Booker T. Washington's rhetoric: commanding performance

Booker T. Washington's autobiography 'Up from Slavery' and especially his 'Atlanta Exposition Address' of 1895 illustrate his use of the rhetoric of humility for self-promotion. Washington presents himself as the mediator between the races, appearing as an embodiment of racial amalgamation while advocating separate development. He flatters his Southern white audience through use of nostalgia while appealing to Northerners with pragmatic materialism. Washington seemingly advocates Negro submission to white superiority but actually manipulates the audience for his own ends.