inia, and successively by Governors
Jelks and O'Neil of his own State of Alabama. Still other Southern
Governors spoke from the same platform with him at congresses,
conventions, and meetings of various descriptions.

Next to South Carolina and Georgia, perhaps no State in the Union has
shown as much hostility to the progress of the Negro as Mississippi.
In 1908, in response to the urgent appeals of Charles Banks, the Negro
banker and dominating force of the Negro town of Mound Bayou, Mr.
Washington agreed to make a tour through Mississippi such as he had
made three years before through Arkansas and what were then Oklahoma
and Indian Territories. At Jackson, Miss., the management of the State
Fair Association offered the local committee of Negroes the great
Liberal Arts Building for Mr. Washington's address. In the audience
were not less than five thousand persons, among them several hundred
white citizens. Among the whites who sat on the platform were Governor
Noel, Lieutenant-Governor Manship, Bishop Charles B. Galloway of the
Methodist Episcopal Church South, Mr. Milsaps, the richest citizen of
the State; the postmaster of Jackson, the United States Marshal, Hon.
Edgar S. Wilson, and a considerable number of other prominent white
citizens.

At Natchez, a few nights later, the audience literally filled every
available space in the Grand Opera House and overflowed into the
adjoining streets. This audience was in many respects the most
remarkable that the city had ever seen. The entire orchestra was given
over to the white citizens of Natchez and Adams County, and still
there was not room to accommodate them, for they were packed in the
rear and stood three and four deep in the aisles. The colored people
were crowded into the balcony and the galleries. When Booker
Washington arose to speak, he was greeted by a perfect whirlwind of
applause and cheering. He was visibly affected by the reception given
him by whites as well as blacks.

When he finished speaking a large delegation headed by the Mayor of
the city made their way to the platform, welcomed him to the city,
thanked him for his address, and stated that his influence for good in
the city and county could not be estimated.

Mr. J.T. Harahan, of the Illinois Central Railroad, provided the
Pullman tourist car in which Mr. Washington and his party toured the
State. It was estimated that from sixty to eighty thousand people saw
and heard him during his seven days'