The Booker T. Washington Papers, Vol.2, page 133, June 1881, U. of Illinois Press

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JUNE · 18 ~ Both the internal evidence and the docketing, ''R&A June 19,'' indicate that the card was written on June c5. 2 On May o3, ~ 88 I, the state commissioners for the Tuskegee Normal School placed in the Tuskegee Macon Mail a notice: ''If a competent teacher, and the requisite number of pupils can be had by the fist Monday in July next, we propose to open the Tuskegee Normal School.'' The notice appeared again on May a5 and June I, 188~. On June 19, 188~, the Macon Mail commented editorially: ''We will celebrate the 4th of July by opening the Colored Normal School for the education of teachers, under the Superintendence of B. T. Washington, from Virginia. What will Bob Toombs and Bill Arp say to that?'' Robert Augustus Toombs, a former U.S. senator and governor of Georgia, was an ''unreconstructed'' southerner, as was Major Charles Henry Smith, who wrote a rustic humor column in the Atlanta Constitution under the pseudonym Bill Arp. During the week before the opening of the school, BTW interviewed applicants for admission, enrolled about thirty persons, and turned others away. Most of the applicants were from Macon County, some of them accompanied by their parents. He accepted none under sixteen, but some were nearly forty. The older pupils were often already teachers in the public schools. The teachers often were accompanied by their former pupils, and in several cases the pupil entered a higher class than his former teacher. To Francis Chickering Briggs~ Tuskegee, Ala., June 18 ~ 88 My dear friend Mr. Briggs: I will open school the fist Monday in July. Judging from present prospects I shall have about thirty students the first day and a steady increase. This a pleasant town a high and hilly location, good water, and a pleasant breeze most always. I think that it is about as pleasant here as at Hampton in the summer. My first great need is apparatus, such as maps writing-charts, globes, &c &c. I thought by writing to you I might get a great many of these kind of thing which you would not miss there, I especially need a Spencerian writing chart. I think that there is an old one there. I think Miss Lothrop2 has a great many library books which she does not use or care for these would make an excellent beginning for my library. You know what I need and any thing that you can send me I will be thankful for. You can send by freight. The businessmen here say that it is perfectly safe. We will be able to pay the freight on anything sent. I write to you about these things because I know that you will attend to it. I hope to give you all an extended account of my work here as soon as I get time. Yours truly |33 B. T. Washington