he had been an obscure negro school master, chiefly remarkable for his persistence, for the shrewd and practical common sense of his judgment on the race problem and for a certain native simplicity and vigor in his manner of expressing them.
A year or two before this time he had had an opportunity to speak at the National Education Association in Wisconsin, where he made a profound impression on those who heard him. In 1893, also, he had an opportunity to make a few minutes' speech at the international meeting of the Christian Workers, at Atlanta. Except for these two meetings he was unknown to the larger American public not directly interested in negro education. He made a good impression, however, in the few minutes' address in the interest of the Cotton States Exposition which he gave before a congressional committee, so that when it was finally decided to permit a member of the negro race to make one of the addresses at the opening of this exposition in Atlanta, Booker Washington was invited to perform that function.
Before that time, it was said—although this is not exactly true—that no negro had ever spoken from the same platform as a white man in the South. At any rate, the announcement that a black man was to have a place on the program aroused much discussion, and some misgivings, the result of which was that the public was in a state of anxious expectation to hear what the black orator was going to say. With the exception of Lincoln's Gettysburg address, perhaps, no speech ever uttered by an American has had deeper and more lasting influence upon the history of this country. Looking back upon the event to-day it is hard to realize the impression which this speech made upon the whole country.
The best contemporary account of the scene was that telegraphed to the New York World, by James Creelman, After describing the great audience, some of them skeptical, some of them a little anxious, all of them curious in regard to the outcome, he said:
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, with none to inter-
