Today in History: The Atlanta Compromise

On this day (September Eighteen) in 1895, Booker T. Washington and many southern black leaders forged the controversial Atlanta Compromise with southern white political leaders. In the compromise, the whites agreed to provide blacks with due process of law and a basic education steered toward vocational and industrial work in exchange for blacks not pushing for the vote, or complaining about segregation and the lack of their civil rights. Originally the Compromise received support from other black leaders like W.E.B. Du Bois, but as the twentieth century dawned opinions changed in favor of fighting for full civil rights.