Though I was but little more than a youth during the period of
Reconstruction, I had the feeling that mistakes were being made, and
that things could not remain in the condition that they were in then
very long. I felt that the Reconstruction policy, so far as it
related to my race, was in a large measure on a false foundation, was
artificial and forced. In many cases it seemed to me that the
ignorance of my race was being used as a tool with which to help white
men into office, and that there was an element in the North which
wanted to punish the Southern white men by forcing the Negro into
positions over the heads of the Southern whites. I felt that the
Negro would be the one to suffer for this in the end. Besides, the
general political agitation drew the attention of our people away from
the more fundamental matters of perfecting themselves in the
industries at their doors and in securing property.
The temptations to enter political life were so alluring that I
came very near yielding to them at one time, but I was kept from doing
so by the feeling that I would be helping in a more substantial way by
assisting in the laying of the foundation of the race through a
generous education of the hand, head, and heart. I saw coloured men
who were members of the state legislatures, and county officers, who,
in some cases, could not read or write, and whose morals were as weak
as their education.
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