Booker T. Washington: “I have sometimes thought that people who have this rare privilege do not appreciate it as they should.”

I think I never saw a community of people so happy over anything as were the coloured people over the prospect of this new building.

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…

Even to this day I can recall accurately the tortures that I underwent when putting on one of these garments.