One might as well try to stop the progress of a mighty
railroad train by throwing his body across the track, as to try to
stop the growth of the world in the direction of giving mankind more
intelligence, more culture, more skill, more liberty, and in the
direction of extending more sympathy and more brotherly kindness.
The address which I delivered at Madison, before the National
Educational Association, gave me a rather wide introduction in the
North, and soon after that opportunities began offering themselves for
me to address audiences there.
I was anxious, however, that the way might also be opened for me
to speak directly to a representative Southern white audience. A
partial opportunity of this kind, one that seemed to me might serve as
an entering wedge, presented itself in 1893, when the international
meeting of Christian Workers was held at Atlanta, Ga. When this
invitation came to me, I had engagements in Boston that seemed to make
it impossible for me to speak in Atlanta. Still, after looking over
my list of dates and places carefully, I found that I could take a
train from Boston that would get me into Atlanta about thirty minutes
before my address was to be delivered, and that I could remain in that
city before taking another train for Boston.
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