W. C. Jackson

“ THE MAN Booker Washington at home, with his wife and children, his garden, his chickens, his pigs, his horses and cows, is far more interesting than Washington the orator, the writer, the teacher, the traveler, the college principal.
No man ever loved his home more than Washington. ”

“ Everybody expected Washington to accept some kind of political position, but he steadfastly refused. Time after time, men of his own race and white men urged him to run for office, or accept an appointment by the President to high office. This he absolutely refused to do. He said that his service, whatever it was worth, would be given, not in politics but in education. He believed that entirely too much emphasis had been placed on holding office by the negro, just after the war. ”

“ This was why he wanted an education. Many people want an education for selfish reasons, such as, to make money for themselves, to have an easy time or to get honors for themselves, but this was never true of Booker Washington. ”

“ In all my travels in the South and elsewhere since leaving Hampton Institute, I have always in some way sought my daily bath. To get it sometimes when I have been the guest of my own people in a single-roomed cabin has not been easy to do except by slipping away to some stream in the woods. I have always tried to teach my people that some provision for bathing should be a part of every house. ”

“ As a result of this work, there are now in Macon County a number of neat new schoolhouses, with a teacher’s house alongside each school, several acres of land adjoining, and a good church close by. Thus clean, pleasant, and thoroughly happy communities are created. In such communities there is the smallest amount of crime, and there is the largest amount of prosperity and contentment and enjoyment.
All the graduates of Tuskegee are enthusiasts for education and community builders. Wherever they go, they stand for the best in life. ”

“ In a way this ceremony marks an epoch in Negro history in America. Just seventeen years before, it was against the law for a negro to be taught books at all in Alabama. Just seventeen years before, the negroes were slaves,—for this was in 1882 and in the “Black Belt,” in the very heart of the South. That this large group of white men should gather with the negroes for the purpose of dedicating a building to negro education shows what wonderful change of sentiment had taken place. It shows also how thoroughly Booker Washington had won the confidence of all the people among whom he was working. ”

“ I think, though, that the opportunity to freely exercise such political rights will not come in any large degree through outside or artificial forcing, but will be accorded to the negro by the Southern white people themselves, and that they will protect him in the exercise of these rights. Just as soon as the South gets over the feeling that it is being forced by ‘foreigners’ or ‘aliens’ to do something which it does not want to do, I believe that the change in the direction that I have indicated is going to begin. ”

“ One condition only—the revenue of one hundred and fifty thousand of these bonds is to be subject to Booker Washington’s order to be used by him first for his wants, and those of his family during his life or the life of his widow. If any surplus is left he can use it for Tuskegee. I wish that great and good man to be free from pecuniary cares that he may devote himself wholly to his great mission. ”

“ Whenever one people conquered another, it mattered not of what race, the conquerors made their captives slaves. This often resulted in the most cultured and highly educated people being made slaves. This was especially the case when the Romans captured Greeks.
Later on in the history of Europe, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the enslavement of negroes became very general, so that, by the time North America began to be settled by the people from Europe, negro slaves were bought and sold throughout the principal European countries and their colonies. ”

“ Throughout the administrations of President Roosevelt and President Taft, Washington was constantly called into conference and rendered a lasting service to his own race and to the people of the country in giving wise counsel, not only about politics but about a great many things pertaining to the welfare of his people. ”

“ EARLY CHILDHOOD No state in the Union has a more interesting history than Virginia. It is the oldest of the states. It was at Jamestown in 1607 that the first permanent English settlement was made in America. Before the Revolution, it shared with Massachusetts the honor of being the leading colony. During the time of the Revolution, it furnished some of America’s greatest leaders—Washington, Patrick Henry, and Thomas Jefferson. ”

“ They brought from the West to Hampton about one hundred Indian boys to be educated. These boys were very ignorant; Booker Washington says that they were almost wild.
Washington’s task was to live in the same building with these Indian boys and look after them—to be a sort of “house father” to them.
He had a hard job. The Indians are a very proud people. They felt themselves superior to the white race, as well as to the black race. They had a special dislike for the negro because he had been a slave, and the Indians would not be slaves; they preferred death to slavery. ”

“ Domestic Science Class at Tuskegee
“This form of commencement exercise is one of Booker Washington’s contributions to education which has been widely copied by schools for whites as well as blacks. That it appeals to his own people is eloquently attested by the people themselves, who come in ever-greater numbers as the commencement days recur. At three o’clock in the morning of this great day, vehicles of every description, each loaded to capacity with men, women, and children, begin to roll in, in an unbroken line which sometimes extends along the road for three miles. ”

“ SUCCESS AS EDUCATIONAL LEADER Booker Washington spent his life in the education of the negro. Negroes of ability in his day usually became preachers or they entered politics. The negro preacher had rendered a greater service to his people, perhaps, than any one else. Before 1865, the ministry was practically the only place where negro leadership could find expression. It was much the same way for many years after the Civil War. However, after emancipation, there was an opportunity for leadership in politics, and a great many negroes of ability entered this field, many of them holding offices. ”

