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The
death of General Armstrong, a few weeks later, gave me the privilege of
getting acquainted with one of the finest, most unselfish, and most
attractive men that I have ever come in contact with. I refer to the Rev.
Dr. Hollis B. Frissell, now the Principal of the Hampton Institute, and
General Armstrong's successor. Under the clear, strong, and almost perfect
leadership of Dr. Frissell, Hampton has had a career of prosperity and
usefulness that is all that the General could have wished for. It seems to
be the constant effort of Dr. Frissell to hide his own great personality
behind that of General Armstrong--to make himself of "no
reputation" for the sake of the cause.
More
than once I have been asked what was the greatest surprise that ever came to
me. I have little hesitation in answering that question. It was the
following letter, which came to me one Sunday morning when I was sitting on
the veranda of my home at Tuskegee, surrounded by my wife and three
children:--
Harvard
University, Cambridge, May 28, 1896.
President
Booker T. Washington,
My
Dear Sir: Harvard University desired to confer on you at the approaching
Commencement an honorary degree; but it is our custom to confer degrees only
on gentlemen who are present. Our Commencement occurs this year on June 24,
and your presence would be desirable from about noon till about five o'clock
in the afternoon. Would it be possible for you to be in Cambridge on that
day?
Believe
me, with great regard,
Very
truly yours,
Charles
W. Eliot.
This
was a recognition that had never in the slightest manner entered into my
mind, and it was hard for me to realize that I was to be honoured by a
degree from the oldest and most renowned university in America. As I sat
upon my veranda, with this letter in my hand, tears came into my eyes. My
whole former life--my life as a slave on the plantation, my work in the
coal-mine, the times when I was without food and clothing, when I made my
bed under a sidewalk, my struggles for an education, the trying days I had
had at Tuskegee, days when I did not know where to turn for a dollar to
continue the work there, the ostracism and sometimes oppression of my
race,--all this passed before me and nearly overcame me.
I
had never sought or cared for what the world calls fame. I have always
looked upon fame as something to be used in accomplishing good. I have often
said to my friends that if I can use whatever prominence may have come to me
as an instrument with which to do good, I am content to have it. I care for
it only as a means to be used for doing good, just as wealth may be used.
The more I come into contact with wealthy people, the more I believe that
they are growing in the direction of looking upon their money simply as an
instrument which God has placed in their hand for doing good with. I never
go to the office of Mr. John D. Rockefeller, who more than once has been
generous to Tuskegee, without being reminded of this. The close, careful,
and minute investigation that he always makes in order to be sure that every
dollar that he gives will do the most good--an investigation that is just as
searching as if he were investing money in a business enterprise--convinces
me that the growth in this direction is most encouraging.
At
nine o'clock, on the morning of June 24, I met President Eliot, the Board of
Overseers of Harvard University, and the other guests, at the designated
place on the university grounds, for the purpose of being escorted to
Sanders Theatre, where the Commencement exercises were to be held and
degrees conferred. Among others invited to be present for the purpose of
receiving a degree at this time were General Nelson A. Miles, Dr. Bell, the
inventor of the Bell telephone, Bishop Vincent, and the Rev. Minot J.
Savage. We were placed in line immediately behind the President and the
Board of Overseers, and directly afterward the Governor of Massachusetts,
escorted by the Lancers, arrived and took his place in the line of march by
the side of President Eliot. In the line there were also various other
officers and professors, clad in cap and gown. In this order we marched to
Sanders Theatre, where, after the usual Commencement exercises, came the
conferring of the honorary degrees. This, it seems, is always considered the
most interesting feature at Harvard. It is not known, until the individuals
appear, upon whom the honorary degrees are to be conferred, and those
receiving these honours are cheered by the students and others in proportion
to their popularity. During the conferring of the degrees excitement and
enthusiasm are at the highest pitch.
When
my name was called, I rose, and President Eliot, in beautiful and strong
English, conferred upon me the degree of Master of Arts. After these
exercises were over, those who had received honorary degrees were invited to
lunch with the President. After the lunch we were formed in line again, and
were escorted by the Marshal of the day, who that year happened to be Bishop
William Lawrence, through the grounds, where, at different points, those who
had been honoured were called by name and received the Harvard yell. This
march ended at Memorial Hall, where the alumni dinner was served. To see
over a thousand strong men, representing all that is best in State, Church,
business, and education, with the glow and enthusiasm of college loyalty and
college pride,--which has, I think, a peculiar Harvard flavour,--is a sight
that does not easily fade from memory.
