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In 1895 Booker T. Washington, deeply troubled over the racial fury unlashed in the South, searched for a solution. Invited to speak at the Cotton Exposition States in Atlanta, Georgia, a fair that promoted Southern commerce, Washington was encouraged by a display of seeming good will on the part of whites. One of the highlights of the fair was the construction of a Negro Building containing exhibits demonstrating the scientific, cultural, and mechanical achievements of African Americans. For Booker T. Washington, the exposition was an opportunity to promote his agenda rather than protest racism. He had been extremely anxious as he made the trip from Alabama to Atlanta, knowing that one false note in his speech could jeopardize everything he had built at Tuskegee. His audience would be mixed: Southerners, Northerners, and black people. James Creelman, a correspondent for the NEW YORK WORLD, observed the crowd's reaction when Washington appeared: "When among them a colored man appeared, a sudden chill fell on the whole assemblage. One after another asked, 'What's that nigger doing on the stage?'" But when Washington rose to speak, and began by criticizing his people for seeking political and economic power during Reconstruction, the crowd suddenly became very attentive. 
"Our greatest danger is that in the
great leap from slavery to freedom, we may overlook the
fact that the masses of us are to live by the productions
of our hands and fail to keep in our mind that we shall
prosper as we learn to dignify and glorify common labor.
It is at the bottom of life we should begin and not
the top."
Creelman described what followed. "And when he held
his dusky hand high above his head, with the fingers stretched
apart, and said to the white people of the South on behalf
of his race, 'In all things that are purely social we
can be as separate as the finger yet one as the hand in
all things essential to mutual progress,' a great sound
wave resounded from the walls and the whole audience was
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Booker T. Washington's
speech in Atlanta and its immediate impact.
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on its feet in a delirium of applause." The ATLANTA
CONSTITUTION described his triumph in glowing terms. "When
the Negro finished, such an ovation followed as I had
never seen before and never expect to see again. Tears
ran down the face of many blacks in the audience. White
Southern women pulled flowers from the bosom of their
dresses and reigned them upon the black man on stage."
The white press throughout the nation unanimously acclaimed his speech. Former abolitionists, black leaders, railroad tycoons, political leaders, and President Grover Cleveland wired their congratulations. Many blacks and whites felt a new era had begun, although some blacks raised voices of dissent. The race question had seemingly been settled. Blacks would forgo their civil and political rights. They would get justice and economic rights. It was a dream that was not to be.
-- Richard Wormser
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