During the time I was a student at Washington the city was crowded
with coloured people, many of whom had recently come from the South.
A large proportion of these people had been drawn to Washington
because they felt that they could lead a life of ease there. Others
had secured minor government positions, and still another large class
was there in the hope of securing Federal positions. A number of
coloured men -- some of them very strong and brilliant -- were in the
House of Representatives at that time, and one, the Hon. B.K. Bruce,
was in the Senate. All this tended to make Washington an attractive
place for members of the coloured race. Then, too, they knew that at
all times they could have the protection of the law in the District of
Columbia. The public schools in Washington for coloured people were
better then than they were elsewhere. I took great interest in
studying the life of our people there closely at that time. I found
that while among them there was a large element of substantial, worthy
citizens, there was also a superficiality about the life of a large
class that greatly alarmed me. I saw young coloured men who were not
earning more than four dollars a week spend two dollars or more for a
buggy on Sunday to ride up and down Pennsylvania Avenue in, [sic] in
order that they might try to convince the world that they were worth
thousands.
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