From any point of view, I had rather be what I am, a member of the
Negro race, than be able to claim membership with the most favoured of
any other race. I have always been made sad when I have heard members
of any race claiming rights or privileges, or certain badges of
distinction, on the ground simply that they were members of this or
that race, regardless of their own individual worth or attainments. I
have been made to feel sad for such persons because I am conscious of
the fact that mere connection with what is known as a superior race
will not permanently carry an individual forward unless he has
individual worth, and mere connection with what is regarded as an
inferior race will not finally hold an individual back if he possesses
intrinsic, individual merit. Every persecuted individual and race
should get much consolation out of the great human law, which is
universal and eternal, that merit, no matter under what skin found,
is, in the long run, recognized and rewarded. This I have said here,
not to call attention to myself as an individual, but to the race to
which I am proud to belong.
CHAPTER III
THE STRUGGLE FOR AN EDUCATION
ONE day, while at work in the coal-mine, I happened to overhear two
miners talking about a great school for coloured people somewhere in
Virginia.
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