Atlanta Compromise Reading 1. How does Washington suggest that blacks in the South work to gain success?

Washington describes blacks as hardworking, determined, and compassionate people and suggests that these traits may allow blacks to gain success. In Washingtons mind, blacks ability to look past the past and arduously work alongside their former white oppressors will be key for prosperity. Cast it down in agriculture, mechanics, in commerce, in domestic service, and in the professions. And in this connection it is well to bear in mind that whatever other sins the South may be called to bear, when it comes to business, pure and simple, it is in the South that the Negro is given a mans chance in the commercial world, and in nothing is this Exposit ion more eloquent than in emphasizing this chance. 2. What are Washington's beliefs about dealing with racial relations in the South? Washington believes that it is of the utmost importance that blacks and whites work together in order to achieve both friendship, and economic success. He recognized that some southern whites are uncomfortable or even against the integration of whites into society, yet believes if humans on both sides of the racial divide can find companionship among their surrounding man, ultimate success is inevitable. He urges both races to find the commonality between themselves, as they are all American men that share core values. To those of the white race who look to the incoming of those of foreign birth and strange tongue and habits for the prosperity of the South, were I permitted I would repeat what I say to my own race,Cast down your bucket where you are. Cast it down among the eight millions of Negroes whose habits you know, whose fidelity and love you have tested in days when to have proved treacherous meant the ruin of your firesides. Nearly sixteen millions of hands will aid you in pulling the load upward, or they will pull against you the load downward. We shall constitute one-third and more of the ignorance and crime of the South, or one-third [of] its intelligence and progress; we shall contribute onethird to the business and industrial prosperity of the South, or we shall prove a veritable body of death, stagnating, depressing, retarding every effort to advance the body politic.