ick and living with my aunt Rina, some days he would see me lying
on the roadside and would toss me a coin.

On my return from Tuskegee I found Mr. Simpson deeply interested in the
welfare of my people; in fact, it seemed as if he was looking for some
one to start an industrial school upon his place. We had many talks
together. When he found out that I had returned to cast my lot with my
people, he seemed highly pleased and said that he would give a few acres
for the school if I thought I could use it to advantage. I decided that
this was my opportunity and told him that I could. He first gave seven
acres, and then thirty-three, and finally sixty more, making in all one
hundred acres that he gave the school. In later years we bought one-half
of his plantation, making in all nearly two thousand acres. While all of
the white people in Snow Hill have been friendly towards the work, I
have found Mr. Simpson and his entire family to be our particular
friends and I have yet to go to them for a favor and be refused.

One of the cardinal points in Dr. Washington's Sunday evening talks to
the students and teachers at Tuskegee was that they should buy homes of
their own. I felt that the best way to teach the people to get a home
was for me to own one myself. I thought that it would be useless for me
to talk to them about buying homes as long as I did not have one for
myself, so I secured a home.

After the school was thoroughly planted and I had bought and paid for my
home, we began to encourage the people to buy homes. This was done
through several agencies, the Negro Farmers Conference, the Workers
Conference and the Black-Belt Improvement Society. The aim of this
Society is clearly set forth in its constitution, a part of which is as
follows:

(1) This society shall be known as the Black Belt Improvement Society.
Its object shall be the general uplift of the people of the Black Belt
of Alabama; to make them better morally, mentally, spiritually, and
financially.

(2) It shall further be the object of the Black Belt Improvement Society
as far as possible, to eliminate the credit system from our social
fabric; to stimulate in all members the desire to raise, as far as
possible, all their food supplies at home, and pay cash for whatever may
be purchased at the stores.

(3) To bring about a system of co-operation in the purchase of what
supplies cannot be raised at home wherever it can be done to advantage.

(4) To discuss