in Alabama asking him to recommend some one to take charge of what was
to be a normal school for the coloured people in the little town of
Tuskegee in that State. These gentlemen seemed to take it for granted
that no coloured man suitable for the position could be secured, and
they were expecting the General to recommend a white man for the place.
The next day General Armstrong sent for me to come to his office, and,
much to my surprise, asked me if I thought I could fill the position in
Alabama. I told him that I would be willing to try. Accordingly he
wrote to the people who had applied to him for the information, that he
did not know of any white man to suggest, but if they would be willing
to take a coloured man, he had one whom he could recommend. In this
letter he gave them my name.

Several days passed before anything more was heard about the matter.
Some time afterward, one Sunday evening during the chapel exercises, a
messenger came in and handed the General a telegram. At the end of the
exercises he read the telegram to the school. In substance, these were
its words: "Booker T. Washington will suit us. Send him at once. . . ."

I reached Tuskegee early in June, 1881. The first month I spent in
finding accommodations for the school, and in travelling through
Alabama, examining into the actual life of the people, especially in
the country districts, and in getting the school advertised among the
class of people that I wanted to have attend it. The most of my
travelling was done over the country road, with a mule and a cart or a
mule and a buggy wagon for conveyance. I ate and slept with the people
in their little cabins. I saw their farms, their schools, their
churches. Since in the case of the most of these visits there had been
no notice given in advance that a stranger was expected, I had the
advantage of seeing the real, everyday life of the people. . . .