The room was very large, and well suited to public speaking. When
I entered the room, there were vigorous cheers from the coloured
portion of the audience, and faint cheers from some of the white
people. I had been told, while I had been in Atlanta, that while
many white people were going to be present to hear me speak,
simply out of curiosity, and that others who would be present
would be in full sympathy with me, there was a still larger
element of the audience which would consist of those who were
going to be present for the purpose of hearing me make a fool of
myself, or, at least, of hearing me say some foolish thing so
that they could say to the officials who had invited me to speak,
"I told you so!"
One of the trustees of the Tuskegee Institute, as well as my
personal friend, Mr. William H. Baldwin, Jr. was at the time
General Manager of the Southern Railroad, and happened to be in
Atlanta on that day. He was so nervous about the kind of
reception that I would have, and the effect that my speech would
produce, that he could not persuade himself to go into the
building, but walked back and forth in the grounds outside until
the opening exercises were over.
Chapter XIV. The Atlanta Exposition Address
The Atlanta Exposition, at which I had been asked to make an
address as a representative of the Negro race, as stated in the
last chapter, was opened with a short address from Governor
Bullock.
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