Page:Boys Life of Booker T. Washington.djvu/92

 CHAPTER X

MAKING SPEECHES

and Booker Washington rank as the greatest orators the negro race has ever produced. This is a high place to occupy, for the race has produced many remarkable speakers.

Douglass was the great spokesman for the race just before the Civil War and during the troublesome days of reconstruction. Washington began his career just at the time that Douglass ended his. Douglass was a very eloquent man; perhaps more eloquent at times than Washington. On the other hand, Washington was a better educated man than Douglass and probably had a more lasting influence upon his generation.

Booker Washington made thousands of speeches in his life. He spoke to white and black; in the North and in the South; in Europe as well as in America. He spoke in churches; at school commencements; at conventions; at educational and religious meetings; at county fairs; and to every kind and condition of people. He spoke before kings and presidents; he spoke to the lowliest men of his own race in the heart of the black belt in Alabama. It is a wonderful thing to be an 76