He said that they would receive the privileges due to any
citizen on the basis of ability, character, and material
possessions. He was, in effect, approving disenfranchisement of
the poor and ignorant in both races. When Negroes did receive
what was due them as citizens, he said, it would come from
Southern whites as the result of the natural evolution of mutual
trust and acceptance. Artificial external pressure, he insisted,
would not help.
The Atlanta Compromise was to be the means to an end and
not an end in itself. If the ex-slave would start at the bottom,
develop manners and friendliness, Washington believed that he
could make his labor indispensable to white society. Acceptance
of segregation was, at that time, a necessary part of good
behavior. If the whites, in turn, opened the doors of economic
opportunity to the ex-slave instead of importing more European
immigrants, Washington said that the nation would have an
English-speaking non-striking labor force. Gradually, individual
Afro-Americans would gain trust, acceptance, and respect. The
class line based on color would be replaced by one based on
intelligence and morality.
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