ABSTRACT
Booker T. Washington's publicly held views on racial segregation were most clearly stated in his address at the Cotton Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia on September 18 1895. Directed to an audience of northern and southern whites, black Americans, and business delegations from overseas, the speech was a, if not the, defining moment in Washington's life and career. It was the first time that an African American had been invited to speak from the platform at such an event.
