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.