The Booker T. Washington Papers, Vol.6, page 245, Oct. 1901, U. of Illinois Press

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OCTOBER · ~ 90 ~ progress that is being made. The owner of the home to which I refer is Mr. Wesley Crayton,~ who is a successful business man in Vicksburg. Another thing that has rather pleased and somewhat surprised me is the fact that the railroads in Mississippi are beginning to provide better accommodations for their colored passengers. On the main lines of the large systems, while there is a separation of the races, I have noted that the colored people are given an entire coach, and in addition a smoking-car, and both compartments are equal. This improvement, I believe, will soon take place on all the roads. I think the railroads are beginning to see that it pays from a financial point of view to treat their colored passengers with justice. In Greenville, Miss., I was surprised to find a colored man on the police force, and he has retained his position on that force for twelve or fifteen years. In the same town one of the largest book and stationery stores is owned and conducted by a colored man. Three-fourths of his customers are white people, and this colored man has more than once employed white clerks to assist in the conduct of his business. In Natchez by far the largest and most successful saddlery and harness store is owned and conducted by a negro by the name of Louis Kastor. I found a stock of goods in this large and attractive store that was valued at $6,ooo, and at least three-fourths of his trade is with white people. Every white man in the city with whom I spoke referred me with great pride to the success of this man. In several cases I find that colored clerks are employect by white merchants. There is a colored man not far from Natchez who sent to the market last year over 600 bales of cotton raised on his farm. The relations existing between the two races in Natchez are the most satisfactory, I think, of any place that I have seen in the South. There have never been in the city of Natchez any of the horrible race outbreaks or lynchings. In the earlier days of reconstruction it seems that the colored and white people came to an understanding by which the county offices were to be divided between the races. In some way, however, most, if not all, of the offices have gotten out of the hands of the colored people. Still, I find that the same amicable relations exist. What I have said of Natchez in this regard will apply in a somewhat less degree to the relations of the races in 245