Atlanta Compromise

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The Atlanta Compromise (also known as accommodation or accommodationism) was a proposal put forth in 1895 by African American leader Booker T. Washington in a speech he gave at the Cotton States and International Exposition. He urged black Southerners to accept segregation and to temporarily refrain from campaigning for equal rights, including the right to vote. In return, he advocated that black people would receive basic legal protections, access to property ownership, employment opportunities, and vocational and industrial education. Upon the speech's conclusion, the white attendees gave Washington a standing ovation. Under the direction of Washington's Tuskegee Machine organization, the Compromise was the dominant policy pursued by black leaders in the South from 1895 to 1915. During this period, the educational infrastructure for black people improved, with a focus on vocational schools and schools for children. However, Southern states continued to aggressively adopt Jim Crow laws which codified segregation in nearly all aspects of life. Violence against black people continued: over fifty black people were lynched most years until 1922. Beginning around 1910 – contrary to the advice offered by Washington in his speech – millions of African Americans began migrating northward, relocating to major urban centers in the North. The proposal was met with opposition from other black leaders – most notably W. E. B. Du Bois – who rejected the Compromise's emphasis on accommodation, and instead advocated for full civil rights and the immediate end of segregation. From 1903 until Washington's death in 1915, the two figures engaged in an extended public debate over the direction of African American advancement. In 1905, opponents of the Compromise formed the Niagara Movement, which served as the forerunner to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), established in 1909. The Atlanta Compromise ultimately failed to end segregation or...