Booker T. Washington: “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…”

Despite superficial and temporary signs which might lead one to entertain a contrary opinion, there was never a time when I felt more hopeful for the race than I do at the present.

How shall we make the mansion on yon Beacon Street feel and see the need of the spirits in the lowliest cabin in Alabama cotton-fields or Louisiana sugar-bottoms?

By it a race must rise or fall, succeed or fail, and in the last analysis mere sentiment counts for little.

If my life in the past has meant anything in the lifting up of my people and the bringing about of better relations between your race and mine, I assure you from this day it will mean doubly more.