Post Emancipation Equality
Following emancipation, newly free people had to decide how they wanted to be
represented in a world full of freedom. Several of those who spoke on behalf of the African
American community during this time conveyed different opinions about how they should be
represented in society. Perhaps there is a right answer and a wrong answer. Majority of people
who developed their own ideas about how African Americans should be molded into society
were critiqued and criticized by some and followed by others. Following post emancipation, the
most important issue for African Americans would be to be integrated with the rest of society as
equals and not as separates.
One of the first ideas to develop equality over a period of time came from a civil rights
activist named Booker T. Washington. The speech delivered by Washington was given to a
