The Booker T. Washington Papers, Vol.5, page 630, Sept. 1900, U. of Illinois Press

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The BOOKER T. WASHINGTON Papers was not exactly made but, by many readers, was read between the lines. Not by me; for I am an unshaken believer that the every day life of the colored toiling millions must lead to strength and elevation of character; and to the ultimate recognition of a manhood and a womanhood, such as the world never saw; coming to the top from the slave ship, the slave pen, the overseer's lash, the unrequited toil of a downtrodden people. It will be a social and a political miracle; but in the providence of God, it must yet come. Must they have seperate public schools? I think not. Must they sit on juries? I say yes. Yes side by side with white men. Must they have the right to hold offices? I say yes. Must they have the right to vote? I say yes. A thousand times yes. Strike down the right of suffrage and you put a lever under free government that will lift it up and crack the structure till it tumbles down and must be reconstructed. The sacred basis of our nation is the free and fair right to vote. It cannot rest upon any other. The man at the plow; in the factory; with the sledge hammer; on the locomotive; holding the musket; ramming the cannon in the field, or on the slippery, bloody deck; white or black; is the bed rock of the United States of America. May God almighty hold you in the hollow of his hand till your great work is triumphantly done. Yours very truly ALS Con. ~68 BTW Papers DLC. John Coburn ~ John Coburn was a black lawyer in Indianapolis. ELBOW, attempting to keep his appearance before the council brief, arrived in Indianapolis from New York just thirty minutes before he was scheduled to speak. The Indianapolis Sentinel reported that he was received with a ''storm of applause'' when he entered the room. T. Thomas Fortune introduced BTW to the delegates. (Indianapolis Sentinel, Sept. I, Too, 3.) BTW's address was a condensed version of his speech before the Metropolitan A.M.E. Church in Washington, D.C. (See above, May in, Too.) Apparently he had planned to discuss southern assaults on the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments, a topic that had kept the convention delegates agitated all week. But BTW failed to utter a single word on the subject, much to the chagrin of many of the delegates. One newspaper reported that several delegates believed that BTW left out any discussion of politics to avoid further controversy at the convention. Later that evening at the Occidental Hotel, while being questioned on southern politics by a reporter, BTW said: ''I would be delighted to give an interview on that subject if I felt it advisable to talk, but I must decline. 630