I
wondered if I could accomplish anything, and if it were worth while
for me to try.
Of one thing I felt more strongly convinced than ever, after
spending this month in seeing the actual life of the coloured people,
and that was that, in order to lift them up, something must be done
more than merely to imitate New England education as it then existed.
I saw more clearly than ever the wisdom of the system which General
Armstrong had inaugurated at Hampton. To take the children of such
people as I had been among for a month, and each day give them a few
hours of mere book education, I felt would be almost a waste of time.
After consultation with the citizens of Tuskegee, I set July 4,
1881, as the day for the opening of the school in the little shanty
and church which had been secured for its accommodation. The white
people, as well as the coloured, were greatly interested in the
starting of the new school, and the opening day was looked forward to
with much earnest discussion. There were not a few white people in
the vicinity of Tuskegee who looked with some disfavour upon the
project. They questioned its value to the coloured people, and had a
fear that it might result in bringing about trouble between the races.
Some had the feeling that in proportion as the Negro received
education, in the same proportion would his value decrease as an
economic factor in the state.
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