BY EMMETT J. SCOTT                     13

          HE HAD FAITH IN HIS RACE
  Mr. Washington had faith in his race. He looked
on every Negro home, however humble, in which
dwelt industry, honesty and the domestic virtues,
as a center of hope and safety for the race. It was
his good fortune to live long enough to see thou-
sands of homes founded by the men and women for
whose schooling and manhood and womanhood he
labored. And this great responsibility he has
passed on to us, so that it is now our task to work
as earnestly as did he for the establishment of
more and better Negro homes, for more and better
Negro schools, for more and better Negro business
enterprises, for a higher level of civilization among
our people.
  I must not fail to speak of that large and impor-
tant service rendered by him to both races in seek-
ing to blot out sectional animosities, of interpreting
one race to the other. He was the foremost mis-
sionary of our race. He sought to overcome racial
misunderstandings, racial injustices, racial prej-
udices. Nothing could embitter him. It was his
proud boast that no man could drag him down so
low as to make him hate that man. He labored
with divine patience, for racial co-operation and
racial good will. He came to be the one beacon
light of hope to men of both sections, of both races,
who had been groping in a world of uncertainty
and doubt. The most impressive thing, in my opin-




			

OHS Archives/Library Pamphlet Collection

Memorial Address [on Booker T. Washington] Delivered by Emmett J. Scott, Secretary, at 17th Annual Session

J.