Booker T. Washington: “If you cannot learn to think, why, you will be of no use to yourself or anybody else.”

The Negro boy has obstacles, discouragements, and temptations to battle with that are little known to those not situated as he is.

I knew that if we failed it would injure the whole race.

As a rule, not only did the members of my race entertain no feelings of bitterness against the whites before and during the war, but there are many instances of Negroes tenderly caring for their former masters and mistresses who for some…

Ever since I have been old enough to think for myself, I have entertained the idea that, notwithstanding the cruel wrongs inflicted upon us, the black man got nearly as much out of slavery as the white man did.