The white people in and near
Tuskegee, to an especial [sic] degree, seem to count it as a privilege
to show me all the respect within their power, and often go out of
their way to do this.
Not very long ago I was making a journey between Dallas (Texas)
and Houston. In some way it became known in advance that I was on the
train. At nearly every station at which the train stopped, numbers of
white people, including in most cases of the officials of the town,
came aboard and introduced themselves and thanked me heartily for the
work that I was trying to do for the South.
On another occasion, when I was making a trip from Augusta,
Georgia, to Atlanta, being rather tired from much travel, I road in a
Pullman sleeper. When I went into the car, I found there two ladies
from Boston whom I knew well. These good ladies were perfectly
ignorant, it seems, of the customs of the South, and in the goodness
of their hearts insisted that I take a seat with them in their
section. After some hesitation I consented. I had been there but a
few minutes when one of them, without my knowledge, ordered supper to
be served for the three of us. This embarrassed me still further.
The car was full of Southern white men, most of whom had their eyes on
our party. When I found that supper had been ordered, I tried to
contrive some excuse that would permit me to leave the section, but
the ladies insisted that I must eat with them.
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