In meeting men, in many places, I have found that the happiest
people are those who do the most for others; the most miserable
are those who do the least. I have also found that few things, if
any, are capable of making one so blind and narrow as race
prejudice. I often say to our students, in the course of my talks
to them on Sunday evenings in the chapel, that the longer I live
and the more experience I have of the world, the more I am
convinced that, after all, the one thing that is most worth
living for--and dying for, if need be--is the opportunity of
making some one else more happy and more useful.
The coloured people and the coloured newspapers at first seemed
to be greatly pleased with the character of my Atlanta address,
as well as with its reception. But after the first burst of
enthusiasm began to die away, and the coloured people began
reading the speech in cold type, some of them seemed to feel that
they had been hypnotized. They seemed to feel that I had been too
liberal in my remarks toward the Southern whites, and that I had
not spoken out strongly enough for what they termed the "rights"
of my race. For a while there was a reaction, so far as a certain
element of my own race was concerned, but later these reactionary
ones seemed to have been won over to my way of believing and
acting.
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