The circumstances that surround a man's life are not important. How that man responds to those circumstances IS IMPORTANT. His response is the ultimate determining factor between success and failure.

There is another class of coloured people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs — partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.

I early learned that it is a hard matter to convert an individual by abusing him, and that this is more often accomplished by giving credit for all the praiseworthy actions performed than by calling attention alone to all the evil done.

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 mutual progress.

The time will come when the Negro in the South will be accorded all the political rights which his ability, character, and material possessions entitle him to.

The negro has within him immense power for self-uplifting, but for years it will be necessary to guide and stimulate him.

There is no escape - man drags man down, or man lifts man up.