Historical voices

While pursuing this policy I have not failed, at the proper time and in the proper manner, to call attention, in no uncertain terms, to the wrongs which any part of the South has been guilty of.

I early learned that it is a hard matter to convert an individual by abusing him, and that this is more often accomplished by giving credit for all the praiseworthy actions performed than by calling attention alone to all the evil done.

I determined never to say anything in a public address in the North that I would not be willing to say in the South.

When I first came to Tuskegee, I determined that I would make it my home, that I would take as much pride in the right actions of the people of the town as any white man could do, and that I would, at the same time, deplore the wrong-doing…

I have always had more of an ambition to do things than merely to talk about doing them.

The school is strictly undenominational, but it is thoroughly Christian, and the spiritual training of the students is not neglected.

While a great deal of stress is laid upon the industrial side of the work at Tuskegee, we do not neglect or overlook in any degree the religious and spiritual side.

Some of the most successful men and women who have graduated from the institution obtained their start in the night-school.

No student, no matter how much money he may be able to command, is permitted to go through school without doing manual labour.

Any one who is willing to work ten hours a day at the brick-yard, or in the laundry, through one or two years, in order that he or she may have the privilege of studying academic branches for two hours in the evening, has enough bottom to…

It is largely because it furnishes such a good opportunity to test the backbone of a student that I place such high value upon our night-school.

It is very largely through this effort and influence that during the last few years the subject of industrial education has assumed the importance that it has, and been placed on its present footing.

In a large degree it has been the pennies, the nickels, and the dimes which have come from the Sunday-schools, the Christian Endeavour societies, and the missionary societies, as well as from the church proper, that have helped to elevate…

If no other consideration had convinced me of the value of the Christian life, the Christlike work which the Church of all denominations in America has done during the last thirty-five years for the elevation of the black man would have…

It is upon these small gifts, which carry with them the interest of hundreds of donors, that any philanthropic work must depend largely for its support.

I have spoken of several large gifts to the school; but by far the greater proportion of the money that has built up the institution has come in the form of small donations from persons of moderate means.

I have found that strict business methods go a long way in securing the interest of rich people.

I do not believe that a similar amount of money often could be made go so far in uplifting a whole race.

The money which you would give would not only supply the building, but the erection of the building would give a large number of students an opportunity to learn the building trades, and the students would use the money paid to them to…

Our graduates go to work in every section of the South, and whatever knowledge might be obtained in the library would serve to assist in the elevation of the whole Negro race.

Nothing ever comes to me, that is worth having, except as the result of hard work.

From the beginning of our work to the present I have always had the feeling, and lose no opportunity to impress our teachers with the same idea, that the school will always be supported in proportion as the inside of the institution is…

It is difficult for me to think of any situation that is more trying on the nerves than that of conducting a large institution, with heavy obligations to meet, without knowing where the money is to come from to meet these obligations from…

I repeat my belief that the world is growing in the direction of giving.