“ Cordial relations existed between the white and negro people. In every way Macon County came to be a better place to live in. The race problem was solved in that county. People were happy and prosperous. They were living clean, wholesome, contented lives. The whole problem of living was, in a large measure, solved. And it was all due to education of the people, and education of the right kind. What was good for Macon County, Alabama, would be good for every county in the country.
Washington’s ideas of education were very simple. He had studied carefully the needs of his people. ”

“ SCHOOL DAYS AT HAMPTON At the close of the Civil War one of the most important needs of the country was to provide some kind of education for the negroes. They had never had any schools. If they were to become good citizens, they must have the proper training. A great many good men in the North and in the South recognized this fact, and set to work to establish schools. ”

“ But where conditions were bad, where farms were not well kept, where the people were not permitted or encouraged to own their own homes, from such sections there was always much emigration to America. In other words, good local conditions, land ownership, good schools, and so on, tended to make the people happy, contented, and desirous of remaining where they were. In this fact he saw a great lesson for his own people. He believed that the South is the home of the negro, that here it is possible for him to do his best. ”

“ One of the most important phases of his leadership of the negro was in the organization of the National Negro Business League. It was one of Washington’s strongest beliefs that the negro must prove himself able to exist and prosper in business matters. The race—individually and collectively—must demonstrate its ability to take care of itself in all phases of industrial life. ”

“ Washington did a great deal for the negro farmer. It has already been pointed out how he served the people of his county, and how the extension work of the Institute was used to help the farmer. In addition to this he organized the Tuskegee Negro Conference. In the beginning, this was a sort of agricultural experience meeting on a large scale. The good farmers from all the surrounding country were brought in, and each was asked to relate his successful experience. Every phase of farm life was covered. Every person present was profited by the experience and the success of his neighbor. ”

“ Booker Washington made thousands of speeches in his life. He spoke to white and black; in the North and in the South; in Europe as well as in America. He spoke in churches; at school commencements; at conventions; at educational and religious meetings; at county fairs; and to every kind and condition of people. He spoke before kings and presidents; he spoke to the lowliest men of his own race in the heart of the black belt in Alabama. It is a wonderful thing to be an 77orator; to speak to men and women in such a way that they will be helped and inspired and made happier and more useful. ”

“ Many of the white people were poor also, and many white boys wore flax shirts and shoes with wooden soles. Just after the Civil War, especially, all the white people of the South had a very hard time. White boys as well as negro boys had no time for play. Nor did they have an opportunity to go to school. In those days many white boys who were eager for an education had such difficulties to face as those which loomed up before Booker Washington. ”

“ I wish that any one who does not believe it possible to make a subject like cabbages interesting in a commencement oration could have heard the hearty cheers which greeted the speaker when, at the close of his speech, he held up one of the largest cabbages on the platform for the audience to look at and admire. As a matter of fact there is just as much that is interesting, strange, mysterious and wonderful ”

“ Douglass was the great spokesman for the race just before the Civil War and during the troublesome days of reconstruction. Washington began his career just at the time that Douglass ended his. Douglass was a very eloquent man; perhaps more eloquent at times than Washington. On the other hand, Washington was a better educated man than Douglass and probably had a more lasting influence upon his generation. ”

“ When he was in the mines at Campo Franco, Sicily, he by chance met a man who had once worked in the mines near Malden, West Virginia, where Washington himself had worked when a boy. The world is not such a big place after all!
As a result of his observations of conditions in Europe, Washington came to the conclusion that the negro in the South is, generally speaking, in far better condition than the peasant of Europe. ”

“ Because he believed this, Washington was anxious for school conditions for white people to change just as well as the school conditions for negroes. Besides, he wanted all the people to have the advantages of education. He did not hate anybody, and consequently did not want anybody to be deprived of the best there was in life. ”

“ If we will do our best to meet every situation that confronts us, we may be sure that there will be plenty of opportunities for us. It is the boy that does not do his best on all occasions that loses out. So Washington, when invited to speak at Hampton commencement, worked hard for three months preparing that speech. When the time came, he did his very best. Then he forgot the matter and went home. Just a few days after he got home, he had a great surprise. There came a letter to him from General Armstrong. It said, “We need you here at Hampton. We want you to come and help us run the school.” ”

“ He then told them that the Legislature of Alabama at its last session had set aside some money for the establishment of a negro normal school, and that they were looking for a man to be the head of this school and that he had been asked to recommend such a man. Of course they wanted a white man. However, the next day General Armstrong sent for Booker Washington and said: “Washington, you heard the announcement last night about the men in Alabama who want a man to be the head of their school. I have decided that you are the man for them. ”