1. 1
Jonathan Mosby
5/4/2015
Senior Seminar
Dr. Albert Way
The Atlanta Cotton States Exposition of 1895: Examining the
“New South”
It was the opening day of the 1895 Atlanta and International Cotton States Exposition.
Even the President of the United States, Grover Cleveland, was involved from the beaches of
Massachusetts, pushing a button that transmitted a signal to start the engines and different
types of advanced machinery in the hall of a Technological Exhibit.1 Everyone that was
prominent or elite within the city of Atlanta was in attendance, along with the nation’s and
world’s journalists who were eager to report everything that transpired. After a military parade
through the streets, which included a colored regiment located at the very back, a prayer was
given and a poem was read by Mr. Howell, editor of the Atlanta Constitution, in honor of the
retiring poet.2 The following are two stanzas from the opening “dedicatory ode”, written by
Frank L. Stanton, which was read on a beautiful sunny day in Atlanta, Georgia, on September
18th 1895.
III.
Here, though a city opens wide her gates,
This is no day of cities, but of states
1 Cooper, Walter G. The Cotton states and international exposition and South, illustrated. Including the official
history of the exposition, by Walter G. Cooper ... Also including portraits and biographical sketches of distinguished
visitors. Histories of each of the cotton states and various illustrations of scenery, etc. The Illustrator Company,
1896.(Page 9)
2 Ibid (93)

2. 2
Supreme and crowned with progress! Here all time
Gathers its glories in the Georgian clime,
And sea to sea replies,
And from the fathers skies
The answering bells in one glad chorus chime:
“No North no South – but a vast world sublime!”
IV.
Here where the cannon thundered, lo! The white
And royal rose of peace, in living light!
See! How above the black breath of the guns!
Flashes the splendor serener suns!
Behold the fields, once desolate, renewed
With loftier life! The lordly land imbued
With statelier spirit! Cities (where the clods
Were trampled red by the avenging gods)
With skyward pointing steeples! Every leaf
Is tinctured now with glory—not with grief!
And the New South, brave-risen from the past,
Wears on her brow the diadem at last!3
The phrase “And the New South, brave-risen from the past, Wears on her brow the
diadem at last!” reflects the beliefs held by most people during this time period and has aspects
of Lost Cause ideology incorporated within it that illustrates “New South” rhetoric, which was
used to sell segregation to an unsuspecting public. Lost Cause ideology in the form of “New
South” rhetoric was pervasive at the time of the Atlanta and International Cotton States
Exposition and was intentionally used with impetus to convince the nation that segregation was
the progressive pathway for economic and social advancement for all Americans. The
Exposition was a display to the North and the rest of the world that the “New South” was
somehow different – changed and modernized but simultaneously holding onto the old South’s
3 Ibid (94)

3. 3
beliefs and social structure. The name itself, “cotton states,” shows reverence to a past
identity. It wasn’t the South admitting defeat or that the North had won but that the South
now accepted and identified with the Union because of the materialistic desires shared with
the North and their common experience in the Civil War. This materialistic reunification
between North and South is a significant aspect of lost cause ideology that led to the
disfranchisement and political dominance of African Americans which would ultimately be
solidified by the Supreme Court’s decisions. This created the status quo that accepted
institutionalized segregation as being considered a necessity for economic development. This
paper focuses on the relationship between Lost Cause ideology at the time of the 1895
Exposition with concentration on the “New South” advocacy claims about the South being
separate-but-equal around the time of the Cotton States Exposition, exploring their
connections, contradictions, and the outcome that transpired.
The 1895 Atlanta Cotton States Exposition is a great example showing the connections
between the Lost Cause ideology and the “New South” rhetoric because it highlights the
dichotomy that existed between what African American and White leaders--Booker T.
Washington and Henry Grady, for example--were saying to convince the public to accept racial
segregation and what their social ideals really accomplished, regardless what outcome they
truly desired. It was where ideology went from pompous discourse to widespread public
acceptance. And this ideology was not only tolerated by most of the North but actually sought
after.
Segregation has haunted U.S. history for a long time and has a significant place in
historic interpretation. Thus it is important to continue research on the topic, or try in establish