Among
the speakers after dinner were President Eliot, Governor Roger Wolcott,
General Miles, Dr. Minot J. Savage, the Hon. Henry Cabot Lodge, and myself.
When I was called upon, I said, among other things:--
It
would in some measure relieve my embarrassment if I could, even in a slight
degree, feel myself worthy of the great honour which you do me to-day. Why
you have called me from the Black Belt of the South, from among my humble
people, to share in the honours of this occasion, is not for me to explain;
and yet it may not be inappropriate for me to suggest that it seems to me
that one of the most vital questions that touch our American life is how to
bring the strong, wealthy, and learned into helpful touch with the poorest,
most ignorant, and humblest, and at the same time make one appreciate the
vitalizing, strengthening influence of the other. How shall we make the
mansion on yon Beacon Street feel and see the need of the spirits in the
lowliest cabin in Alabama cotton-fields or Louisiana sugar-bottoms? This
problem Harvard University is solving, not by bringing itself down, but by
bringing the masses up.
*
* * * *
* *
If
my life in the past has meant anything in the lifting up of my people and
the bringing about of better relations between your race and mine, I assure
you from this day it will mean doubly more. In the economy of God there is
but one standard by which an individual can succeed--there is but one for a
race. This country demands that every race shall measure itself by the
American standard. By it a race must rise or fall, succeed or fail, and in
the last analysis mere sentiment counts for little.
During
the next half-century and more, my race must continue passing through the
severe American crucible. We are to be tested in our patience, our
forbearance, our perseverance, our power to endure wrong, to withstand
temptations, to economize, to acquire and use skill; in our ability to
compete, to succeed in commerce, to disregard the superficial for the real,
the appearance for the substance, to be great and yet small, learned and yet
simple, high and yet the servant of all.
As
this was the first time that a New England university had conferred an
honorary degree upon a Negro, it was the occasion of much newspaper comment
throughout the country. A correspondent of a New York Paper said:--
When
the name of Booker T. Washington was called, and he arose to acknowledge and
accept, there was such an outburst of applause as greeted no other name
except that of the popular soldier patriot, General Miles. The applause was
not studied and stiff, sympathetic and condoling; it was enthusiasm and
admiration. Every part of the audience from pit to gallery joined in, and a
glow covered the cheeks of those around me, proving sincere appreciation of
the rising struggle of an ex-slave and the work he has accomplished for his
race.
A
Boston paper said, editorially:--
In
conferring the honorary degree of Master of Arts upon the Principal of
Tuskegee Institute, Harvard University has honoured itself as well as the
object of this distinction. The work which Professor Booker T. Washington
has accomplished for the education, good citizenship, and popular
enlightenment in his chosen field of labour in the South entitles him to
rank with our national benefactors. The university which can claim him on
its list of sons, whether in regular course or honoris causa, may be proud.
It
has been mentioned that Mr. Washington is the first of his race to receive
an honorary degree from a New England university. This, in itself, is a
distinction. But the degree was not conferred because Mr. Washington is a
coloured man, or because he was born in slavery, but because he has shown,
by his work for the elevation of the people of the Black Belt of the South,
a genius and a broad humanity
which count for greatness in any man, whether his skin be white or black.
Another
Boston paper said:--
It
is Harvard which, first among New England colleges, confers an honorary
degree upon a black man. No one who has followed the history of Tuskegee and
its work can fail to admire the courage, persistence, and splendid common
sense of Booker T. Washington.
Well
may Harvard honour the ex-slave, the value of whose services, alike to his
race and country, only the future can estimate.
The
correspondent of the New York Times wrote:--
All
the speeches were enthusiastically received, but the coloured man carried
off the oratorical honours, and the applause which broke out when he had
finished was vociferous and long-continued.
Soon
after I began work at Tuskegee I formed a resolution, in the secret of my
heart, that I would try to build up a school that would be of so much
service to the country that the President of the United States would one day
come to see it. This was, I confess, rather a bold resolution, and for a
number of years I kept it hidden in my own thoughts, not daring to share it
with any one.
In
November, 1897, I made the first move in this direction, and that was in
securing a visit from a member of President McKinley's Cabinet, the Hon.
James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture. He came to deliver an address at the
formal opening of the Slater-Armstrong Agricultural Building, our first
large building to be used for the purpose of giving training to our students
in agriculture and kindred branches.
