Slater Fund. Our work
seemed to please the trustees of this fund, as they soon began
increasing their annual grant. This has been added to from time to
time until at present we receive eleven thousand dollars annually from
the Fund. The other help to which I have referred came in the shape
of an allowance from the Peabody Fund. This was at first five hundred
dollars, but it has since been increased to fifteen hundred dollars.
The effort to secure help from the Slater and Peabody Funds
brought me into contact with two rare men -- men who have had much to
do in shaping the policy for the education of the Negro. I refer to
the Hon. J.L.M. Curry, of Washington, who is the general agent for
these two funds, and Mr. Morris K. Jessup, of New York. Dr. Curry is
a native of the South, an ex-Confederate soldier, yet I do not believe
there is any man in the country who is more deeply interest in the
highest welfare of the Negro than Dr. Curry, or one who is more free
from race prejudice. He enjoys the unique distinction of possessing
to an equal degree of confidence of the black man and the Southern
white man. I shall never forget the first time I met him. It was in
Richmond, Va., where he was then living. I had heard much about him.
When I first went into his presence, trembling because of my youth and
inexperience, he took me by the hand so cordially, and spoke such
encouraging words, and gave me such helpful advice regarding the
proper course to pursue, that I came to know him then, as I have known
him ever since, as a high example of one who is constantly and
unselfishly at work for the betterment of humanity.
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