4. 4
different viewpoints on the role segregation played within the United States. Most historians
agree that Booker T. Washington’s 1895 “Atlanta Compromise” speech, which was addressed
on the first day of the Exposition, had a negative impact towards the progress for racial equality
because he did not condemn the social structure of the South. Therefore, historians assert his
speech at the Cotton States Exposition fashioned him as an ally of white supremacy. Historians
also agree that the Lost Cause ideology and literature grew out of grief from the Civil War and
was meant for southerners to provide future generations with a vindictive narrative of the war.
As one man put it after the war, “If we cannot justify the South in the act of Secession, we will
go down in History solely as a brave, impulsive but rash people who attempted in an illegal
manner to overthrow the Union of our Country.”4 However, the established interpretation of
the history of civil rights in the South maintained that segregation was established exclusively
for perpetuating white supremacy or racial purity. Likewise, historians have typically viewed
Lost Cause ideology as invoking sectionalismand resistance towards a reunification with the
North, which historian Foster Gaines points out, is the complete opposite.5 Theda Perdue, a
Georgian historian that recently published a book on race relations at the 1895 Exposition,
argued that the Exposition promoted segregation as a means for racial harmony but she failed
to make any connection to Lost Cause ideology or the fundamental role played by economics in
sectional reconciliation.6 There was more to it than the color of one’s skin, the extreme
4 Gallagher,Gary W., and Alan T. Nolan.The Myth of the Lost Causeand Civil War History.Bloomington:Indiana
University Press,2000.EBook Collection (EBSCOhost), EBSCOhost (accessed February 23, 2015).
5 Foster, Gaines M. Ghosts of the confederacy: defeat, the lostcause,and the emergence of the new South, 1865
to 1913 / Gaines M. Foster. n.p.: New York: Oxford University Press,1987.Kennesaw State University Catalog,
EBSCOhost (accessed February 23,2015).
6 Perdue, Theda. Race and the Atlanta Cotton States Exposition of 1895.Athens, Ga: University of Georgia Press,
2010.Discovery eBooks, EBSCOhost (accessed February 23, 2015).

5. 5
conservatism and materialism that plagued the elites of big business and the Supreme Court
trickled down passing from them, eventually, to the poor whites in the South which would
reignite the flames of racial prejudice. This essay’s interpretation of Lost Cause ideology and
segregation will differ from past historical literature by demonstrating their sophistication and
intricacy while incorporating economics and sectional reconciliation into the discussion.
Lost Cause ideology started in the South immediately after the Civil War as a way of
coping with grief and maintaining hopes for the future.7 The Civil War devastated the southern
countryside, especially railroads and major cities, and most individuals and families were in
extremely poor economic shape. Immediately following the Civil War and all through
Reconstruction, literature was published by leaders of prominent Confederate veterans that
attacked federal reconstruction in the South and promoted radical sectionalism. At the same
time however, this literature glorified the old ways of the South and its leaders in the
Confederacy. Historian Alan T. Nolan claims “Among other points, these ex-Confederates
denied the importance of slavery in triggering secession, blamed sectional tensions on
abolitionists, celebrated antebellum Southern slaveholding society, portrayed Confederates as
united in waging their war for independence, extolled the gallantry of Confederate soldiers, and
attributed Northern victory to sheer weight of numbers and resources.”8 This literature helped
people in the South to feel like they fought with honor and only in defense from a money
hungry industrialized north that attacked first by invading the South. In addition, the literature
7 Cox, Karen L. Dixie's Daughters:The United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Preservation of Confederate
Culture. Gainesville:University Press of Florida,2003.
8 Gallagher,Gary W., and Alan T. Nolan.The Myth of the Lost Causeand Civil War History.Bloomington:Indiana
University Press,2000.EBook Collection (EBSCOhost), EBSCOhost (accessed February 23, 2015).

6. 6
reinforced Lost Cause ideology that would become what most recent historians refer to as the
“Southern Tradition” or “Southern Civil Religion.” People in the South had or felt they had no
identity for several decades after the war ended except that of the cotton fields and a longing
or reverence for their past traditions and lifestyles. The only role models in the South were
Confederate veterans who simply passed down their narrative or version of events which
reinforced the literature and in turn the ideology. After 1877, when Reconstruction ended, Lost
Cause literature started circulating wildly across the North and the South, becoming more
acceptable.
Eventually, early Lost Cause literature died out because, in short, it was and became too
radical for the mainstream public.9 Although the damage had already been done, the principles
and propaganda of Lost Cause ideology were well established in the North and South and
would ultimately become conventional history by the 1880s.
This continuation in practice and education of the Southern Tradition was accomplished
through non-profit organizations and institutions. The United Confederate Veterans, the Sons
of the Confederate Veterans, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and the Confederate
Memorial Literary Society were all instrumental in passing down this ideology, tradition, or
myth to the younger generations. For example, contemporary historian Karen Cox concluded
“Each area of the Daughters' activism--whether memorial, benevolent, historical, educational,
or social--was rooted in their determination to vindicate the actions of Confederate soldiers and
9 Foster, Gaines M. Ghosts of the confederacy: defeat, the lostcause,and the emergence of the new South, 1865
to 1913 / Gaines M. Foster. n.p.: New York: Oxford University Press,1987.Kennesaw State Uni versity Catalog,
EBSCOhost (accessed February 23,2015).

