Before the building was completed we passed through some very
trying seasons. More than once our hearts were made to bleed, as it
were, because bills were falling due that we did not have the money to
meet. Perhaps no one who has not gone through the experience, month
after month, of trying to erect buildings and provide equipment for a
school when no one knew where the money was to come from, can properly
appreciate the difficulties under which we laboured. During the first
years at Tuskegee I recall that night after night I would roll and
toss on my bed, without sleep, because of the anxiety and uncertainty
which we were in regarding money. I knew that, in a large degree, we
were trying an experiment -- that of testing whether or not it was
possible for Negroes to build up and control the affairs of a large
education institution. I knew that if we failed it would injure the
whole race. I knew that the presumption was against us. I knew that
in the case of white people beginning such an enterprise it would be
taken for granted that they were going to succeed, but in our case I
felt that people would be surprised if we succeeded. All this made a
burden which pressed down on us, sometimes, it seemed, at the rate of
a thousand pounds to the square inch.
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