In
the fall of 1898 I heard that President McKinley was likely to visit
Atlanta, Georgia, for the purpose of taking part in the Peace Jubilee
exercises to be held there to commemorate the successful close of the
Spanish-American war. At this time I had been hard at work, together with
our teachers, for eighteen years, trying to build up a school that we
thought would be of service to the Nation, and I determined to make a direct
effort to secure a visit from the President and his Cabinet. I went to
Washington, and I was not long in the city before I found my way to the
White House. When I got there I found the waiting rooms full of people, and
my heart began to sink, for I feared there would not be much chance of my
seeing the President that day, if at all. But, at any rate, I got an
opportunity to see Mr. J. Addison Porter, the secretary to the President,
and explained to him my mission. Mr. Porter kindly sent my card directly to
the President, and in a few minutes word came from Mr. McKinley that he
would see me.
How
any man can see so many people of all kinds, with all kinds of errands, and
do so much hard work, and still keep himself calm, patient, and fresh for
each visitor in the way that President McKinley does, I cannot understand.
When I saw the President he kindly thanked me for the work which we were
doing at Tuskegee for the interests of the country. I then told him,
briefly, the object of my visit. I impressed upon him the fact that a visit
from the Chief Executive of the Nation would not only encourage our students
and teachers, but would help the entire race. He seemed interested, but did
not make a promise to go to Tuskegee, for the reason that his plans about
going to Atlanta were not then fully made; but he asked me to call the
matter to his attention a few weeks later.
By
the middle of the following month the President had definitely decided to
attend the Peace Jubilee at Atlanta. I went to Washington again and saw him,
with a view of getting him to extend his trip to Tuskegee. On this second
visit Mr. Charles W. Hare, a prominent white citizen of Tuskegee, kindly
volunteered to accompany me, to reenforce my invitation with one from the
white people of Tuskegee and the vicinity.
Just
previous to my going to Washington the second time, the country had been
excited, and the coloured people greatly depressed, because of several
severe race riots which had occurred at different points in the South. As
soon as I saw the President, I perceived that his heart was greatly burdened
by reason of these race disturbances. Although there were many people
waiting to see him, he detained me for some time, discussing the condition
and prospects of the race. He remarked several times that he was determined
to show his interest and faith in the race, not merely in words, but by
acts. When I told him that I thought that at that time scarcely anything
would go father in giving hope and encouragement to the race than the fact
that the President of the Nation would be willing to travel one hundred and
forty miles out of his way to spend a day at a Negro institution, he seemed
deeply impressed.
While
I was with the President, a white citizen of Atlanta, a Democrat and an
ex-slaveholder, came into the room, and the President asked his opinion as
to the wisdom of his going to Tuskegee. Without hesitation the Atlanta man
replied that it was the proper thing for him to do. This opinion was
reenforced by that friend of the race, Dr. J.L.M. Curry. The President
promised that he would visit our school on the 16th of December.
When
it became known that the President was going to visit our school, the white
citizens of the town of Tuskegee--a mile distant from the school--were as
much pleased as were our students and teachers. The white people of this
town, including both men and women, began arranging to decorate the town,
and to form themselves into committees for the purpose of cooperating with
the officers of our school in order that the distinguished visitor might
have a fitting reception. I think I never realized before this how much the
white people of Tuskegee and vicinity thought of our institution. During the
days when we were preparing for the President's reception, dozens of these
people came to me and said that, while they did not want to push themselves
into prominence, if there was anything they could do to help, or to relieve
me personally, I had but to intimate it and they would be only too glad to
assist. In fact, the thing that touched me almost as deeply as the visit of
the President itself was the deep pride which all classes of citizens in
Alabama seemed to take in our work.
The
morning of December 16th brought to the little city of Tuskegee such a crowd
as it had never seen before. With the President came Mrs. McKinley and all
of the Cabinet officers but one; and most of them brought their wives or
some members of their families. Several prominent generals came, including
General Shafter and General Joseph Wheeler, who were recently returned from
the Spanish-American war. There was also a host of newspaper correspondents.
The Alabama Legislature was in session in Montgomery at this time. This body
passed a resolution to adjourn for the purpose of visited Tuskegee. Just
before the arrival of the President's party the Legislature arrived, headed
by the governor and other state officials.
