Booker T. Washington Literary Response

Steve Epting
AP English
Booker T. Washington Literary Response
When the blacks were trying to get their rights, they had many activists. Many stood strong in their beliefs and tried to force the awarding of rights. Booker T. Washington wasn’t like that. He had an entirely different tactic to get the blacks their rights. His approach to getting blacks to be accepted and get into more places was more different than any other.
While giving his speech, Washington delivered on a different note. He started off by saying that government specialties such as seats in Congress and the attractions at the political conventions were more important than things such as real estate or industrial skill. He tried to merge the two races together by saying that blacks helped the whites back in the day, so the whites should return the favor. To me, it seemed as if he was “sucking up” to try to get their rights. “As we have proved our loyalty to you in the past, nursing your children, watching the sick-bed of your parents, and often following them with tear-dimmed eyes to their graves, so in the future, we shall stand by you…with yours in a way that shall make the interests of both races one.
After giving the message, he received much accolades for it. He was talked about in newspapers and all around town for it. The white people loved him for the speech. Everyone wanted to meet him, shake his hand, and ask him questions. He also met famous people such as Grover Cleveland. Grover Cleveland was president of the United States at that time, so Washington was very excited to meet with him. He also met with many Negro ministers throughout Atlanta, Georgia.
While watching Washington’s success be displayed, the black community started to retract everything good they said about him. They began to read his speech in “cold type” and really notice what he was saying in his speech. They thought that he was being too liberal in his speech. The first reaction was high when he first gave the speech and after a while, it all died down. “…some of them seemed to feel that they had been hypnotized. They seemed to feel that I had been too liberal in my remarks toward the Southern whites, and that I had not spoken out strongly enough for what they termed the “rights” of my race.”