Gradually, as the white citizens realized that the
school was not developing aggressive blacks and that the students
were providing a contribution to the community, they came to
accept it and to help it to develop by contributing funds and
supplies. They found that Tuskegee students were hard-working,
courteous, and humble instead of being self-assertive and
articulate. They realized that their fears of educating the ex-
slave had been unfounded.
In an attempt to lure more business and industry into the South,
political leaders scheduled a trade exposition for Atlanta,
Georgia, in 1895. A delegation was sent to the nation's capital
to request financial aid from a Congressional committee. Booker
T. Washington was included in the delegation as a token that
there was backing from all portions of the community for the
project. Speaking to the committee, Washington said that:
"the Negro should not be deprived by unfair means of the
franchise, political agitation alone would not save him, and that
to back the ballot he must have property, industry, skill,
economy, intelligence, and character, and that no race without
these elements could permanently succeed.
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