7. 7
patriots by guaranteeing the perpetuation of the ‘Confederate culture,’ particularly white
supremacy and states' rights.”10 Cox goes even further and states that these women’s groups
did more to preserve the Confederate tradition than their male counterparts and were the
leaders of the movement. She may be correct because these women’s groups, especially the
United Daughters of the Confederacy, would go and convince public schools to integrate the
aspects of the Lost Cause ideology into their curriculum or otherwise change it to reflect those
aspects. Also, these organizations would raise and collect donations for the construction of
memorials or monuments, which perpetuated the nostalgia and reference for the past based
on a systemorganized and structured by whites.
Finally, another aspect of Lost Cause ideology is the power or influence that religious
institutions and their preachers possessed. During the war, clergymen preached the gospel of
secession and had a pro-slavery message to their congregations. The ministers validated
slavery by using the Old Testament. They argued that slavery coexisted with Christianity during
the Old Testament, and God never mentioned any wrong of it unless one treated his slaves
poorly, then it was acceptable, especially since they were introducing these non-believers to
Christ and converting them. Negro inferiority was another aspect of Lost Cause ideology these
ministers would mention and manipulate biblical stories to support their claims.11 It is worth
mentioning that the counter to this argument was that the forefathers of the United States also
included the phrase “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” in the constitution which
guarantees rights to all humans. Also, religious orthodoxy contributed to the Lost Cause
10 Cox, Karen L. Dixie's Daughters: The United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Preservation of Confederate
Culture. Gainesville:University Press of Florida,2003.
11 Fleming, WilliamH.Slavery and the RaceProblem in the South. Boston, D. Estes & company, 1906.

8. 8
ideology and “New South” rhetoric by the authentication and vindication of the old South’s
culture and customs, arguing for a continuation of the status quo. Historian Charles Wilson
sums it up well this way: “They (southern ministers) used the Lost Cause to warn Southerners of
their decline from the past virtue, to promote moral reforms, to encourage conversion to
Christianity, and to educate the young in Southern traditions; in the fullness of time, they
related it to American values.”12
For most white people, after reconstruction, the appeal to this southern tradition or
Lost Cause ideology was because it gave them a sense of identity after suffering defeat in the
Civil War. Another appeal to southern tradition was racial pride and unity, which became
important during the 1880s to both white people and black people, but for different reasons.
For African Americans, their racial pride and unity grew out of a desire to prove that they were
capable of becoming an educated, law-abiding, fully participating citizen. White people’s sense
of racial pride and unity grew out of fear based off statistics and census data. It started within
politics and the elite upper class of the South. They were afraid, according to statistical data
and the misrepresentation of the 15th Amendment, that African Americans voters would
outnumber white voters and hold more political weight and therefore dominance in that
arena.13 These political democrats and elite businessmen began planning a way to maintain
their control and influence over the region using what historians call the Racial Imperative. The
Racial Imperative is placing value and importance based upon one’s race, something everyone
12 Wilson,Charles Reagan. Baptized in Blood: The Religion of the Lost Cause, 1865-1920.Athens: University of
Georgia Press,1983.
13 Fleming, WilliamH.Slavery and the RaceProblem in the South. Boston, D. Estes & company, 1906.

9. 9
does unconsciously. It super cedes religion, politics, and other institutions for the advancement
or survival of one’s race.
There had been a slight decline or plateau that was reached with Lost Cause rhetoric
during the early 1880s. The fear of losing political control would reignite it in the later part of
the decade; historian Gaines affirmed that “Although this Confederate celebration had its roots
in persisting anxieties resulting from defeat, increasing fears generated by the social changes of
the late nineteenth century provided the immediate impetus for the revived interest in the Lost
Cause.”14 The revival was triggered by the fears of black political dominance and that the
blacks might take white jobs and other positions of power away. The South did not, yet, have
an answer to the “Negro question.” Northerners were just as afraid of the Negro question as
southerners were and did not want them taking their jobs either. So, Lost Cause literature had
a revival and whites became united once again over the issue of segregation and race relations
within the South.
The Lost Cause revival began soon after Reconstruction ended and this time the
narrators articulated and expressed it differently focusing on a more mainstream approach.
Henry Grady, coined the term “New South” while working for the Atlanta Constitution in the
early 1880s to recognize the South’s new growing economy based on the North’s model of
industrialization. Grady became an important figure in the South during this time period as the
plantar class elites were losing influence because of this economic growth in large cities.
14 Foster, Gaines M. Ghosts of the confederacy: defeat, the lost cause, and the emergence of the new South, 1865
to 1913 / Gaines M. Foster. n.p.: New York: Oxford University Press, 1987. Kennesaw State University Catalog,
EBSCOhost (accessed February 23, 2015)

