Of course there were those who were opposed to any such recognition of the rights of the Negro, but the Board of Directors, composed of men who represented the best and most progressive element in the South, had their way, and voted to invite a black man to speak on the opening day.
I knew, too, that this was the first time in the entire history of the Negro that a member of my race had been asked to speak from the same platform with white Southern men and women on any important National occasion.
I had been told, while I had been in Atlanta, that while many white people were going to be present to hear me speak, simply out of curiosity, and that others who would be present would be in full sympathy with me, there was a still larger element of the audience which would consist of those who were going to be present for the purpose of hearing me make a fool of myself, or, at least, of hearing me say some foolish thing so that they could say to the officials who had invited me to speak, "I told you so!"
"Allow me
to speak...." "Gentlemen, you are crushing me!..."
Knightley, and, I am afraid, gave you pain.But if you have any wish
to speak openly to me as a friend, or to ask my opinion of any thing that you may have in contemplationas a friend, indeed, you may command me.I will hear whatever you like.
Her eyes moved uneasily from object to object in the room, betraying plainly that she suspected what my purpose was in coming to speak to her.
"Is it absolutely necessary to speak of my marriage engagement?" she asked in low tones.
After a short absence (during which he could be heard to speak in a softened soothing tone) he returned, bearing in his hand a lamp.
Kit had no power to speak. His eyes were filled with tears.
The number of people who can speak Welsh is less important than the question of the number who prefer
to speak Welsh.
Children need
to speak more Welsh outside school if the language is to survive, according to the Welsh Language Board.
1, 1901 one of his students, Agnes Ozman, began
to speak in tongues.