Booker T. Washington, Builder o - African American History

Booker T. Washington, Builder of a Civilization. 97
Indianapolis, where a gold watch has been contributed." The hysterical lauding
of this "heroine" was subsequently wet blanketed by the discovery that she had
cared for Mr. Washington's room for the first day or two of his stay without
protest, and by the further discovery that her second or third husband had
recently obtained a divorce from her.
It is only fair to add that many of the leading citizens of the South strongly
deprecated the sensational magnifying of this trivial incident by a certain section
of the Southern press. Mr. Washington declined to make any comment for
publication during or after this petty tumult.
In spite of the three events described, and others of a like nature that might be
mentioned, no Negro was ever so liked, respected, admired, and eulogized by
the Southern whites as Booker Washington. The day following his great speech
before the Cotton States Exposition in Atlanta in 1895 when he went out upon
the streets of the city he was so besieged by white citizens from the highest to
the lowest, who wanted to shake his hand and congratulate him, that he was
fairly driven in self-defense to remain indoors. Not many years after that it had
become a commonplace for him to be an honored guest on important public
occasions throughout the South. On occasions too numerous even to note in
passing he was welcomed, and introduced to great audiences, by Southern
Governors, Mayors, and other high officials, as well as by eminent
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private citizens. Such recognition came partly as a spontaneous tribute to the
great work he was doing and partly because of his constantly reiterated
assurance that the Negro was not seeking either political domination over the
white man or social intercourse with him. He reasoned that the more Southern
whites he could convince that his people were not seeking what is known as
social equality or political dominance, the less race friction there would be.
It has already been mentioned that at the opening of the first Negro agricultural
fair in Albany, Georgia, in the fall of 1914, the Mayor of the city and several
members of the City Council sat on the platform during the exercises and
listened to his speech with most spontaneous and obvious approval. In this part
of Georgia the Negroes outnumber the whites by at least six to one. The
afternoon of the same day the Mayor invited Booker Washington and his party
to come to the city hall and confer with himself, the other city officials, and a
group of prominent private citizens on the relations between the races in that
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