“The speech of Prof. Booker T. Washington at the opening of the Atlanta Exposition was a magnificent effort and places him in the forefront of the representatives of our race in this country. Calm, dispassionate, logical, winning, it captivated the vast assemblage who heard it and caused a re-echoing sound of approval on the part of those who caught the rounded sentences and rhetorical periods as they were flashed over the wires.
“Reserved in his manner, earnest in the delivery, realizing fully the heavy responsibility resting upon him, he performed that duty with an ease that was magnetic and grace that was divine.”
As soon as I had finished my address, the first thing that I remember is that Gov. Bullock rushed across the stage and took me by the hand. Others sitting on the platform did the same thing. Following my address came a brilliant and eloquent speech from Judge Emory Speer. At the close of his address the President of the United States, Hon. Grover Cleveland, touched a button in Washington, which started the machinery and the Exposition was declared open. By the time the exercises in the Auditorium were finished it was quite late in the afternoon and, in fact, dark. A large number of people, both Northern and Southern, together with numbers of colored people, congratulated me most heartily on my address; in fact, I found it quite difficult to get out of the building or away from the Exposition grounds. As soon as possible I left the Exposition and went to my boarding place.
After the opening exercises a reception was tendered me by some of the colored citizens of Atlanta. I did not in any large measure appreciate the excitement and deep impression that my address seemed to create until the next morning about ten o’clock when I went to the city on some errand. As soon as I entered the business portion of Atlanta I was surprised to find myself pointed out, and I was very soon surrounded by a crowd of people who were bent on shaking my hand and congratulating me; in fact, this was kept up on every street where I went, until I found it impossible to move with any degree of comfort about the streets, and so I returned to my boarding place. In a few hours I began receiving telegrams and letters from all parts of the country.
One thing I always thought was rather strange in connection with this address and that is that no officer connected with the Exposition ever asked me what ground I was going to cover in my speech, or ever suggested that I should be careful not to say anything which would harm the relations between the races and thus cripple the success of the Exposition. It would, of course, have been very easy for me to have uttered a single sentence which would have thrown a wet blanket over the prospects of the Exposition and especially the harmonious relations of the races.
The next morning I took the train for Tuskegee. At the depot in Atlanta and at every station between Atlanta and Tuskegee I found a crowd of people anxious to shake hands with me and who were pointed out to me making remarks about my address.
Some days after I returned to Tuskegee, I sent the President of the United States, Hon. Grover Cleveland, a copy of the address I delivered at Atlanta, and was very much surprised as well as gratified to receive from him a letter which I here insert:
Gray Gables,
Buzzard’s Bay, Mass., Oct. 6, 1895.
Booker T. Washington, Esq.
My Dear Sir:—I thank you for sending me a copy of your address delivered at the Atlanta Exposition.