Booker T. Washington, Builder o - African American History

Booker T. Washington, Builder of a Civilization. 99
24.03.2006
him at congresses, conventions, and meetings of various descriptions.
Next to South Carolina and Georgia, perhaps no State in the Union has shown
as much hostility to the progress of the Negro as Mississippi. In 1908, in
response to the urgent appeals of Charles Banks, the Negro banker and
dominating force of the Negro town of Mound Bayou, Mr. Washington agreed
to make a tour through Mississippi such as he had made three years before
through Arkansas and what were then Oklahoma and Indian Territories. At
Jackson, Miss., the management of the State Fair Association offered the local
committee of Negroes the great Liberal Arts Building for Mr. Washington's
address. In the audience were not less than five thousand persons, among them
several hundred white citizens. Among the whites who sat on the platform were
Governor Noel, Lieutenant-Governor Manship, Bishop Charles B. Galloway of
the Methodist Episcopal Church South, Mr. Milsaps, the richest citizen of the
State; the postmaster of Jackson, the United States Marshal, Hon. Edgar S.
Wilson, and a considerable number of other prominent white citizens.
At Natchez, a few nights later, the audience literally filled every available space
in the Grand Opera House and overflowed into the adjoining streets. This
audience was
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in many respects the most remarkable that the city had ever seen. The entire
orchestra was given over to the white citizens of Natchez and Adams County,
and still there was not room to accommodate them, for they were packed in the
rear and stood three and four deep in the aisles. The colored people were
crowded into the balcony and the galleries. When Booker Washington arose to
speak, he was greeted by a perfect whirlwind of applause and cheering. He was
visibly affected by the reception given him by whites as well as blacks.
When he finished speaking a large delegation headed by the Mayor of the city
made their way to the platform, welcomed him to the city, thanked him for his
address, and stated that his influence for good in the city and county could not
be estimated.
Mr. J. T. Harahan, of the Illinois Central Railroad, provided the Pullman tourist
car in which Mr. Washington and his party toured the State. It was estimated
that from sixty to eighty thousand people saw and heard him during his seven
days' trip. On the conclusion of the tour one paper said, "No more popular man
ever came into the State, white or black, and no man ever spoke to larger