite race. In my opinion that was impossible back then. For the simple fact that whites did not agree with the idea of blacks being free therefore there is no way in the world that they would embrace or except the idea of blacks being their next door neighbor. Further Washington states to the whites that if they make an effort to deal with the negros “then they can be sure that in the future just as it was in the past; that they (whites) would be surrounded by the most patient, faithful, law-abiding and non-resentful people that the world has seen.” There is no doubt that those were very powerful words. Personally I think that those are words of a coward or a person who wishes to please everyone and that cannot always be done.
I definitely agree that everyone should have the opportunity to be educated. But knowing what I have learned about slavery and racism I do not understand how Washington could say, better yet believe the words that constitutes the Atlanta Exposition Address. I know that as a Christians we are supposed to turn...