Booker T. Washington

The way that Booker T. Washington addresses the “go north, stay south” issue after the Civil War relies heavily on peace within races. He uses an allegory on page 595 that says, “Cast down your bucket where you are.” This term is used to say that you should open yourself up and reach out in making new friends of people of all races that surround you. This can also mean to stride for new goals and potential opportunities where you are. Washington adds again on page 595, “…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.” He explains in this passage that probably one of the most important things for both the Negro’s and the Whites in America economically if for Negro’s to stay in the south. If the Negro’s don’t take this chance now, they risk very dire costs in the future. He expounds on the costs by stating, “Our greatest danger is that in the great leap from slavery to freedom we ay overlook the facts 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 labor and put brains and skill into the common occupations of life.” (595)
He also dwells on how the Negro’s must begin from the bottom and work to get to the top, and prove themselves to the white men. Washington explains that if the whites allow the blacks to do so, the will “be surrounded by the most patient, faithful, law-abiding, and unresentful people that the world has seen.” (596) So both of the Whites and Negros need to join together to try to solve the “go north, stay south” issue. It wast just a Negro problem; it was a problem for all of America.