Talk:Atlanta Compromise

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I realize that this was not an actual written agreement, but the Atlanta Compromise is portrayed as "an agreement ... between Booker T. Washington ... and Southern white leaders." Which Southern white leaders? Booker T. Washington is sometimes portrayed as a "sellout" for this compromise, but there had to be someone on the other side for him to sell out to. --Metropolitan90 (talk) 14:58, 31 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]

This article is just wrong. Booker T. Washington's speech, "Address at the Atlanta Cotton Exposition," was labeled the "Atlanta Compromise" by W.E.B. Du Bois later as a criticism of the views Washington presented in that speech. There was no actual compromise.

JessicaHecht (talk) 19:12, 30 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

This article is largely written from the view of W.E.B. Du Bois, who was an intellectual elitist who criticized Washington and the “compromise” attributed to him here. In particular the lead in suggests African Americans would not seek justice when that subject is specifically addressed in the Washington speech associated with this issue.

My thoughts exactly. The article is exceptionally poorly written; it makes no sense to write it from the viewpoint of Du Bois rather than a neutral third-party observer. Nowhere in the Atlanta speech does BTW suggest that African-Americans should not focus on higher education, which is stated in the lede of this article (cribbed from Du Bois in The Souls of Black Folk), for example. What Washington actually said on the matter in his speech was:

There is no defense or security for any of us except in the highest intelligence and development of all. If anywhere there are efforts tending to curtail the fullest growth of the Negro, let these efforts be turned into stimulating, encouraging, and making him the most useful and intelligent citizen.

There's no way an honest person could interpret that as being opposed to higher education. Bueller 007 (talk) 13:34, 29 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]