eland was waiting at Grey Gables to send the
electric spark that started the machinery of the Atlanta Exposition, a
negro Moses stood before a great audience of white people and delivered
an oration that marks a new epoch in the history of the South.... When
Professor Booker T. Washington ... stood on the platform of the
auditorium, with the sun shining over the heads of his auditors into his
eyes, and his whole face lit up with the fire of prophecy, Clark Howell,
the successor of Henry Grady, said to me, 'That man's speech is the
beginning of a moral revolution in America. It is the first time that a
negro has made a speech in the South on any important occasion before an
audience composed of white men and women.' It electrified the audience,
and the response was as if it had come from the throat of a
whirlwind.... All this time the eyes of the thousands present looked
straight at the negro orator. A strange thing was to happen. A black man
was to speak for his people, and with none to interrupt him. As
Professor Washington strode to the edge of the stage, the low,
descending sun shot fiery rays through the windows 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 wonderful
countenance without a blink of the eyelids and began to speak. 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 commanding 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 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 were waved, canes were flourished, hats were
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 the 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 separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand
in all things essential to mutual progress,' the great wave of applause
dashed itself against the walls,