10. 10
Prominent politicians and Grady alike proceeded to use the phrase in relation to a new,
changed, modernized South that was ripe for investment. The importance and brilliance, on
behalf of these public figures, was the significance they placed on rephrasing the term Lost
Cause with “New South” and the relation to economics with industrial expansion as well as
sectional reconciliation instead of focusing on the war, slavery, and race relations. Architects of
the New South still romanticized and desired a continuation of “southern way of life” that
included a white male hierarchal systembut now believed the redemption of the South was
through segregation as God’s plan for asserting social, economic, and political stability. The
“New South” rhetoric of industrial development and sectional reconciliation would achieve that
for them by having outsiders, those from regions other than the Southern United States, view
them as benevolent and progressive towards African Americans. Therefore, the race problem
appeared to be solved and the South gained their trust and money for investment to rebuild
the South while keeping political control. One of the ways in which they sold this idea of a
“New South” with segregation and white supremacy at its heart was at the 1895 Atlanta Cotton
States Exposition. Segregation was sold at the Cotton States Exposition as an integral
component of economic development in the “New South”, which directly correlates to the Lost
Cause ideology discussed previously.
The 1895 Atlanta Cotton States Exposition was one of many expositions in the South.
The expositions began in 1881 in the city of Atlanta and continued for almost 20 years.
Although many of the same people and businesses contributed to these expositions throughout
the entire 20 years, they were not all led or organized by the same people. Historian Gary
Cooper, was paid to record everything that transpired before, during, and after the Exposition

11. 11
by the Atlanta Constitution. Cooper stated that Mr. Hemphill, who was business manager of
the Atlanta Constitution, suggested the idea of an exposition or fair in Atlanta after seeing the
success of the Cotton Palace in 1893 in Waco, Texas.15
1 Picture of the 1895 Cotton States Exposition at Piedmont Park16
According to contemporary historian Stephen K. Prince “The fair started with a simple
premise: a national meeting of those involved in the growth, production, and manufacture of
cotton products; it was designed to improve the overall quality of American production by
exposing southern farmers to northern methods of textile processing.”17 These northern
methods came from wealthy northern businessmen who owned cotton processing factories
and agricultural development companies.18 They purchased their cotton from southern
farmers or sold them machinery to help in various agricultural tasks. The reason these northern
businessmen wanted to help was because Reconstruction had just ended a decade prior and
15 Cooper, Walter G. Ibid.
16 PtCityChick.Piedmont Park.1895. Atlanta History Museum.
17 K. Stephen Prince,"A Rebel Yell for Yankee Doodle: Sellingthe New South at the 1881 Atlanta International
Cotton Exposition," Georgia Historical Quarterly 92 (fall 2008):340-71.
18 Ibid

12. 12
investment opportunities were at wholesale prices with the southern landscape and economy
in shambles. Eager to rebuild the economy and capital of the South after losses in the Civil war,
southern journalists, business leaders, and politicians began working with northern capitalists
to have these expositions or fairs that would attract outsider investments for industrial
development where they would subtly sell segregation as progressive to the nation.
However, there were significant problems and obstacles that these northern and
southern architects faced. For example, many northerners viewed the South as backwards or
as an antiquated culture based on an agrarian systeminstead of industrialization. Also,
investment opportunities from the North or other countries would be jeopardized if their
investments were associated with the notion of slavery or any Lost Cause ideology, as it was
known to actively and physically persist in the South. So, these architects decided to associate
the Exposition with “New South” terminology and ideology that promoted equal opportunity, a
free labor system, capitalism, and a progression towards a racially unified, positive economic
future. The vision of an unified economic future is reported by Gary Cooper’s official history of
the 1895 Exposition, which includes a statement made from Dr. Daniel Gilman, commissioner of
the board of awards, stating “We are deeply impressed by the evidence here afforded of the
importance of promoting the study of exact science, and encouraging the best methods of
manual and industrial training among girls and boys, women and men, blacks and whites.”19
The architects focused on industrial expansion and technological education, within a
19 Cooper, Walter G. Ibid.

13. 13
segregated society, as the economically viable solution and vision for the future of freed slaves
and poor whites in the South.
But certain aspects of Lost Cause ideology were actively and physically present at the
1895 Atlanta Cotton States Exposition, which correlates to the “New South” rhetoric the
architects were trying to establish. This rhetoric reflects Lost Cause ideology in that it makes no
mention of defeat or slavery causing the Civil War, places significant importance on state’s
rights and held specific state days at the Exposition, was organized and led by predominately
white upper-class men, perpetuated the southern identity and culture, the selling of
segregation as progressive, and sectional reconciliation in the form of materialism. Historian
Foster Gaines sums it up well stating, “Although in no way admitting error, their accounts of the
war emphasized not the issues behind the conflict but the experience of the battle that both
North and South had shared. The Lost Cause did not signal the South’s retreat from the future,
but, whether intentionally or not, it eased the region’s passage through a particularly difficult
period of social change.”20
Social change was not a particularly easy passage for the South after the Civil War.
Segregation already existed, illegally, on railcars in Atlanta and in most public places in the
South by 1895 and with it came discrimination. Alice M. Bacon, who was an African American
women, attended the 1895 Cotton States Exposition in order to write an essay for the Hampton
Normal and Industrial Institute of Virginia on the progress of race relations and education in the
South. During the 1895 Exposition, Bacon noted that the retail stores in Atlanta all accepted
20 Foster Gaines “Ghosts of the Confederacy: Defeat, the Lost Cause, and the Emergence of the New South.” 1988.

