Booker T. Washington's Atlanta Compromise: 'Cast Down Your Bucket'

At the Cotton States Exposition in Atlanta, Washington delivers his 'Atlanta Compromise' address. He urges Black Southerners to 'cast down your bucket where you are', accept economic labor in the South rather than seek political equality. He signals acceptance of social segregation: 'In all things purely social we can be as separate as the fingers.' White audiences applaud; Northern white press celebrates. Black intellectuals are divided; many in private deeply critical.