Booker T. Washington: “We do ourselves no good when we yield to that temptation.”

The hurtful influences of the institution were not by any means confined to the Negro.

I do not know how many have noticed it, but I think that it will be found to be true that there are few instances, either in slavery or freedom, in which a member of my race has been known to betray a specific trust.

Having once got its tentacles fastened on to the economic and social life of the Republic, it was no easy matter for the country to relieve itself of the institution.

I knew that if we failed it would injure the whole race.