14. 14
African Americans and their money and treated them with respect. However, she does
mention the street signs against African American assimilation were taken down before the
Exposition started.21 If nothing was wrong with assimilation and discrimination why did the
Exposition organizers tell city store fronts to take down their signs and accept blacks in their
stores? She stated the Negro Exhibit at the Exposition needed to be integrated with whites
because all Americans are the same, regardless of color. Also, African American leaders did not
think they could overcome organization and fund raising for their own separate exhibit.
According to Bacon, “the exhibit failed to show the industrial contributions African Americans
22made to the country. Their organization hurt the exhibits from states because some were
21 Alice. M. Bacon. “The Negro and the Atlanta Exposition”1896.
22 Bing Images “Traces of the Past: The Atlanta Negro Building”.1895 http://burnaway.org/origins-harlem-
renaissance-atlanta-negro-building/
2The Negro Exhibit Building 1895, Atlanta, Piedmont Park

15. 15
afraid of the South’s offer and conspicuous, and others just did not want to be part of
something separate, while others could not afford to show an exhibit that had no financial
gain.”23 The exhibit was, by and large, a success and demonstrated many African American
inventions and patents from engineered railroad devices to car parts. Detailing Washington’s
speech, Bacon claimed that it did convince people that the Negro problem had been answered
and was almost not an issue anymore. Although Bacon thought Washington’s speech was great
and notable, she was more excited and impressed by the mere fact that African Americans
were allowed to speak their minds at all to an audience other than their own race. However,
she does include that she remains skeptical of the future of race relations in the area of
education but economically that whites could not afford to discriminate against blacks.24
The Atlanta and International Cotton States Exposition of 1895 started and ended with
speeches detailing sectional reconciliation. In fact, reunification between the North and South
was mentioned more than any other issue in the speeches given by hundreds of politicians and
industrial leaders. The northern politicians spoke of how much the landscape had changed
since the Civil War when Atlanta and the South was left in ashes, and focused on the positive
facts within the South like their abundant resources and talented orators while stressing the
brotherhood that now exists. The southern speeches were mostly about how great their
specific state was, the resources or investment opportunities that state had, the heritage and
importance of the state in relation to the Union, and the ways in which their state had changed
since the Civil War and the common experiences shared with the North during it. The South’s
23 Ibid
24 Ibid

16. 16
orators claimed that she was “new” and gave equal work opportunity, educated the freedmen,
and allowed voting participating but in reality they were in the process of passing legislation in
almost every state to disenfranchise the African American vote. The contradictions of “New
South” rhetoric are pervasive. In fact, Georgia Governor John B. Gordon was a known white
supremacist and former leader of the Ku Klux Klan who had, in 1888, passed a bill that said only
taxes from African Americans would go to fund African American schools and education, but
was vetoed by the Attorney General on basis that it was unconstitutional in Georgia and the
United States.25 Eventually, however, southern states were able to find other ways in which to
get around equal funding for education. Intellectual or management job opportunities were
rarely given to African Americans. Sharecroppers and tenant farmers, low end industrial factory
work, or construction was about the only industries for African Americans in the South after
emancipation. Even if African Americans were able to find good, steady employment, they
would have to answer and obey white bosses, tolerate less pay or wages for the same type of
work as white immigrant workers, and hardly would ever be offered a raise or promotion. The
fact that African Americans hardly, if ever, went on strike between the 1880s and 1900 was a
good a reason to hire them during the time of big business. Restating Cooper’s words, “master
and slave went to capital and labor.”26
The materialistic reconciliation and reunification of the North and South overlooked
African Americans and was left to the Racial Imperative. This also reflects the Darwinian
science of the time and the gravity of the economy in the North and South after the 1893
25 Fleming, WilliamH.Slavery and the RaceProblem in the South. Boston, D. Estes & company, 1906.
26 Cooper, Ibid.

