You must make up your minds in the first place, as I have said before, that you are going to make some sacrifice, that you are going to live your lives in an unselfish way, in order that you may help some one.
Booker T. Washington
The Public Record
Booker Taliaferro Washington was an American educator, author, and orator. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the primary leader in the African-American community and of the contemporary Black elite.
gutenberg.org
I advise you, then, to go into the country and the towns, rather than into the cities.
In no matter how small a degree it may be, see that you are assisting some one else.
Be clean, in your person, your language and in your thoughts.
Show that education has only deepened your interest in such things.
Don't be ashamed to go to church and Sunday school, to the Young Men's Christian Association and the Christian Endeavour Society.
You will find that politeness counts for a great deal, not only in helping you to get work, but in helping you to keep it.
Try to have your manners in this respect so good that people will notice them and ask where you have been, at what school you learned to be so polite.
It is possible for you, by paying heed to this, to do a great deal toward securing and preserving pleasant relations between the people of both races in the South.
Be polite; to white and coloured people, both.
Don't give the impression that you think education means superficiality and dress.
It would be better for you not to have any education, than for you to go home and feel ashamed of your parents, or not want to help them.