Booker T. Washington

As a Southern man and the son of one of the largest slave owners of the South, I am anxious for our people to do all that can reasonably be expected of them for the education of the Negroes, thereby making them more content and useful…

I have in mind another case, of a Southern white man in Alabama who during the last year contributed out of his own pocket nearly $2,000 for the building and maintenance of a Negro school in his county.

This man was formerly a slave-holder, and at first he was not inclined to encourage the education of the Negro, but he stated to me frankly, in his letter, that he now believes that Tuskegee and similar institutions are doing the work that…

Not long ago I received fifty dollars from a white man in Mississippi to pay for the education of a black boy.

We have reached a point, largely through the aid which the North has given to the South during the last thirty years, where there is little opposition in the South to the people of the Negro race receiving any form of education.

I want you to be able to show them Negroes who stand in the front in the affairs of State, of religion, of education, of mechanics, of commerce and of household economy.

When they say that the Negro is not economical, I want you to show them a Negro with $50,000 in the bank.

When they ask if the Negro is honest, I want you to show them a Negro whose note is acceptable at the bank for $5,000.

Now, when your critics say that the Negro is lazy, I want you to be able to show them the finest farm in the community owned and operated by a Negro.

To-day, unless we prepare ourselves to compete with the world, we must go to the wall as a race.

What position you are to occupy must be left to your future and to your capacity.

What position in State, in letters, or in commerce and in business the offspring of that man is to occupy must be left to the future and the capacity of the race.