The
citizens of Tuskegee had decorated the town from the station to the school
in a generous manner. In order to economize in the matter of time, we
arranged to have the whole school pass in review before the President. Each
student carried a stalk of sugar-cane with some open bolls of cotton
fastened to the end of it. Following the students the work of all
departments of the school passed in review, displayed on "floats"
drawn by horses, mules, and oxen. On these floats we tried to exhibit not
only the present work of the school, but to show the contrasts between the
old methods of doing things and the new. As an example, we showed the old
method of dairying in contrast with the improved methods, the old methods of
tilling the soil in contrast with the new, the old methods of cooking and
housekeeping in contrast with the new. These floats consumed an hour and a
half of time in passing.
In
his address in our large, new chapel, which the students had recently
completed, the President said, among other things:--
To
meet you under such pleasant auspices and to have the opportunity of a
personal observation of your work is indeed most gratifying. The Tuskegee
Normal and Industrial Institute is ideal in its conception, and has already
a large and growing reputation in the country, and is not unknown abroad. I
congratulate all who are associated in this undertaking for the good work
which it is doing in the education of its students to lead lives of honour
and usefulness, thus exalting the race for which it was established.
Nowhere,
I think, could a more delightful location have been chosen for this unique
educational experiment, which has attracted the attention and won the
support even of conservative philanthropists in all sections of the country.
To
speak of Tuskegee without paying special tribute to Booker T. Washington's
genius and perseverance would be impossible. The inception of this noble
enterprise was his, and he deserves high credit for it. His was the
enthusiasm and enterprise which made its steady progress possible and
established in the institution its present high standard of accomplishment.
He has won a worthy reputation as one of the great leaders of his race,
widely known and much respected at home and abroad as an accomplished
educator, a great orator, and a true philanthropist.
The
Hon. John D. Long, the Secretary of the Navy, said in part:--
I
cannot make a speech to-day. My heart is too full--full of hope, admiration,
and pride for my countrymen of both sections and both colours. I am filled
with gratitude and admiration for your work, and from this time forward I
shall have absolute confidence in your progress and in the solution of the
problem in which you are engaged.
The
problem, I say, has been solved. A picture has been presented to-day which
should be put upon canvas with the pictures of Washington and Lincoln, and
transmitted to future time and generations--a picture which the press of the
country should spread broadcast over the land, a most dramatic picture, and
that picture is this: The President of the United States standing on this
platform; on one side the Governor of Alabama, on the other, completing the
trinity, a representative of a race only a few years ago in bondage, the
coloured President of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute.
God
bless the President under whose majesty such a scene as that is presented to
the American people. God bless the state of Alabama, which is showing that
it can deal with this problem for itself. God bless the orator,
philanthropist, and disciple of the Great Master--who, if he were on earth,
would be doing the same work--Booker T. Washington.
Postmaster
General Smith closed the address which he made with these words:--
We
have witnessed many spectacles within the last few days. We have seen the
magnificent grandeur and the magnificent achievements of one of the great
metropolitan cities of the South. We have seen heroes of the war pass by in
procession. We have seen floral parades. But I am sure my colleagues will
agree with me in saying that we have witnessed no spectacle more impressive
and more encouraging, more inspiring for our future, than that which we have
witnessed here this morning.
Some
days after the President returned to Washington I received the letter which
follows:--
Executive
Mansion, Washington, Dec. 23, 1899.
Dear
Sir: By this mail I take pleasure in sending you engrossed copies of the
souvenir of the visit of the President to your institution. These sheets
bear the autographs of the President and the members of the Cabinet who
accompanied him on the trip. Let me take this opportunity of congratulating
you most heartily and sincerely upon the great success of the exercises
provided for and entertainment furnished us under your auspices during our
visit to Tuskegee. Every feature of the programme was perfectly executed and
was viewed or participated in with the heartiest satisfaction by every
visitor present. The unique exhibition which you gave of your pupils engaged
in their industrial vocations was not only artistic but thoroughly
impressive. The tribute paid by the President and his Cabinet to your work
was none too high, and forms a most encouraging augury, I think, for the
future prosperity of your institution. I cannot close without assuring you
that the modesty shown by yourself in the exercises was most favourably
commented upon by all the members of our party.
With
best wishes for the continued advance of your most useful and patriotic
undertaking, kind personal regards, and the compliments of the season,
believe me, always,
Very
sincerely yours,
John
Addison Porter,
Secretary
to the President.
To
President Booker T. Washington, Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute,
Tuskegee, Ala.
