Waddy Thompson, the Superintendent of Education for the county.

About the corner-stone were gathered the teachers, the students, their parents and friends, the county officials--who were white--and all the leading white men in that vicinity, together with many of the black men and women whom the same white people but a few years before had held a title to as property.

The members of both races were anxious to exercise the privilege of placing under the corner-stone some momento.
Before the building was completed we passed through some very trying seasons.

More than once our hearts were made to bleed, as it were, because bills were falling due that we did not have the money to meet.
Perhaps no one who has not gone through the experience, month after month, of trying to erect buildings and provide equipment for a school when no one knew where the money was to come from, can properly appreciate the difficulties under which we laboured.

During the first years at Tuskegee I recall that night after night I would roll and toss on my bed, without sleep, because of the anxiety and uncertainty which we were in regarding money.