Cast it down in agriculture, mechanics, in commerce, in domestic service, and in the professions. And in this connection it is well
to bear in mind that whatever other sins the South may be called to bear, when it comes to business, pure and simple, it is in the
South that the Negro is given a man's chance in the commercial world, and in nothing is this Exposition more eloquent than in
emphasizing this chance. Our greatest danger is that in the great leap from slavery to freedom we may overlook the fact that the
masses of us are to live by the productions of our hands, and fail to keep in mind that we shall prosper in proportion as we learn
to dignify and glorify common labour, and put brains and skill into the common occupations of life; shall prosper in proportion
as we learn to draw the line between the superficial and the substantial, the ornamental gewgaws of life and the useful No race
can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. It is at the bottom of life we must
begin, and not at the top. Nor should we permit our grievances to overshadow our opportunities.
--Booker T. Washington, The Atlanta Compromise Speech, 1895.
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Which prominent Civil Rights leader would have disagreed MOST with Washington's approach to solving the problem of racial
inequality in the south?
Marcus Garvey
W. E. B. DuBois
Frederick Douglass
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