17. 17
depression. Historian Robert Haws wrote Darwinian science “championed a systemthat
supported natural rights and racial purity and that equated wealth and power with virtue.”27
Darwinian beliefs concerning survival of the fittest and wealth and power as virtue go hand in
hand with “New South” rhetoric and racism. White supremacists and non-supremacists, North
and South, East and West, all believed that white European ancestry was the dominant racial
class in the world and that blacks were inferior in every way. This was a fundamental,
supportive, ideology in the hierarchal, class systemof the South that endorsed the justification
of segregation and political control. Darwinian science should have been the antithesis of the
civil religion of the Lost Cause but, instead, it was used in the same fashion to maintain the
status quo of the racial imperative.
This was a crucial time in race relations when the ruling elites and leaders of white
supremacy needed to convince the public that segregation was the progressive economic
solution and social advancement for society in the South. As C. Vann Woodward argues the
Civil War destroyed the old ruling elite and replaced them with middle class “entrepreneur’s
intent on modernization and industrial growth.” These new industrialists’ leaders, like Henry
Grady, were usually involved in journalism, politics, or were prominent business owners that
valued the old South’s social, economic, and political structure but had grown tired of
agriculture and the old ruling elites. They were city folks, not rural farmers, and these
entrepreneur’s in the “New South” spoke passionately about her economic future under
27 Robert Haws. “The Age of Segregation: Race relations in theSouth, 1890-1945.Essays by:Derrick Bell,Mary
Berry, Dan Carter, Tony Gilmore, Robert Higgs,and George Tindall.(1978)

18. 18
segregation and constituted or included in this group are the managers and organizers of the
Atlanta Cotton States Exposition of 1895.
Booker T. Washington was chosen to speak on the opening day, giving his most famous
“Atlanta Compromise” speech, because the white organizers knew he embodied their beliefs
with segregation in addition to echoing Lost Cause sentiments. And by speaking, he conceded
whites were the dominant race and the Negros needed to catch up by way of technical
education only, hard laborious work, accumulation of wealth, and reconciliation with the South.
According to his critic W.E.B Du Bois, Booker T. Washington also asked that the blacks in the
South give up on political power, civil rights, and higher education for the time being until they
had accomplished the goals previously listed.28 He believed firmly that once those goals were
achieved that African Americans would be economically assimilated and then integrated into
the social fabric of the South. Unknowingly at the time, Booker T. Washington played right into
these organizers hands by delaying race reconciliation and focusing on economic development.
Also, whether these organizers knew or not, only one year later separate-but-equal would be
established by the Supreme Court and all but solidify political dominance for white
supremacists and stopped African Americans from integrating into the social fabric, increasing
systematic discrimination and strengthening southern poverty.
The South’s material sectional reconciliation with the Union led to the disfranchisement
of African Americans and political dominance that was solidified with the Supreme Court.
Steven Tuck argues that during Reconstruction the Gerrymandering of districts and systematic
28 Du Bois,W. E. B. The Souls of Black Folk.Chicago:A.C. McClurg & Co.; [Cambridge]: University Press John Wilson
and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A., 1903; Bartleby.com, 1999.

19. 19
disfranchisement of African Americans began in the South.29 As early as 1877, resulting from
the immediate removal of federal troops from the former Confederate states, poll taxes with
the use of violence and intimidation were used to scare off republican candidates and black
voters. Educational requirements like the literacy test and the Grandfather clause would be
installed not long after. When certain test started backfiring on poor whites, who were
illiterate, the Grandfather clause would still allow you to be eligible to vote even if you could
not read as long as you or a parent had voted before a certain date. Usually, the date would be
January 1867 which was significant because blacks did not have the right to vote at that time.30
Also, lynching was used as intimidation for not following the South’s hierarchal structure.
Georgia’s first wave of segregation legislation went through during the Exposition itself.
In 1892, Plessy challenged the white social structure of the South and was arrested for sitting in
the White’s only section of a railcar and the case went to the Supreme Court in 1896, only
months after the Exposition. The Supreme Court used the racial imperative of material
sectional reconciliation and extreme conservatism to justify the constitutionality of each
individual States rights in separate-but-equal, absolving the federal government responsibility
for the race relations that existed in the South. After the upholding of the constitutionality of
separate-but-equal, it became illegal for blacks to associate with whites in public places. With it
came each states own unique interpretation of the 15th Amendment. The 15th Amendment
paved the way for separate-but-equal, which only protected white civil rights and not African
Americans or immigrants. The hypocrisy of the 15th Amendment is how Lost Cause ideology
29 Tuck, Steven. “Democratization and the Disfranchisementof African Americans in the US South duringthe Late
19th Century.” Routledge, 2007.
30 Fleming, WilliamH. Slavery and the Race Problem in the South. Boston, D. Estes & company, 1906.

