Booker T. Washington Among His West Virginia Neighbors [excerpt]

     When Mr. Washington and his party returned to Charleston at five o’clock in the evening, they heard that President McKinley had been shot. As Mr. Washington waited at Charleston depot for the Malden train, he anxiously watched the people as they spoke to one another in subdued tones, but he could not believe the report. Soon after reaching Malden, however, he became convinced that the sad report was true, and he immediately telegraphed a message of sympathy to Mrs. McKinley. The old citizens of Malden came around him in great numbers to get his opinion of the tragedy. Some of the white men asserted that the assassin should be lynched, but Mr. Washington insisted too much of that had already been done.