Washington's address yesterday was one of the most notable
speeches, both as to character and as to the warmth of its reception,
ever delivered to a Southern audience. The address was a revelation.
The whole speech is a platform upon which blacks and whites can stand
with full justice to each other."
The Boston _Transcript_ said editorially: "The speech of Booker
T. Washington at the Atlanta Exposition, this week, seems to have
dwarfed all the other proceedings and the Exposition itself. The
sensation that it has caused in the press has never been equalled."
I very soon began receiving all kinds of propositions from lecture
bureaus, and editors of magazines and papers, to take the lecture
platform, and to write articles. One lecture bureau offered me fifty
thousand dollars, or two hundred dollars a night and expenses, if I
would place my services at its disposal for a given period. To all
these communications I replied that my life-work was at Tuskegee; and
that whenever I spoke it must be in the interests of Tuskegee school
and my race, and that I would enter into no arrangements that seemed
to place a mere commercial value upon my services.
Some days after its delivery I sent a copy of my address to the
President of the United States, the Hon.
Pages:
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223