Booker T. Washington: “On the other hand, people are usually surprised if the Negro boy does not fail.”

Wherever our graduates go, the changes which soon begin to appear in the buying of land, improving homes, saving money, in education, and in high moral characters are remarkable.

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

The great human law that in the end recognizes and rewards merit is everlasting and universal.

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.