Booker T. Washington, Builder o - African American History

Booker T. Washington, Builder of a Civilization. 93
that no man of color is as highly regarded and respected by the white people of
his town and county as he. It is true that he organized and is cashier of the Delta
Penny Savings Bank, domiciled there. I visited Indianola during the spring of
1905 and was very much surprised to note the esteem in which he was held by
the bankers and business men (white) of that place. He is a good, clean man and
above the average in intelligence, and knows how to handle the typical Southern
white man. In the last statement furnished by his bank to the State Auditor, his
bank showed total resources of $46,000. He owns and lives in one of the best
resident houses in Indianola, regardless of race, and located in a part of the town
where other colored men seem to be not desired. The whites adjacent to him
seem to be his friends. He has a large plantation near the town, worth $35,000
or $40,000. He is a director in Mr. Pettiford's bank at Birmingham, Ala., and I
think is vice-president of the same. He also owns stock in the bank of Mound
Bayou."
Yours very truly,
[Signed] BOOKER T. WASHINGTON.To President Theodore Roosevelt,
Washington, D. C.
In August, 1905, Booker Washington spoke one Sunday morning before a large
audience in Saratoga Springs, N. Y. After his address Mr. John Wanamaker and
his daughter were among those who came forward to greet him. They also
invited him to dine with them at the United States Hotel that afternoon. Mr.
Wanamaker had been particularly interested in Booker Washington
Page 122
and his work for many years. Mr. Washington accepted this invitation without
the least thought of reawakening the clamor caused by the Roosevelt dinner.
The dinner itself passed off quietly, pleasantly, and without particular event. It
was not until he took up the papers at his little hotel in New York the next
morning that he found that he had again stirred up a hornet's nest similar to that
of four years before. The denunciation was if anything more violent; for, as
many of his assailants said, he should have profited by the protests of four years
before. In an editorial entitled, "Booker Washington's Saratoga Performance" a
Southern newspaper said: "Since the fateful day when Booker T. Washington
sat down to the dinner table in the White House with President Roosevelt he has
done many things to hurt the cause of which he is regarded as the foremost man.
. . . Leaving out of the question the lack of delicacy and self-respect manifested
24.03.2006