Booker T. Washington - Atlanta Compromise

"There is no defense or security for any of us except in the highest intelligence and development of all. If anywhere there are efforts tending to curtail the fullest growth of the Negro, let these efforts be turned into stimulating, encouraging, and making him the most useful and intelligent citizen. Effort or means so invested will pay a thousand per cent interest. These efforts will be twice blessed—blessing him that gives and him that takes. There is no escape through law of man or God from the inevitable:

The laws of changeless justice bind

oppressor with oppressed;

And close as sin and suffering joined

we march to fate abreast..."

- Booker T. Washington

1895 Atlanta Compromise Speech