Excerpt from Booker T. Washington, Five Years After

For almost a generation the name of Booker T. Washington occupied a large share of the attention of his fellowmen. The nation delighted to mark the wisdom of his sayings and to write his speeches in their books. He occupied as large a place for as long a time in public esteem and favor as any man of his genera tion. He bore the stamp of natural greatness. His wisdom was intuitive. According to African lore, hewas born with a caul over his face. He knew without learning, and understood with the certainty of instinct. Like Abraham Lincoln, he possessed an infallible inner sense whose guidance he followed with satisfied assur ance. He possessed the genius of common sense, and the philosophy of simple things. His was a universal mind. While he dealt with the most complex and distressing social particulars, his spirit always rose above the temporary intricacies of besetting conditions and lived in an atmosphere that was calm and serene. Booker T. Washington was, perhaps, the only man of eminence of his day who was free from race prejudice. He neither despised nor esteemed any man because of his race. Race prejudice is often extolled as a virtue, but the moral genius of mankind reprobates it as a vice. Though corporally aligned with the Negro race, morally and spiritually he was heir of all the ages. Flesh and blood did not reveal to him the truth by which he guided his path. Progress from enmity to amity is the highest mark of human culture. Love your enemies; do good to them that hate you, is the goal of human strivings which the carnally minded still deem impossible of realization.

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