Booker T. Washington: “Throughout the South we can give ourselves in a free, open way to getting hold of property and building homes, in a way…”

In order to defend and protect the women and children who were left on the plantations when the white males went to war, the slaves would have laid down their lives.

Even the most ignorant members of my race on the remote plantations felt in their hearts, with a certainty that admitted of no doubt, that the freedom of the slaves would be the one great result of the war, if the Northern armies conquered.

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 think that the presentation of facts, on a high, dignified plane, is all the begging that most rich people care for.