I knew, too, that while the greater part of my
audience would be composed of Southern people, yet there would be
present a large number of Northern whites, as well as a great many men
and women of my own race.
I was determined to say nothing that I did not feel from the
bottom of my heart to be true and right. When the invitation came to
me, there was not one word of intimation as to what I should say or as
to what I should omit. In this I felt that the Board of Directors had
paid a tribute to me. They knew that by one sentence I could have
blasted, in a large degree, the success of the Exposition. I was also
painfully conscious of the fact that, while I must be true to my own
race in my utterances, I had it in my power to make such an ill-timed
address as would result in preventing any similar invitation being
extended to a black man again for years to come. I was equally
determined to be true to the North, as well as to the best element of
the white South, in what I had to say.
The papers, North and South, had taken up the discussion of my
coming speech, and as the time for it drew near this discussion became
more and more widespread. Not a few of the Southern white papers were
unfriendly to the idea of my speaking. From my own race I received
many suggestions as to what I ought to say.
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