Word of the Week · Issue 012 · Week of 28 September 2026

COMPROMISE

What it claims: A settlement both sides give ground to reach.
What it does: Tuskegee's president banned bonnets, du-rags, and bedroom shoes from class, with an exemption for religious, medical, and cultural needs, and called it preparation for employers he says are 'less forgiving.' The debate the letter triggered is the same one Tuskegee's founding principal opened in 1895, and it was never closed.
The receipt: The salutation says students. Four outlets said parents, two repeating the first. The letter can't settle who got it.

Black-and-white studio portrait of Booker T. Washington, seated, wearing a three-piece suit and bow tie, looking directly at the camera. — Booker T. Washington, portrait by Frances Benjamin Johnston, c. 1895, the year of the Atlanta Compromise speech. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, digital ID ppmsca.23961. No known restrictions on publication.

Two sides give something and meet in the middle. That is the promise inside the word, and it is the reason the word keeps getting used for arrangements where only one side gives.

A letter goes out banning bonnets, du-rags, and bedroom shoes from class, and calls it preparation. The exemptions turn out broader than the coverage suggested; the argument underneath is older than the letter. It is the one Booker T. Washington opened from a stage in 1895, where the terms of the meeting were set by the people who were not required to move.

Ask of any compromise what each side put down. When the answer comes back lopsided, the word is not describing the arrangement. It is dressing it.

Read the file COMPROMISE WR-FCT-016