Twenty
years have now passed since I made the first humble effort at Tuskegee, in a
broken-down shanty and an old hen-house, without owning a dollar's worth of
property, and with but one teacher and thirty students. At the present time
the institution owns twenty-three hundred acres of land, one thousand of
which are under cultivation each year, entirely by student labour. There are
now upon the grounds, counting large and small, sixty-six buildings; and all
except four of these have been almost wholly erected by the labour of our
students. While the students are at work upon the land and in erecting
buildings, they are taught, by competent instructors, the latest methods of
agriculture and the trades connected with building.
There
are in constant operation at the school, in connection with thorough
academic and religious training, thirty industrial departments. All of these
teach industries at which our men and women can find immediate employment as
soon as they leave the institution. The only difficulty now is that the
demand for our graduates from both white and black people in the South is so
great that we cannot supply more than one-half the persons for whom
applications come to us. Neither have we the buildings nor the money for
current expenses to enable us to admit to the school more than one-half the
young men and women who apply to us for admission.
In
our industrial teaching we keep three things in mind: first, that the
student shall be so educated that he shall be enabled to meet conditions as
they exist now, in the part of the South where he lives--in a word, to be
able to do the thing which the world wants done; second, that every student
who graduates from the school shall have enough skill, coupled with
intelligence and moral character, to enable him to make a living for himself
and others; third, to send every graduate out feeling and knowing that
labour is dignified and beautiful--to make each one love labour instead of
trying to escape it. In addition to the agricultural training which we give
to young men, and the training given to our girls in all the usual domestic
employments, we now train a number of girls in agriculture each year. These
girls are taught gardening, fruit-growing, dairying, bee-culture, and
poultry-raising.
While
the institution is in no sense denominational, we have a department known as
the Phelps Hall Bible Training School, in which a number of students are
prepared for the ministry and other forms of Christian work, especially work
in the country districts. What is equally important, each one of the
students works . . . each day at some industry, in order to get skill and
the love of work, so that when he goes out from the institution he is
prepared to set the people with whom he goes to labour a proper example in
the matter of industry.
The
value of our property is now over $700,000. If we add to this our endowment
fund, which at present is $1,000,000, the value of the total property is now
$1,700,000. Aside from the need for more buildings and for money for current
expenses, the endowment fund should be increased to at least $3,000,000. The
annual current expenses are now about $150,000. The greater part of this I
collect each year by going from door to door and from house to house. All of
our property is free from mortgage, and is deeded to an undenominational
board of trustees who have the control of the institution.
From
thirty students the number has grown to fourteen hundred, coming from
twenty-seven states and territories, from Africa, Cuba, Porto Rico, Jamaica,
and other foreign countries. In our departments there are one hundred and
ten officers and instructors; and if we add the families of our instructors,
we have a constant population upon our grounds of not far from seventeen
hundred people.
I
have often been asked how we keep so large a body of people together, and at
the same time keep them out of mischief. There are two answers: that the men
and women who come to us for an education are in earnest; and that everybody
is kept busy. The following outline of our daily work will testify to
this:--
5
a.m., rising bell; 5.50 a.m., warning breakfast bell; 6 a.m., breakfast
bell; 6.20 a.m., breakfast over; 6.20 to 6.50 a.m., rooms are cleaned; 6.50,
work bell; 7.30, morning study hours; 8.20, morning school bell; 8.25,
inspection of young men's toilet in ranks; 8.40, devotional exercises in
chapel; 8.55, "five minutes with the daily news;" 9 a.m., class
work begins; 12, class work closes; 12.15 p.m., dinner; 1 p.m., work bell;
1.30 p.m., class work begins; 3.30 p.m., class work ends; 5.30 p.m., bell to
"knock off" work; 6 p.m., supper; 7.10 p.m., evening prayers; 7.30
p.m., evening study hours; 8.45 p.m., evening study hour closes; 9.20 p.m.,
warning retiring bell; 9.30 p.m., retiring bell.
We
try to keep constantly in mind the fact that the worth of the school is to
be judged by its graduates. Counting those who have finished the full
course, together with those who have taken enough training to enable them to
do reasonably good work, we can safely say that at least six thousand men
and women from Tuskegee are now at work in different parts of the South; men
and women who, by their own example or by direct efforts, are showing the
masses of our race now to improve their material, educational, and moral and
religious life. What is equally important, they are exhibiting a degree of
common sense and self-control which is causing better relations to exist
between the races, and is causing the Southern white man to learn to believe
in the value of educating the men and women of my race. Aside from this,
there is the influence that is constantly being exerted through the mothers'
meeting and the plantation work conducted by Mrs. Washington.
