Booker T. Washington: “This, I believe, should be so because the race is an agricultural one, and because my hope is that it will remain such.”

As a rule, not only did the members of my race entertain no feelings of bitterness against the whites before and during the war, but there are many instances of Negroes tenderly caring for their former masters and mistresses who for some…

When freedom came, the slaves were almost as well fitted to begin life anew as the master, except in the matter of book-learning and ownership of property.

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.

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.