No man whose vision
is bounded by colour can come into contact with what is highest and
best in the world. In meeting men, in many places, I have found that
the happiest people are those who do the most for others; the most
miserable are those who do the least. I have also found that few
things, if any, are capable of making one so blind and narrow as race
prejudice. I often say to our students, in the course of my talks to
them on Sunday evenings in the chapel, that the longer I live and the
more experience I have of the world, the more I am convinced that,
after all, the one thing that is most worth living for -- and dying
for, if need be -- is the opportunity of making some one else more
happy and more useful.
The coloured people and the coloured newspapers at first seemed to
be greatly pleased with the character of my Atlanta address, as well
as with its reception. But after the first burst of enthusiasm began
to die away, and the coloured people began reading the speech in cold
type, some of them seemed to feel that they had been hypnotized. They
seemed to feel that I had been too liberal in my remarks toward the
Southern whites, and that I had not spoken out strongly enough for
what they termed the "rights" of my race. For a while there was a
reaction, so far as a certain element of my own race was concerned,
but later these reactionary ones seemed to have been won over to my
way of believing and acting.
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