had only one.
By the time the occasion came for the enrolling of my name, an idea
occurred to me which I thought would make me equal to the situation; and
so, when the teacher asked me what my full name was, I calmly told him
"Booker Washington," as if I had been called by that name all my life;
and by that name I have since been known. Later in my life I found that
my mother had given me the name of "Booker Taliaferro" soon after I was
born, but in some way that part of my name seemed to disappear and for a
long while was forgotten, but as soon as I found out about it I revived
it, and made my full name "Booker Taliaferro Washington." I think there
are not many men in our country who have had the privilege of naming
themselves in the way that I have.

More than once I have tried to picture myself in the position of a boy
or man with an honoured and distinguished ancestry which I could
trace back through a period of hundreds of years, and who had not only
inherited a name, but fortune and a proud family homestead; and yet I
have sometimes had the feeling that if I had inherited these, and had
been a member of a more popular race, I should have been inclined to
yield to the temptation of depending upon my ancestry and my colour to
do that for me which I should do for myself. Years ago I resolved that
because I had no ancestry myself I would leave a record of which my
children would be proud, and which might encourage them to still higher
effort.

The world should not pass judgment upon the Negro, and especially the
Negro youth, too quickly or too harshly. The Negro boy has obstacles,
discouragements, and temptations to battle with that are little known to
those not situated as he is. When a white boy undertakes a task, it is
taken for granted that he will succeed. On the other hand, people are
usually surprised if the Negro boy does not fail. In a word, the Negro
youth starts out with the presumption against him.

The influence of ancestry, however, is important in helping forward any
individual or race, if too much reliance is not placed upon it. Those
who constantly direct attention to the Negro youth's moral weaknesses,
and compare his advancement with that of white youths, do not consider
the influence of the memories which cling about the old family
homesteads. I have no idea, as I have stated elsewhere, who my
grandmother was. I have, or have had, uncles and aunts and cousins,
but I have no knowledge as to wher