Atlanta Exposition Speech

Washington seeks to convince his fellow Black men 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” (Paragraph 4). He presents labor as bestowing dignity upon those who engage in it for “there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem” (Paragraph 4). Washington rejects the view of Du Bois and others that Black progress should be measured by educational attainment and participation in high culture and affairs of state. Washing suggests that by supporting themselves and increasing the prosperity of their communities “common laborers” are the foundation of all human achievement.

Washington’s idea of the dignity of work dovetails with his commitment to teaching the Protestant work ethic he learned at the Hampton Normal School, which was also favored by the wealthy Northerners funding his school at Tuskegee (The Booker T. Washington Papers, vol. 2, p. xxvi. Edited by Louis Harlan. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1972). According to this ethic, ordinary labor has a spiritual dimension. While most Christian denominations accept the idea of “calling”—that God gives each person a place or role in the world—Calvinists in the latter 16th and 17th centuries, came to believe that hard work, diligence, and frugality reflected an individual’s election to eternal salvation.