Walter Clinton Jackson

“ It is the story of a boy who was born a slave and who in manhood became the leader of ten million people; who was born in poverty and ignorance and became the greatest orator and teacher of the negro race; who was born of an ignorant and backward race and became the friend of the greatest and best men of all races of all the world.
He was a brave man. He had courage and backbone. He was not afraid. He had courage to fight for what he believed to be the right.
He was an energetic man. There was not a lazy bone in him. No man ever lived a more strenuous life than he did. ”

“ If you go there now and see the many fine buildings, the broad acres, the hundreds of students, and everything that goes to make up a great and wonderful college, it would be very hard to realize that it started off with one little shanty with a leaky roof, one teacher, and thirty students. From this simple and humble, but very earnest beginning, Tuskegee grew by leaps and bounds until it came to be the most remarkable negro school in the South. ”

“ 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. He had to be away from it much of the time. He was away at least half of each year. This was a great hardship to him, and just as often as was possible he got away from his exacting duties and returned to Tuskegee to find rest and quiet and comfort and joy with his own family. ”

“ No boy had ever striven harder for an education. For three years, day and night, he had worked, as few people ever had. But he had enjoyed it. Don't get the idea that Washington was discouraged or that he was unhappy, for he was not. He got an immense amount of genuine satisfaction and pleasure out of his school days. His teachers were good to him, and he was devoted to them. His classmates were always kind to him and helpful and thoughtful. Everybody was his friend. No boy ever left Hampton with more warm friends, was more beloved by students and faculty, than Booker Washington. ”

“ Washington has done more for the education of the negro than any other one man, white or black. His work at Tuskegee, his great educational campaigns, and his speeches and writings have combined to make his accomplishments of supreme value. Not only has he done this for the negro, but his work has helped the cause of education for the white people very greatly. All education in the South was backward. Like his great teacher, General Armstrong, Washington realized that in their progress the two races were bound together in the South, and that they must grow or step backward together. ”

“ 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. ”

“ When Washington was at Hampton, he began to learn the art of speaking. You remember how he organized a debating society which met for the twenty minutes they had between supper and time to begin work. You remember how he spoke and spoke at these meetings, doing his best to learn how to express himself well. One of his teachers, Miss Mackie, knew of his ambition to become a good speaker, and she gave him a great deal of help, teaching him how to stand, how to pronounce his words, and how to control his voice and gestures. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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.
All his students were from Alabama. Most of them were from the country. He knew that most of them would spend their lives on the farm or in occupations of some kind. He wanted them to be practical; to know how to do well the things they would surely be compelled to do. ”

“ He accepted the place and began the work at once. He taught this school for two years, and it is doubtful if he ever did better work in his life than during these two years.
All his life the idea had been in Washington's mind that he must help his people. This was what he wanted most to do. 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. His great desire was to help his people. ”

“ 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 orator; to speak to men and women in such a way that they will be helped and inspired and made happier and more useful. ”

“ 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. He was, therefore, tremendously anxious for the negroes to learn how to cultivate the soil to the best possible advantage, to buy land, to build schools, to establish churches, and in every way to become real citizens of the country where they were. ”

“ We never know what incident may turn out to be our greatest opportunity. 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Founder's Day Drill at Tuskegee Do you suppose this little boy had any chance to go to school? This is what he says: "I had no schooling whatever while I was a slave, though I remember on several occasions I went as far as the schoolhouse door with one of my young mistresses to carry her books. The picture of several boys and girls in a schoolroom engaged in study made a deep impression upon me, and I had the feeling that to get into a schoolhouse and study in this way would be about the same as getting into paradise." ”

“ Washington felt that he did not get the benefit that he did at Hampton.
Nor did he like Washington any better than he liked this school. He saw too much extravagance to suit him. Too many people were trying to get something for nothing. Too many of them were trying to get jobs with the Federal Government that would be easy work and high pay. Many of the negroes seemed to think it was the business of the Federal Government to support them. Washington did not think this was right. He thought all men should do good, honest work, and that, if they didn't, they would sooner or later find trouble. ”

“ As free people they felt that they should have the same sort of names as other free people; so they began to add a last name, and usually an initial. If a man had been called "Tom" all his life, he was now called "Tom L. Johnson." The "L" stood for nothing. It was simply a part of his "entitles," as Washington says. Another thing they did was to leave their old home place. They could not realize that they were really free unless they tested the matter by going away from the place of their servitude.
Booker Washington's stepfather had left Virginia during the war and had gone to West Virginia. ”

