On this day, September 18, in 1895

Booker T Washington delivered his Atlanta Compromise speech to a predominantly white audience in Atlanta, Georgia. The speech encouraged black Americans in the South to join the workforce and claimed that the South had more industrial job opportunities for Black people. He then encouraged the white crowd to hire African Americans rather than immigrant populations. While Booker T expressed the black races’ loyalty to the white population, he also warned that if oppression continued, the racial tension in the South would only worsen and become a burden on society. Although the controversial nature of this speech has been criticized, it greatly altered hiring practices in America.