20. 20
was implemented legally and put into practice socially, economically, and politically by way of
Jim Crow laws and paved the way for discrimination for another 60 years.
The irony is that it did not matter what viewpoint an individual or community held
regarding race prejudice. Whether you had a white supremacist point of view or one that was
of helping culturally and philanthropically towards African Americans, they both looked at
segregation as a necessity for economic growth. African American leaders, white supremacists,
and others from both races that wanted to help philanthropically all pushed segregation as a
necessity for economic growth because they believed that through racial pride and segregation
African Americans would achieve economic stability and therefore integrate into the social and
cultural fabric of America that Booker T. Washington convinced them of during his famous
“Atlanta Compromise” speech. However, there were African Americans that disagreed with
him.
Bishop Henry Turner of the African Methodist Episcopal Church was an outspoken critic
of segregation and initially a firm believer in assimilation. Eventually, after democrat’s regained
power in the South and segregation was installed he became a leading figure in the back to
African movement. He believed that the Negro exhibit building should have not be segregated
but integrated together for all Americans. He also used the Exposition as a platform from which
to voice his opposition to the racial and social conditions of the South. Turner challenged white
authority and interpretation as well at the Exposition.31 Historian Robert Heath contends that
31 CARDON, NATHAN. 2014."The South's "New Negroes" and African American Visions of Progress atthe Atlanta
and NashvilleInternational Expositions,1895-1897."Journal of Southern History 80, no. 2: 287-326.America:
History and Life with Full Text, EBSCOhost (accessed February 17, 2015).

21. 21
Booker T. Washington should have never have spoken at the Exposition unless he was to
condemn the racial conditions that endured in the South. But, instead, he should have
remained silent and let the silence speak for itself in quiet protest.32
The white organizers also allied with Booker T. Washington and other African American
leaders because they needed the Congressional Appropriations Committee to approve a federal
grant, which would concede them the required money needed for the promotion of the
Exposition, in the North and West plus abroad, in addition to funding the United States
government building exhibit.33 African American leaders in turn, needed the white organizers
to allow them to participate openly and freely in the Exposition so that they could properly
showcase their achievements since emancipation without interference or prejudice. And lastly,
the United States government needed the Exposition itself to help promote friendly relations
with Latin America for the installation of the Panama Canal (known then as Nicaragua), through
telegraphs that were given to the promotional agents from the Exposition.34 All three of these
groups had their own separate and unique interests. The whites, both North and South, used
the Lost Cause narrative to push their agenda while the United States Congress used the
Exposition to push theirs. African Americans tried to use the Exposition to showcase their
accomplishments and aspirations in order to be accepted into the economic fabric of society,
but they were ultimately left out in the materialistic sectional reconciliation of the time.
32 Heath, Robert L. "A TIME FOR SILENCE: BOOKER T. WASHINGTON IN ATLANTA." Quarterly Journal of Speech 64,
no. 4 (December 1978): 385. America: History and Life with Full Text, EBSCOhost (accessed February 17, 2015).
33 IBID
34 Cooper, Walter G. IBID.

22. 22
The “New South” rhetoric at the Atlanta Exposition and other places was a way of
keeping the “Old South’s” beliefs, values, and hierarchical structure after being defeated. Lost
Cause ideology was based on some historical truth and it did help to lay the foundation for
industrial development and expansion through intense rhetoric and display at expositions that
gained capital and investments from all over the world. But the social ideals also hurt the
industrialization of the South with the glorification of the agrarian way of life and the
disfranchisement of the black vote as well as segregation, which kept African Americans from
fully integrating into American society with politics and economics. Although Lost Cause
ideology did bring identity to the “New South” and help diversify the economy, it did not “ease
the region’s passage through a particularly difficult period of social change” as historian Foster
Gaines argues.35 It may have eased passage for whites but not African Americans and the
region as a whole. Without Lost Cause ideology the region would have done much better
considering the boost it would have had from two races working together, instead of against
each other, and not for their own races personal gain but for the South’s gain, like Booker T.
Washington wanted. Also, white supremacy was never in jeopardy, as suggested by the
statistical data, but in fact was steadily inclining because of immigration, whereas blacks had no
immigration after the slave trade was abolished. High death rates in blacks in the South
because of high birth rates was another reason for their population decline in comparison to
whites during the time period. In regards to the 15th Amendment, I believe firmly that laws do
not change people’s hearts, and just because the United States government included no
discrimination based upon race, color, or previous servitude, this did not mean that it would be
35 Gaines,Foster. Ibid.

23. 23
obeyed or enforced. The capitalistic conservative Supreme Court should have not sided with
state legislation on the Plessy case and dozens others, leaving it up to states individual to
protect African Americans and minorities. But instead, should have mandated federal
involvement and enforcement in this Amendment for equal protection and not left it up to the
individual states to decide.
On that beautiful day in 1895 in Atlanta, the road leading to segregation began its
course following the paths laid by the Lost Cause and “New South” rhetoric. The aftermath of
the Lost Cause ideology lingers on today, albeit not as pervasive, but “the New South, brave-
risen from the past” is true in the sense of economic conditions but may soon become an
actuality as a whole when race relations adjust and assimilation ensues.

