On the day following the
annual Negro Conference, there is the "Workers' Conference." This is
composed of officers and teachers who are engaged in educational work
in the larger institutions in the South. The Negro Conference
furnishes a rare opportunity for these workers to study the real
condition of the rank and file of the people.
In the summer of 1900, with the assistance of such prominent
coloured men as Mr. T. Thomas Fortune, who has always upheld my hands
in every effort, I organized the National Negro Business League, which
held its first meeting in Boston, and brought together for the first
time a large number of the coloured men who are engaged in various
lines of trade or business in different parts of the United states
[sic]. Thirty states were represented at our first meeting. Out of
this national meeting grew state and local business leagues.
In addition to looking after the executive side of the work at
Tuskegee, and raising the greater part of the money for the support of
the school, I cannot seem to escape the duty of answering at least a
part of the calls which come to me unsought to address Southern white
audiences and audiences of my own race, as well as frequent gatherings
in the North. As to how much of my time is spent in this way, the
following clipping from a Buffalo (N.
Pages:
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301