English subtitles for clip: File:Booker T. Washington, Speech, 1895 - edit.ogg
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1 00:00:00,220 --> 00:00:04,746 Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Board of Directors and Citizens: 2 00:00:05,400 --> 00:00:09,197 One-third of the population of the South is of the Negro race. 3 00:00:09,762 --> 00:00:14,450 No enterprise seeking the material, civil, or moral welfare of this section 4 00:00:14,517 --> 00:00:17,538 can disregard this element of our population 5 00:00:17,559 --> 00:00:19,815 and reach the highest success. 6 00:00:20,400 --> 00:00:23,490 I but convey to you, Mr. President and Directors, 7 00:00:23,525 --> 00:00:27,865 the sentiment of the masses of my race, when I say that in no way 8 00:00:27,932 --> 00:00:31,967 have the value and manhood of the American Negro been more fittingly 9 00:00:32,018 --> 00:00:34,289 and generously recognized 10 00:00:34,322 --> 00:00:37,136 than by the managers of this magnificent Exposition 11 00:00:37,187 --> 00:00:39,865 at every stage of its progress. 12 00:00:40,753 --> 00:00:45,397 It is a recognition that will do more to cement the friendship of the two races 13 00:00:45,447 --> 00:00:48,452 than any occurrence since the dawn of our freedom. 14 00:00:49,325 --> 00:00:53,113 Not only this, but the opportunity here afforded 15 00:00:53,132 --> 00:00:56,547 will awaken among us a new era of industrial progress. 16 00:00:57,273 --> 00:00:59,132 Ignorant and inexperienced, 17 00:00:59,155 --> 00:01:02,179 it is not strange that in the first years of our new life 18 00:01:02,222 --> 00:01:05,191 we began at the top instead of at the bottom; 19 00:01:05,218 --> 00:01:08,838 that a seat in Congress or the state legislature was more sought 20 00:01:08,859 --> 00:01:11,502 than real estate or industrial skill; 21 00:01:11,753 --> 00:01:14,468 that the political convention or stump speaking 22 00:01:14,521 --> 00:01:19,198 had more attractions than starting a dairy farm or truck garden. 23 00:01:19,899 --> 00:01:23,988 A ship lost at sea for many days suddenly sighted a friendly vessel. 24 00:01:24,484 --> 00:01:28,786 From the mast of the unfortunate vessel was seen a signal, 25 00:01:28,851 --> 00:01:31,963 “Water, water; we die of thirst!” 26 00:01:32,261 --> 00:01:35,058 The answer from the friendly vessel at once came back, 27 00:01:35,084 --> 00:01:37,500 “Cast down your bucket where you are.” 28 00:01:38,038 --> 00:01:41,537 A second time the signal, "Water, send us water!" 29 00:01:41,557 --> 00:01:44,471 ran up from the distressed vessel, and was answered, 30 00:01:44,505 --> 00:01:47,759 "Cast down your bucket where you are." 31 00:01:48,494 --> 00:01:51,649 And a third and fourth signal for water was answered, 32 00:01:51,700 --> 00:01:54,086 "Cast down your bucket where you are." 33 00:01:54,677 --> 00:01:58,350 The captain of the distressed vessel, at last heeding the injunction, 34 00:01:58,400 --> 00:02:00,252 cast down his bucket, 35 00:02:00,304 --> 00:02:04,993 and it came up full of fresh, sparkling water from the mouth of the Amazon River. 36 00:02:05,411 --> 00:02:07,230 To those of my race 37 00:02:07,261 --> 00:02:10,969 who depend on bettering their condition in a foreign land 38 00:02:11,019 --> 00:02:15,309 or who underestimate the importance of cultivating friendly relations 39 00:02:15,359 --> 00:02:18,550 with the Southern white man, who is their next-door neighbor, 40 00:02:18,584 --> 00:02:22,472 I would say: "Cast down your bucket where you are" — 41 00:02:22,890 --> 00:02:26,229 cast it down in making friends in every manly way 42 00:02:26,280 --> 00:02:30,795 of the people of all races by whom you are surrounded. 43 00:02:33,240 --> 00:02:39,499 To those of the white race who look to the incoming of those of foreign birth 44 00:02:39,567 --> 00:02:43,179 and strange tongue and habits for the prosperity of the South, 45 00:02:43,200 --> 00:02:47,090 were I permitted I would repeat what I say to my own race, 46 00:02:47,156 --> 00:02:49,810 "Cast down your bucket where you are." 47 00:02:50,045 --> 00:02:54,019 Cast it down among the eight millions of Negroes whose habits you know, 48 00:02:54,047 --> 00:02:58,458 whose fidelity and love you have tested in days when to have proved treacherous 49 00:02:58,479 --> 00:03:00,819 meant the ruin of your firesides. 50 00:03:01,413 --> 00:03:06,507 Cast down your bucket among these people who have, without strikes and labor wars, 51 00:03:06,537 --> 00:03:12,078 tilled your fields, cleared your forests, builded your railroads and cities, 52 00:03:12,478 --> 00:03:15,204 and brought forth treasures from the bowels of the earth, 53 00:03:15,228 --> 00:03:16,754 and helped make possible 54 00:03:16,787 --> 00:03:20,840 this magnificent representation of the progress of the South.