He also criticized the
convict lease system which had developed in the South. His
dissatisfaction with segregation became clear when he pointed out
that although Jim Crow facilities might be separate they were
never equal. Another article which he had written was published
after his death in the New Republic. In it he described the
terrible effects of segregation. He said that it meant inferior
sidewalks, inferior street-lighting, inferior sewage facilities,
and inferior police protection. Such lacks made for difficult
neighborhoods in which to raise families in decency.
If Washington's program was a sellout, as many believed, it is
becoming increasingly clear that he did not intend his compromise
as an end in itself. He believed that it could be the means to a
much broader future. When he spoke before the Congressional
committee early in 1895, he expressed his opposition to
disenfranchisement on a racial basis. His apparent acceptance of
it at Atlanta was only a tactical maneuver. In an article which
he wrote in 1898, he said that he believed that the time would
come when his people would be given all of their rights in the
South.
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