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.
Washington describes the positive societal impact of Tuskegee graduates, noting their role in improving race relations and demonstrating the value of Black education in the South.
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More from Booker T. Washington
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.
As soon as it was learned that he was not an American Negro, all the signs of indignation disappeared.
I have long since ceased to cherish any spirit of bitterness against the Southern white people on account of the enslavement of my race.
In this connection I have never been able to understand how the slaves throughout the South, completely ignorant as were the masses so far as books or newspapers were concerned, were able to keep themselves so accurately and completely…