Booker T. Washington, an African American educator, was the principal of Tuskegee Institute, a small Black college in rural Alabama. In 1895 he came to national attention by delivering this address to an audience during the opening ceremonies of the Cotton States and International Exposition. This speech ranks today as one of the most important speeches presented by an African American in United States history, ranking just beneath Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. The reason for its importance today, however, has less to do with its message than the reaction that African Americans have had to the speech since its delivery in 1895. The immediate response, both in Atlanta and across the country, was overwhelmingly positive. Yet over time, both Washington and his address have been sharply criticized, especially by other African American intellectuals and leaders. Such critics termed the Atlanta address the “Atlanta Compromise” and made Washington a symbol of accommodation and acquiescence to southern racism, segregation, and the political disenfranchisement of African Americans. Throughout much of the twentieth century, Washington and his famous (or infamous) address were a defining element in the African American political debate.