“During the days of slavery it was a custom quite generally observed throughout all the Southern states to give the coloured people a week of holiday at Christmas, or to allow the holiday to continue as long as the “yule log” lasted.”

"In the dark and dreary days of enslavement, the great ancestors clung to each other against the forces of cruelty and inhumane treatment, which they faced at every turn."

"Nonetheless, those who did not succumb to the vices over indulgence and merriment were able to “look after each other” and a certain was able to take “flight” during the holiday season when the oppressive systems tends to relax."

“We found that for a whole week the coloured people in and around Tuskegee dropped work the day before Christmas, and that it was difficult to any one to perform any service from the time they stopped work until after the New Year."

“At the present time one of the most satisfactory features of the Christmas and Thanksgiving seasons at Tuskegee is the unselfish and beautiful way in which our graduates and students spend their time in administering to the comfort and happiness of others, especially the unfortunates. Not long ago some of our young men spent a holiday in rebuilding a cabin for a helpless coloured woman who is about seventy five years old. At another time I remember that I made it known in chapel, one night, that a very poor student was suffering from cold, because he needed a coat. The next morning tow coats were sent to my office for him.”