“All this time the eyes of thousands looked straight at the Negro orator. A strange thing was to happen. A black man was to speak for his people with none to interrupt him. As Prof. Washington strode toward the edge of the stage, the low, descending sun shot fiery rays through the window into his face. A great shout greeted him. He turned his head to avoid the blinding light, and moved about the platform for relief. Then he turned his powerful countenance to the sun, without a blink of the eyelids, and began to talk.
“There was a remarkable figure, tall, bony, straight as a Sioux chief, high forehead, straight nose, heavy jaws, and strong, determined mouth, with big white teeth, piercing eyes, and a determined manner. The sinews stood out on his bronzed neck, and his muscular right arm swung high in the air, with a lead pencil grasped in the clenched brown fist. His big feet were planted squarely, with the heels together and the toes turned out. His voice rang out clear and true, and he paused impressively as he made each point. Within ten minutes the multitude was in an uproar of enthusiasm, handkerchiefs waved, canes flourished, hats tossed in the air. The fairest women in Georgia stood up and cheered. It was as if the orator had bewitched them.
“And when he held his dusky hand high above his head, with his fingers stretched wide apart, and said to the white people of the South on behalf of his race, ‘In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers; yet one as the hand in all things essential to social progress,’ the great wave of sound dashed itself against the walls, and the whole audience was on its feet in a delirium of applause, and I thought at that moment of the night when Henry Grady stood among the curling wreaths of tobacco smoke in Delmonico’s banquet hall and said, ‘I am a Cavalier among Roundheads.’
“I have heard the great orators of many countries, but not even Gladstone himself could have pleaded a cause with more consummate power than this angular Negro standing in a nimbus of sunshine, surrounded by the men who once fought to keep his race in bondage. The roar might swell ever so high, but the expression of his face never changed.
“A ragged, ebony giant, squatted on the floor in one of the aisles, watched the orator with burning eyes and tremulous face until the supreme outburst of applause came, then the tears ran down his face. Most of the Negroes in the audience were crying, perhaps without knowing just why.
“At the close of the speech Gov. Bullock rushed across the platform and seized the orator’s hand. Another shout greeted this demonstration, and for a few moments the two men stood facing each other, hand in hand.”
The papers all over the United States the next day after the speech, and for months afterwards, were filled with the most complimentary accounts of and comments upon this speech. I will quote also a letter written by the Hon. Clark Howell to the New York World and an editorial from the Boston Transcript, also two articles from colored papers, as fair samples of the expressions that were made throughout the country. The letter of Mr. Howell was as follows:
Atlanta, Ga., September 19.
“To the Editor of the World:
“I do not exaggerate when I say that Prof. Booker T. Washington’s address yesterday was one of the most notable speeches, both as to character and the warmth of its reception, ever delivered to a Southern audience. It was an epoch-making talk, and marks distinctly a turning point in the progress of the Negro race, and its effect in bringing about a perfect understanding between whites and blacks of the South will be the immediate. The address was a revelation. It was the first time that a Negro orator had appeared on a similar occasion before a Southern audience.