In our case I felt a double responsibility, and this made the
anxiety all the more intense. If the institution had been
officered by white persons, and had failed, it would have injured
the cause of Negro education; but I knew that the failure of our
institution, officered by Negroes, would not only mean the loss
of a school, but would cause people, in a large degree, to lose
faith in the ability of the entire race. The receipt of this
draft for ten thousand dollars, under all these circumstances,
partially lifted a burden that had been pressing down upon me for
days.
From the beginning of our work to the present I have always had
the feeling, and lose no opportunity to impress our teachers with
the same idea, that the school will always be supported in
proportion as the inside of the institution is kept clean and
pure and wholesome.
The first time I ever saw the late Collis P. Huntington, the
great railroad man, he gave me two dollars for our school. The
last time I saw him, which was a few months before he died, he
gave me fifty thousand dollars toward our endowment fund. Between
these two gifts there were others of generous proportions which
came every year from both Mr. and Mrs. Huntington.
Some people may say that it was Tuskegee's good luck that brought
to us this gift of fifty thousand dollars.
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