Booker T. Washington: “Those who have to wait to have somebody else put ideas into their minds are not worth much of anything.”

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.

She was simply a victim of the system of slavery.

No one section of our country was wholly responsible for its introduction, and, besides, it was recognized and protected for years by the General Government.