Booker T. Washington: “If education means anything at all, it means putting brains into the common affairs of life and making something of…”

When freedom came, the slaves were almost as well fitted to begin life anew as the master, except in the matter of book-learning and ownership of property.

I can scarcely imagine any torture, except, perhaps, the pulling of a tooth, that is equal to that caused by putting on a new flax shirt for the first time.

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 slavery.

As soon as it was learned that he was not an American Negro, all the signs of indignation disappeared.