Richard Robert Wright (1855-1947) was a twelve year old student at the time of Howard’s question. He would go on to graduate in Atlanta University’s first class in 1876 and build a distinctive career for himself as an educator (in founding the institution currently known as Savannah State University), a businessman (in founding Philadelphia’s Citizens and Southern Bank and Trust Company, the only African American owned bank in the North at the time and the first African American Trust company), and as a community leader (in being a founding member of the most prestigious African American intellectual organization of its day, the American Negro Academy). Credit: Wikipedia
Richard Robert Wright answered: “Tell them, General, we are rising.”