Booker T. Washington, Builder o - African American History

Booker T. Washington, Builder of a Civilization. 158
Agent, a Negro Postmaster, a Negro Mayor, a Board of Negro Aldermen and
City Councilmen, and every other official of the city administration is a fullfledged
Negro. In that town I am the banker, and I pass for a Negro." (Laughter
and applause followed this sally, as the speaker is the blackest of full-blooded
Africans.)
In concluding his address of welcome on this occasion Mr. Wanamaker said: "I
do hope that meetings like this will come often and be held in every large city in
the North. In exhibiting to the world the successful business men and women of
your race, your league is doing exactly what every good merchant legitimately
does, that is--you are showing your goods. (Laughter.) And you are delivering
the goods. (Prolonged applause.) Your league is making an 'Annual Report' as it
were; it is making a 'Yearly Inventory' of what your race has on hand, and
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though this large hall has been the scene of many delightful occasions (mainly
connected with this business) your coming here to-day is the first meeting of its
kind. (Applause.) I believe that this meeting ought to be put down as historical,
and should serve as a set-off-in striking contrast to the stoning of William Lloyd
Garrison, in the streets of Philadelphia, scarcely more than fifty years ago.
(Prolonged applause.) This meeting will simply help to balance your account.
(Applause.) The world is moving on, and it is a glorious thing to-day to find
that, instead of stepping backward--contrary to the predictions of some--you are
making such splendid strides forward under the fine leadership of Dr. Booker T.
Washington--(applause)--as evidenced in this Business League Convention.
"In closing I want not only to pay just tribute to what you have achieved in
music, in education, and religious life, but I think it fitting, on this occasion, and
I have planned to show you a fine painting from the brush of the greatest artist
of your race--the son of Bishop Tanner. I have seen his handiwork in some of
the art galleries of the first rank in Europe. For the most part his paintings are
religious in conception, and the peculiar beauty of them is that they deal with
the heart, even as they are fine expressions of art. (Applause.) Before you leave
I have planned to show you several other pictures of real merit that members of
your race have produced. (Applause.)
"And oh--when I consider all these things, and when I gazed upon this vast and
beautiful audience a few
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