Washington’s Atlanta Compromise Speech by Booker T. Washington

“Cast Down Your Bucket Where You Are”: Booker T.

Washington’s Atlanta Compromise Speech

by Booker T. Washington

In 1895, Booker T. Washington gave what later came to be known as the Atlanta Compromise

speech before the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta. His address was one of

the most important and influential speeches in American history, guiding African-American

resistance to white discrimination and establishing Washington as one of the leading black

spokesmen in America. Washington’s speech stressed accommodation rather than resistance to

the racist order under which Southern African Americans lived. In 1903, Washington recorded

this portion of his famous speech, the only surviving recording of his voice.

 

Booker T. Washington: Mr. President and gentlemen of the Board of Directors and citizens.

One third of the population of the South is of the Negro race. No enterprise seeking the material,

civil, or moral welfare of this section can disregard this element of our population and reach the

highest success. I must convey to you, Mr. President and Directors, and Secretaries and masses

of my race, when I say that in no way have the value and manhood of the American Negro been

more fittingly and generously recognized, than by the managers of this magnificent exposition at

every stage of its progress. It is a recognition that will do more to cement the friendship of the

two races than any occurrence since the dawn of our freedom. Not only this, but the

opportunities here afforded will awaken among us a new era of industrial progress.

Ignorant and inexperienced, it is not strange that in the first years of our new life we began at the

top instead of the bottom, that a seat in Congress or the state legislature was more sought than

real estate or industrial skill, that the political convention of some teaching had more attraction

than starting a dairy farm or a stockyard.

A ship lost at sea for many days suddenly sighted a friendly vessel. From the mast of the

unfortunate vessel was seen a signal: “Water, water. We die of thirst.” The answer from the

friendly vessel at once came back: “Cast down your bucket where you are.” A second time, the

signal, “Water, send us water!” went up from the distressed vessel. And was answered: “Cast

down your bucket where you are.” A third and fourth signal for water was answered: “Cast down

your bucket where you are.” The captain of the distressed vessel, at last heeding the injunction,

cast down his bucket and it came up full of fresh, sparkling water from the mouth of the Amazon

River.

To those of my race who depend on bettering their condition in a foreign land, or who

underestimate the importance of preservating friendly relations with the southern white man who

is their next door neighbor, I would say: “Cast down your bucket where you are.” Cast it down,

making friends in every manly way of the people of all races, by whom you are surrounded.

 

 

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 have said 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 fireside. Cast down your bucket among these people

who have without strikes and labor wars tilled your fields, cleared your forests, builded your

railroads and cities, brought forth treasures from the bowels of the earth, just to make possible

this magnificent representation of the progress of the South.

Source: Oral history courtesy of the Michigan State University Voice Library.

See Also:Booker T. Washington Delivers the 1895 Atlanta Compromise Speech

W.E.B. DuBois Critiques Booker T. Washington

Making the Atlanta Compromise: Booker T. Washington Is Invited to Speak

“Equal and Exact Justice to Both Races”: Booker T. Washington on the Reaction to his Atlanta

Compromise Speech