I wondered if I could
accomplish anything, and if it were worth while for me to try.
Of one thing I felt more strongly convinced than ever, after
spending this month in seeing the actual life of the coloured
people, and that was that, in order to lift them up, something
must be done more than merely to imitate New England education as
it then existed. I saw more clearly than ever the wisdom of the
system which General Armstrong had inaugurated at Hampton. To
take the children of such people as I had been among for a month,
and each day give them a few hours of mere book education, I felt
would be almost a waste of time.
After consultation with the citizens of Tuskegee, I set July 4,
1881, as the day for the opening of the school in the little
shanty and church which had been secured for its accommodation.
The white people, as well as the coloured, were greatly
interested in the starting of the new school, and the opening day
was looked forward to with much earnest discussion. There were
not a few white people in the vicinity of Tuskegee who looked
with some disfavour upon the project. They questioned its value
to the coloured people, and had a fear that it might result in
bringing about trouble between the races. Some had the feeling
that in proportion as the Negro received education, in the same
proportion would his value decrease as an economic factor in the
state.
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