Reference no: EM133270101

Consider the excerpts you read from Up From Slavery. Note that the first three chapters seem to have both Whites and Blacks in mind as intended readers. In chapter XIV, however, Washington reprints his speech to The Cotton States and International Exposition (aka The Atlanta Exposition). He delivered that speech to an audience almost entirely comprised of white Southern businessmen.

Identify passages in the first three chapters that you think would have appealed to both black and white readers. Why would they have appealed to both sets of readers? Would they have appealed (inspired, moved) both for the same reasons? Why or why not? In a second paragraph, look again at the speech Washington gave at the Atlanta Exposition. How do you think this speech would have appealed to its white audience? (And we know that, given racial attitudes and prejudice, the organizers of the Exposition took a risk by inviting Washington to speak at all.) Does Washington challenge his readers at all, or does he just say what he thinks he can say, what he thinks his audience will accept?