24. 24
Bibliography:
Primary Sources:
Adler, Cyrus. Biblical antiquities. A description of the exhibit at the Cotton states international
exposition, Atlanta, 1895. Washington, 1898.
Bacon, Alice M. The Negro and the Atlanta exposition. Baltimore: The Trustees, 1896.
Atkinson, W. Y. The Atlanta Exposition. The North American Review, October 1, 1895. – Article
Carter, Edward R. The black side: a partial history of the business, religious and educational side
of the Negro in Atlanta, Ga. Atlanta: [s.n.] 1894.
Cooper, Walter G. The Cotton states and international exposition and South, illustrated.
Including the official history of the exposition, by Walter G. Cooper ... Also including portraits
and biographical sketches of distinguished visitors. Histories of each of the cotton states and
various illustrations of scenery, etc. The Illustrator Company, 1896.
Conference for the Study of the Negro Problems (2nd: 1897: Atlanta University). Social and
physical condition of Negroes in cities. Report of an investigation under the direction of Atlanta
University: and proceedings of the second Conference for the study of problems concerning
Negro city life. Atlanta, Ga., Atlanta university press, 1897.
Fleming, WilliamH. Slavery and the Race Problem in the South. Boston, D. Estes & company,
1906.
Du Bois, W. E. B. The Social Evolution of the Black South. Washington, American Negro
Monographs Co.1911.
Fleming, William H. Slavery and the Race Problem in the South. Boston, D. Estes & company,
1906.
United States, Board of management of government exhibit. Report of the Board of
management, United States government exhibit, Cotton states and international exposition,
Atlanta, Georgia, 1895. Washington, 1897.
Henry Woodfin Grady papers, Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library, Emory University.
Date Accessed 2/17/15.
SecondarySources:
Cooks, Bridget R. 2007. "Fixing race: visual representations of African Americans at the World's
Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893." Patterns of Prejudice 41, no. 5: 435-465. America:
History and Life with Full Text, EBSCOhost (accessed February 17, 2015).

25. 25
Cox, Karen L. Dixie's Daughters: The United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Preservation
of Confederate Culture. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2003.
CARDON, NATHAN. 2014. "The South's "New Negroes" and African American Visions of
Progress at the Atlanta and Nashville International Expositions, 1895-1897." Journal of Southern
History 80, no. 2: 287-326. America: History and Life with Full Text, EBSCOhost (accessed
February 17, 2015).
Foster, Gaines M. Ghosts of the confederacy: defeat, the lost cause, and the emergence of the
new South, 1865 to 1913 / Gaines M. Foster. n.p.: New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.
1987. Kennesaw State University Catalog, EBSCOhost (accessed February 23, 2015)
Gallagher, Gary W., and Alan T. Nolan. The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000. EBook Collection (EBSCOhost), EBSCOhost
(accessed February 23, 2015).
Harold E., Davis. Henry Grady's New South: Atlanta, a Brave and Beautiful City. Tuscaloosa: The
University of Alabama Press, 2009. Project MUSE, EBSCOhost (accessed February 23, 2015)
Harris, J. William. "Cotton and Race in the Making of America: The Human Costs of Economic
Power/Race and the Atlanta Cotton States Exposition of 1895." North Carolina Historical Review
88, no. 1 (January 2011): 111-113. America: History and Life with Full Text, EBSCOhost (accessed
February 17, 2015).
Harvey, Bruce, and Lynn Watson-Powers. "THE EYES OF THE WORLD ARE UPON US": A LOOK AT
THE COTTON STATES AND INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION OF 1895." Atlanta History: A Journal Of
Georgia & The South 39, no. 3/4 (September 1995): 5-11. America: History and Life with Full
Text, EBSCOhost (accessed February 23, 2015).
Heath, Robert L. "A TIME FOR SILENCE: BOOKER T. WASHINGTON IN ATLANTA." Quarterly
Journal of Speech 64, no. 4 (December 1978): 385. America: History and Life with Full Text,
EBSCOhost (accessed February 17, 2015).
Perdue, Theda. Race and the Atlanta Cotton States Exposition of 1895. Athens, Ga: University of
Georgia Press, 2010. Discovery eBooks, EBSCOhost (accessed February 23, 2015).
Prince, K. Stephen. "A Rebel Yell for Yankee Doodle: Selling the New South at the 1881 Atlanta
International Cotton Exposition." The Georgia Historical Quarterly, 2008. 340, JSTOR Journals,
EBSCOhost (accessed February 23, 2015).
Wilson, Charles. Baptized in Blood: The Religion of the Lost Cause, 1865-1920. Athens:
University of Georgia Press, 2009. Project MUSE, EBSCOhost (accessed February 23, 2015).