September 1895

South Carolina's 1895 constitutional convention, dominated by Ben Tillman, imposed literacy tests, poll taxes, and understanding clauses modeled on Mississippi's 1890 constitution. Six Black delegates attended but were powerless to stop the measures. Black voter registration in South Carolina fell from over 90,000 in 1876 to fewer than 3,000 by 1898. Tillman openly declared the goal was permanent white supremacy.

Booker T. Washington's Atlanta Exposition address urged Black Americans to seek economic advancement while accepting temporary social subordination. 'Cast down your bucket where you are,' he told Black workers. White audiences applauded his acquiescence to segregation; critics saw it as surrendering civil rights in exchange for white philanthropy and political access.

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.

Booker T. Washington urges Black Americans to focus on vocational self-help and accept segregation for now — a strategy soon challenged by Du Bois.