Perhaps I might add right here, what I hope to demonstrate later,
that, so far as I know, the Tuskegee school at the present time
has no warmer and more enthusiastic friends anywhere than it has
among the white citizens of Tuskegee and throughout the state of
Alabama and the entire South. From the first, I have advised our
people in the South to make friends in every straightforward,
manly way with their next-door neighbour, whether he be a black
man or a white man. I have also advised them, where no principle
is at stake, to consult the interests of their local communities,
and to advise with their friends in regard to their voting.
For several months the work of securing the money with which to
pay for the farm went on without ceasing. At the end of three
months enough was secured to repay the loan of two hundred and
fifty dollars to General Marshall, and within two months more we
had secured the entire five hundred dollars and had received a
deed of the one hundred acres of land. This gave us a great deal
of satisfaction. It was not only a source of satisfaction to
secure a permanent location for the school, but it was equally
satisfactory to know that the greater part of the money with
which it was paid for had been gotten from the white and coloured
people in the town of Tuskegee.
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