Booker T. Washington, Builder o - African American History

Booker T. Washington, Builder of a Civilization. 100
audiences than he did. He is the only speaker who ever filled the Jackson, Miss.,
Coliseum."
Only six months before his death Booker Washington made a similar tour
through Louisiana. Louisiana has always been reputed to be in the same
category as Mississippi in opposing Negro progress. To some of his audiences
Mr. Washington said that he and his party of twenty-five
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colored men had felt before they started very much like the little girl who was
about to go on a trip to Louisiana with her parents. The night before they started
she said her prayer as usual:
"Now I lay me down to sleep
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take."
With a deep sigh she then added, "Good-bye, Lord, for two weeks. We are
going down to Louisiana."
In introducing Mr. Washington to a great audience in New Orleans, made up of
both races, Mayor Berhman said, turning to Booker Washington:
"The work you are doing for the uplift of your people means untold good to the
great State of Louisiana and to the whole country. Nowhere has your race
greater opportunities than in Louisiana. If the people of the Negro race will
follow your teachings, they will help materially to bring about a condition that
will mean much for Louisiana, the South, and the nation."
At Shreveport former Governor N. C. Blanchard, in introducing Dr. Washington
to an audience of over 10,000 white and colored citizens, said: "I am glad to see
this goodly attendance of white people, representative white people at that, for
his Honor, the Mayor, is here, and with him are members and officials of the
city government and
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other prominent citizens of our community. They are here to give
encouragement to Mr. Washington, to hold up his hands, for they know that he
24.03.2006