"In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress... The wisest among my race understand that the agitation of questions of social equality is the extremest folly, and that progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than of artificial forcing." — Booker T. Washington, Atlanta Exposition Address, 1895
Washington's central argument is that African Americans should
- Acheck_circle
Prioritize economic self-improvement and accept temporary social separation
- B
Migrate to northern cities to escape Southern segregation
- C
Demand immediate enforcement of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments
- D
Build a separate Black political party allied with Populists
Explanation
The "fingers" image and disavowal of "social equality" agitation defined Washington's accommodationist program: vocational training and economic uplift first, civil rights deferred to a later generation.