The feeling of the whites in the neighborhood is now most friendly to the school, and they frequently employ the students in their different departments of labor. As an illustration of this friendly feeling, a southern lady living near the school has recently given to it an estate valued at $15,000.
At the head of this school, and its animating, controlling spirit, from the very beginning, is Prof. Booker T. Washington, a graduate of Hampton, a quiet, unassuming man, with a wise head and a big heart, and the weight of this race problem resting upon him as upon scarcely any other that I have met. You do not hear very much about him through the columns of the newspapers, or of his addressing great meetings in the various parts of the country; but judged by his work, he is a most remarkable man--a man to be proud of, and to be honored, a modest man, caring nothing about notoriety, content to be unknown, so long as the work goes on, and his people go up; a born leader, with all the elements of leadership, especially for the work in which he is engaged, with a keen intellect, a strong will, courage, perseverance and enthusiasm.
When this great race problem shall be solved; when slavery and all its dreadful consequences shall be a thing of the past, and when we shall stand on the same plane with others in point of wealth, intelligence and culture, which I firmly believe we will, and even the history of the influences by which it has been brought about shall be written, I believe that no man will be assigned a more honorable place than this man, Booker T. Washington.
I have written quite fully of the institution over which Professor Washington presides, to the exclusion of others, not because there were no others worthy of mention, but because I had fuller information of that institution than of any other. But I am reliably informed that there are several such schools established in the South, and that they are doing a good work, but being in their infancy, as it were, are not on a par with the Tuskegee Institute.
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In a former chapter I have attempted to show the manner in which we have suffered in the past from the effects of an unwarranted prejudice against us, due not so much to our color as to our condition, and from the mistakes we have made in mapping out the course best suited for us to follow. We are a peculiar people, hitherto unknown to the laws of the United States. We have been made citizens by these laws, but are still regarded as a distinct people. In this chapter I shall try to give my views as to the best course for us, as a class, to pursue in order to succeed in the race of life as newly made citizens, and this advice is intended wholly for the Colored people.