Wherever
our graduates go, the changes which soon begin to appear in the buying of
land, improving homes, saving money, in education, and in high moral
characters are remarkable. Whole communities are fast being revolutionized
through the instrumentality of these men and women.
Ten
years ago I organized at Tuskegee the first Negro Conference. This is an
annual gathering which now brings to the school eight or nine hundred
representative men and women of the race, who come to spend a day in finding
out what the actual industrial, mental, and moral conditions of the people
are, and in forming plans for improvement. Out from this central Negro
Conference at Tuskegee have grown numerous state an local conferences which
are doing the same kind of work. As a result of the influence of these
gatherings, one delegate reported at the last annual meeting that ten
families in his community had bought and paid for homes. On the day
following the annual Negro Conference, there is the "Workers'
Conference." This is composed of officers and teachers who are engaged
in educational work in the larger institutions in the South. The Negro
Conference furnishes a rare opportunity for these workers to study the real
condition of the rank and file of the people.
In
the summer of 1900, with the assistance of such prominent coloured men as
Mr. T. Thomas Fortune, who has always upheld my hands in every effort, I
organized the National Negro Business League, which held its first meeting
in Boston, and brought together for the first time a large number of the
coloured men who are engaged in various lines of trade or business in
different parts of the United States. Thirty states were represented at our
first meeting. Out of this national meeting grew state and local business
leagues.
In
addition to looking after the executive side of the work at Tuskegee, and
raising the greater part of the money for the support of the school, I
cannot seem to escape the duty of answering at least a part of the calls
which come to me unsought to address Southern white audiences and audiences
of my own race, as well as frequent gatherings in the North. As to how much
of my time is spent in this way, the following clipping from a Buffalo
(N.Y.) paper will tell. This has reference to an occasion when I spoke
before the National Educational Association in that city.
Booker
T. Washington, the foremost educator among the coloured people of the world,
was a very busy man from the time he arrived in the city the other night
from the West and registered at the Iroquois. He had hardly removed the
stains of travel when it was time to partake of supper. Then he held a
public levee in the parlours of the Iroquois until eight o'clock. During
that time he was greeted by over two hundred eminent teachers and educators
from all parts of the United States. Shortly after eight o'clock he was
driven in a carriage to Music Hall, and in one hour and a half he made two
ringing addresses, to as many as five thousand people, on Negro education.
Then Mr. Washington was taken in charge by a delegation of coloured
citizens, headed by the Rev. Mr. Watkins, and hustled off to a small
informal reception, arranged in honour of the visitor by the people of his
race.
Nor
can I, in addition to making these addresses, escape the duty of calling the
attention of the South and of the country in general, through the medium of
the press, to matters that pertain to the interests of both races. This, for
example, I have done in regard to the evil habit of lynching. When the
Louisiana State Constitutional Convention was in session, I wrote an open
letter to that body pleading for justice for the race. In all such efforts I
have received warm and hearty support from the Southern newspapers, as well
as from those in all other parts of the country.
Despite
superficial and temporary signs which might lead one to entertain a contrary
opinion, there was never a time when I felt more hopeful for the race than I
do at the present. The great human law that in the end recognizes and
rewards merit is everlasting and universal. The outside world does not know,
neither can it appreciate, the struggle that is constantly going on in the
hearts of both the Southern white people and their former slaves to free
themselves from racial prejudice; and while both races are thus struggling
they should have the sympathy, the support, and the forbearance of the rest
of the world.
As
I write the closing words of this autobiography I find myself--not by
design--in the city of Richmond, Virginia: the city which only a few decades
ago was the capital of the Southern Confederacy, and where, about
twenty-five years ago, because of my poverty I slept night after night under
a sidewalk.
This
time I am in Richmond as the guest of the coloured people of the city; and
came at their request to deliver an address last night to both races in the
Academy of Music, the largest and finest audience room in the city. This was
the first time that the coloured people had ever been permitted to use this
hall. The day before I came, the City Council passed a vote to attend the
meeting in a body to hear me speak. The state Legislature, including the
House of Delegates and the Senate, also passed a unaminous vote to attend in
a body. In the presence of hundreds of coloured people, many distinguished
white citizens, the City Council, the state Legislature, and state
officials, I delivered my message, which was one of hope and cheer; and from
the bottom of my heart I thanked both races for this welcome back to the
state that gave me birth.
The
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