“ It is impossible for the negro to make his best progress unless the white man does so at the same time. And of course this works both ways. 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. ”

“ They kept on talking and Booker heard a conversation something like this: "I wish my boy could go to that school over in Virginia," said one miner. "They say it is the best school anywhere in the country."
"What school are you talking about?" said the other.
"The one at a place called Hampton, over in Virginia," was the reply.
"Well, suppose there is a good school there; negro boys can't go to it, can they?" was asked.
"Yes, they can," said the other. "It is a school just for negro boys and girls, and they teach the boys and girls something besides books, too. ”

“ His reply was: "I was born in the South, I have lived and labored in the South, and I expect to die and be buried in the South."
Arrangements were hurriedly made for the journey to Tuskegee. No one believed that he would reach there alive. One of the doctors had said that it was "uncanny to see a man up and about who ought, by all the laws of nature, to be dead." When they reached the railway station in New York a rolling chair had been provided for Washington, but he refused to use it and walked to the train leaning on the arms of his friends. ”

“ It must be remembered that the conditions under which Booker lived in these early years of his life were not restricted entirely to the negroes. 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The most important thing he said in this speech was that the "whole future of the negro rested largely upon the question as to whether or not he should make himself, through his skill, intelligence, and character, of such undeniable value to the community in which he lived that the community could not dispense with his presence." ”

“ 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. He also noted that, wherever conditions were fairly good, where the natives owned the land and had developed reasonably good farming conditions, there was no emigration from that region to America. 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. ”

“ This man's life was of such singular and vital importance in the history of his own race and in the history of our country that it ought to be familiar to all the youth of the land, and to the negro youth especially, since it is the greatest inspiration to the latter to be found in the annals of American history. ”

“ He felt that education was the greatest need of his race. Before the war, it had been against the law for a slave to be taught from books. At the close of the war, then, there were no schools, no teachers, and no books. The whole race could neither read nor write. The whole race had had no training of any kind except in agriculture. It is true a few, but a very few, had had a little training in certain trades such as bricklaying, blacksmithing, and carpentry. ”

“ We usually do just about what people expect of us. If they think we are going to succeed, it helps us to succeed. If they think we are going to fail, it makes attainment of success harder for us. Booker Washington said: "I will succeed. I will show these people that these Indians can be educated." ”

“ He loved his work; and few other men ever did so much work in a lifetime.
He was just and fair-minded. He could see right for the white man as well as for the negro. He never intentionally did any one, white or black, an injustice. ”

“ The old man had been body servant to a Union officer in the Civil War, and after the war had been carried to Boston, where he became the butler in a fashionable Back Bay family. When Mr. Washington first visited Boston, as an humble and obscure young negro school-teacher, pleading for his struggling school, he met Diggs, and Diggs succeeded in interesting his employers in the sincere and earnest young teacher. ”

“ About this time a private school was established in the community. Booker was greatly excited over this, for he had an overwhelming desire to go to school. He was a good worker, however, and was earning money; so his father said "no," and he could not go. Booker was terribly disappointed. He went on with his work with a heavy heart, but he never missed a chance to urge his step-father to let him go to school. Finally, his father agreed to let him go for a part of the day, provided he would get up early each morning and work until nine o'clock and then work two hours after school was out. ”

“ It was a discouraging situation to any one except a man like Booker Washington. "These are my people," he said. "They need help. They need education and the kind of education that will give them cleaner and happier homes, healthier bodies, better schools, and better life in every way. I am going to help them."
The school opened on July 4, 1881, with thirty students. Washington was the only teacher. A large number of students wanted to enter, but he decided not to admit any under fifteen years of age. Some of these students were boys, and some were girls; some were grown men and women. ”

“ But Booker was restless. He wanted to get started to school. He had not saved much money, for he had not been working for himself very long, but he determined to start with what little money he had.
What did his determination mean? Look at your map and you will see that Hampton is about five-hundred miles from Malden. Booker was a boy of sixteen years. He did not know a soul beyond the borders of his own community. He had but a few dollars. His mother was not well, and he doubted very much whether he would ever see her alive again. ”