When among them a colored man
appeared, a sudden chill fell on the whole assemblage. One after
another asked, "What's that nigger doing on the stage?"
[...] The multitude was in an uproar
of enthusiasm - handkerchiefs were waved, hats were tossed into
the air. The fairest women of Georgia stood up and cheered.
[...] And when he held his dusky
hand high above his head, with the fingers stretched apart, and
said to the white people of the South on behalf of his race,
"In all things that are purely
social we can be as separate as the finger yet one as the
hand in all things essential to mutual progress,"
a great sound wave resounded from
the walls and the whole audience was on its feet in a delirium
of applause.
(New York World - September
19, 1895, issue)
