In the midst of the discussion which was going on concerning my Atlanta speech, I received the letter which I give below, from Dr. Gilman, the President of Johns Hopkins University, who had been made chairman of the judges of award in connection with the Atlanta Exposition:—­

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore,

President’s Office, September 30, 1895.

Dear Mr. Washington:  Would it be agreeable to you to be one of the Judges of Award in the Department of Education at Atlanta?  If so, I shall be glad to place your name upon the list.  A line by telegraph will be welcomed.

Yours very truly,

D.C.  Gilman

I think I was even more surprised to receive this invitation than I had been to receive the invitation to speak at the opening of the Exposition.  It was to be a part of my duty, as one of the jurors, to pass not only upon the exhibits of the coloured schools, but also upon those of the white schools.  I accepted the position, and spent a month in Atlanta in performance of the duties which it entailed.  The board of jurors was a large one, containing in all of sixty members.  It was about equally divided between Southern white people and Northern white people.  Among them were college presidents, leading scientists and men of letters, and specialists in many subjects.  When the group of jurors to which I was assigned met for organization, Mr. Thomas Nelson Page, who was one of the number, moved that I be made secretary of that division, and the motion was unanimously adopted.  Nearly half of our division were Southern people.  In performing my duties in the inspection of the exhibits of white schools I was in every case treated with respect, and at the close of our labours I parted from my associates with regret.

I am often asked to express myself more freely than I do upon the political condition and the political future of my race.  These recollections of my experience in Atlanta give me the opportunity to do so briefly.  My own belief is, although I have never before said so in so many words, that the time will come when the Negro in the South will be accorded all the political rights which his ability, character, and material possessions entitle him to.  I think, though, that the opportunity to freely exercise such political rights will not come in any large degree through outside or artificial forcing, but will be accorded to the Negro by the Southern white people themselves, and that they will protect him in the exercise of those rights.  Just as soon as the South gets over the old feeling that it is being forced by “foreigners,” or “aliens,” to do something which it does not want to do, I believe that the change in the direction that I have indicated is going to begin.  In fact, there are indications that it is already beginning in a slight degree.