The Booker T. Washington Papers, Vol.6, page 80, Mar. 1901, U. of Illinois Press

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The BOOKER T. WASHINGTON Papers she was to meet a colored woman as the author of the book which she had been studying. When the day came, and the bell rang, and she was told that this woman had arrived, she was at first almost tempted to send in word that she was ill and could not see her, when suddenly there came into her mind the story of the Tuskegee graduate who had declined to discuss any question of color except the butter color which pertained to his business. ''I went into the room as bravely as I could,'' she said, ''and, although the woman looked and acted just as I felt sure she would, I would not let myself take any notice of it, but went on talking business as fast as I could. The result was that we made a business engagement, through which, afterwards, other work came to me.'' This meeting not only showed to the country what the colored people are doing, but it gave the delegates, especially those who came from the South, an opportunity to see something of the business methods employed by northern people. I think it will have something of the same good effect on them that the bringing of the Cuban teachers to the United States may be expected to have on the Cubans. If a record of the business enterprises operated by colored men and women in the United States were available it would be interesting and instructive, but such information has not yet been very generally reported. From the published reports of the valuable studies of Professor W. E. B. Du Bois I make a few extracts bearing on the subject. In his book, ''The Philadelphia Negro,'' Dr. Du Bois deals chiefly with the colored people of the seventh ward of that city. The author says that this particular ward is selected because it ''is an historic center of negro population and contains one-fifth of all the negroes in the city.'' The negro population of Philadelphia in logo was 40,ooo, and over 8,ooo lived in this ward. Both these numbers will undoubtedly show an increase when the figures of the census recently taken are available. In this ward Dr. Du Bois found the following-named business establishments operated by negroes: fig restaurants, 24 barber shops, 1l groceries, 1l cigar stores, 2 candy and notion stores, 4 upholsterers, ~ liquor saloons, 4 undertakers (two of these were women), 1 newspaper, 1 drug store, ~ patent-medicine stores, 4 printing offices. There were caterers in the ward, but some of these Dr. Du Bois 80