Booker T. Washington: “The title is the shadow; what you say is the substance.”

Until that question was asked it had never occurred to me that there was no period of my life that was devoted to play.

But taking place at the time it did, and for the reason that it did, no one could ever make me believe that my mother was guilty of thieving.

The picture of several dozen boys and girls in a schoolroom engaged in study made a deep impression upon me, and I had the feeling that to get into a schoolhouse and study in this way would be about the same as getting into paradise.

No one section of our country was wholly responsible for its introduction, and, besides, it was recognized and protected for years by the General Government.