English subtitles for clip: File:Booker T. Washington, Speech, 1895 - edit.ogg

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Mr. President and Gentlemen
of the Board of Directors and Citizens:

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One-third of the population
of the South is of the Negro race.

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No enterprise seeking the material,
civil, or moral welfare of this section

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can disregard
this element of our population

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and reach the highest success.

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I but convey to you,
Mr. President and Directors,

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the sentiment of the masses of my race,
when I say that in no way

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have the value and manhood of the American
Negro been more fittingly

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and generously recognized

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than by the managers
of this magnificent Exposition

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at every stage of its progress.

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It is a recognition that will do more
to cement the friendship of the two races

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than any occurrence since
the dawn of our freedom.

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Not only this,
but the opportunity here afforded

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will awaken among us
a new era of industrial progress.

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Ignorant and inexperienced,

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it is not strange
that in the first years of our new life

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we began at the top
instead of at the bottom;

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that a seat in Congress or the state
legislature was more sought

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than real estate or industrial skill;

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that the political convention
or stump speaking

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had more attractions than starting
a dairy farm or truck garden.

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A ship lost at sea for many days
suddenly sighted a friendly vessel.

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From the mast of the unfortunate vessel
was seen a signal,

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“Water, water; we die of thirst!”

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The answer from the friendly vessel
at once came back,

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“Cast down your bucket where you are.”

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A second time the signal,
"Water, send us water!"

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ran up from the distressed vessel,
and was answered,

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"Cast down your bucket where you are."

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And a third and fourth signal
for water was answered,

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"Cast down your bucket where you are."

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The captain of the distressed vessel,
at last heeding the injunction,

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cast down his bucket,

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and it came up full of fresh, sparkling
water from the mouth of the Amazon River.

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To those of my race

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who depend on bettering
their condition in a foreign land

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or who underestimate the importance
of cultivating friendly relations

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with the Southern white man,
who is their next-door neighbor,

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I would say: "Cast down
your bucket where you are" —

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cast it down in making friends 
in every manly way

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of the people of all races
by whom you are surrounded.

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To those of the white race who look
to the incoming of those of foreign birth

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and strange tongue and habits
for the prosperity of the South,

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were I permitted I would repeat
what I say to my own race,

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"Cast down your bucket where you are."

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Cast it down among the eight millions
of Negroes whose habits you know,

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whose fidelity and love you have tested
in days when to have proved treacherous

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meant the ruin of your firesides.

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Cast down your bucket among these people
who have, without strikes and labor wars,

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tilled your fields, cleared your forests,
builded your railroads and cities,

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and brought forth treasures
from the bowels of the earth,

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and helped make possible

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this magnificent representation
of the progress of the South.