, that he is kin to the
monkey--(laughter)--and that we do not appreciate those things that
make for higher civilization such as flowers, hothouses, neatly kept
houses and lawns, automobiles, and such things, so I went and got
them. (Applause.) When you step inside of Mrs. Blodgett's home there
you will find art and music and literature, and if you can find
anything in there that does not tend toward the higher civilization,
you have my promise and consent to throw it outdoors. (Laughter and
applause.)...

"I remember when I was a drayman on the streets of Jacksonville; I was
a great big man, even heavier than I am now: I wore a pair of
magnificent feet appropriate to my size, and when I drove along
everybody whistled and called me 'Old Big One.' Since that time I have
graduated from a drayman to what the program calls me: a 'Builder and
Contractor,' and when they see me now riding through the streets of
Jacksonville in my $5,500 Packard automobile, if one of those Negroes
should call me 'Old Big One,' I would put him in jail. (Laughter and
applause.) I am interested in business with white men, and I tell you
when a Negro gets to the point where he makes cash deposits in a white
man's bank--say $5,000 this week, $2,000 next week, and so on, they
will begin to discover you, honor and respect you. If you deposit
$2,000 this week, the bank president will know about it, and when it
gets to the place that you have got in the bank $25,000, why this man
even (pointing to an ebony black man in the audience) will have become
a bright mulatto!"

Perhaps the most unique and impressive session of the National Negro
Business League was that held at the invitation of John Wanamaker in
his great department store in Philadelphia in 1913. One of the most
interesting talks at this meeting was that of Charles Banks of Mound
Bayou, Miss. Mr. Banks has been referred to in an earlier chapter. He
has often been called the J. Pierpont Morgan of his race. He said in
part: "I live in the little town of Mound Bayou, Miss., that was
founded by Isaiah T. Montgomery, an ex-slave of Jefferson Davis, the
President of the Southern Confederacy. Mr. Montgomery, the ex-slave in
question, is present at this meeting. We live in what is called the
'Black Belt of Mississippi' and our plantations embrace some of the
richest and most fertile land that can be found in the entire 'Delta.'
In some parts of the 'Delta' the Negro population outnumbers the white
p