| Monday marks the anniversary of Booker T. Washington’s 1895 speech given at the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta. Later dubbed the “Atlanta Compromise” by the Black intellectual W. E. B. Du Bois, the speech conveyed Washington’s belief that uplift for Black Americans would happen through industrial education and participation in the economic development of the South, not political agitation. The speech, which went on to become one of the most famous in American history, is considered to be an encapsulation of Washington’s reputation as the “Great Accommodator.” In 2009, Kelefa Sanneh wrote about Washington and his portrayal as an “enemy of black activism.” Washington’s message, Sanneh argues, “was engineered to meet the demands of his time, not the demands of history.” And yet, Sanneh suggests, underneath Washington’s carefully crafted moderate image lay a kind of radicalism in his belief in racial progress through the creation of Black institutions. Sanneh’s piece encourages readers to question Washington’s legacy and principles, especially in the context of 2009, after the country had inaugurated its first Black President. “In the age of Obama, Washington seems more than ever like a precursor,” Sanneh writes. “A beloved barrier-smasher, sensitive to the rigorous demands of being America’s favorite black person.” | 
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