The transition is extremely difficult, of course, and requires much care and discretion, but it has been made.

The greater part of them nevertheless remain negroes in the eyes of the law, however much they strive to separate themselves in thought and action from the rest of their kind.
It is this small class of "intellectuals" who were Booker T.
Washington's bitterest enemies.

His theory that the negro should first devote himself to obtaining economic independence and should leave the adjustment of social relations to the future was denounced as treason to the race.

Washington's opportunism was even more obnoxious to them than is the superior attitude of the whites.

They denounced him as a trimmer, a time-server, and a traitor, and on occasion they hissed him from the platform.