I prepared myself as best
I could for the address, but as the eighteenth of September drew
nearer, the heavier my heart became, and the more I feared that my
effort would prove a failure and a disappointment.
The invitation had come at a time when I was very busy with my
school work, as it was the beginning of our school year. After
preparing my address, I went through it, as I usually do with those
utterances which I consider particularly important, with Mrs.
Washington, and she approved of what I intended to say. On the
sixteenth of September, the day before I was to start for Atlanta, so
many of the Tuskegee teachers expressed a desire to hear my address
that I consented to read it to them in a body. When I had done so,
and had heard their criticisms and comments, I felt somewhat relieved,
since they seemed to think well of what I had to say.
On the morning of September 17, together with Mrs. Washington and
my three children, I started for Atlanta. I felt a good deal as I
suppose a man feels when he is on his way to the gallows. In passing
through the town of Tuskegee I met a white farmer who lived some
distance out in the country. In a jesting manner this man said:
"Washington, you have spoken before the Northern white people, the
Negroes in the South, and to us country white people in the South; but
Atlanta, to-morrow, you will have before you the Northern whites, the
Southern whites, and the Negroes all together.
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