Booker T. Washington: “Have you justified your parents in the sacrifice of time and money which they have made in order to allow you to come…”

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.

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.

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

In the economy of God there is but one standard by which an individual can succeed—there is but one for a race.