Booker T. Washington: “I pity from the bottom of my heart any nation or body of people that is so unfortunate as to get entangled in the net of…”

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.

From any point of view, I had rather be what I am, a member of the Negro race, than be able to claim membership with the most favoured of any other race.

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

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.