The Atlanta Compromise was a statement on race relations by Booker T. Washington. In his epochal speech (September 18, 1895) to a racially mixed audience at the Atlanta Exposition, Washington stated that: "In all things that are purely social we can be separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress." This “accommodationist” philosophy disturbed Black intellectuals, who feared Washington’s emphasis on vocational skills was to the detriment of academic development and civil rights.