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Chapter XI. Making Their Beds Before They Could Lie On Them
A little later in the history of the school we had a visit from
General J.F.B. Marshall, the Treasurer of the Hampton Institute,
who had had faith enough to lend us the first two hundred and
fifty dollars with which to make a payment down on the farm. He
remained with us a week, and made a careful inspection of
everything. He seemed well pleased with our progress, and wrote
back interesting and encouraging reports to Hampton. A little
later Miss Mary F. Mackie, the teacher who had given me the
"sweeping" examination when I entered Hampton, came to see us,
and still later General Armstrong himself came.
At the time of the visits of these Hampton friends the number of
teachers at Tuskegee had increase considerably, and the most of
the new teachers were graduates of the Hampton Institute. We gave
our Hampton friends, especially General Armstrong, a cordial
welcome. They were all surprised and pleased at the rapid
progress that the school had made within so short a time. The
coloured people from miles around came to the school to get a
look at General Armstrong, about whom they had heard so much. The
General was not only welcomed by the members of my own race, but
by the Southern white people as well.
This first visit which General Armstrong made to Tuskegee gave me
an opportunity to get an insight into his character such as I had
not before had. I refer to his interest in the Southern white
people. Before this I had had the thought that General Armstrong,
having fought the Southern white man, rather cherished a feeling
of bitterness toward the white South, and was interested in
helping only the coloured man there. But this visit convinced me
that I did not know the greatness and the generosity of the man.
I soon learned, by his visits to the Southern white people, and
from his conversations with them, that he was as anxious about
the prosperity and the happiness of the white race as the black.
He cherished no bitterness against the South, and was happy when
an opportunity offered for manifesting his sympathy. In all my
acquaintance with General Armstrong I never heard him speak, in
public or in private, a single bitter word against the white man
in the South. From his example in this respect I learned the
lesson that great men cultivate love, and that only little men
cherish a spirit of hatred. I learned that assistance given to
the weak makes the one who gives it strong; and that oppression
of the unfortunate makes one weak.
It is now long ago that I learned this lesson from General
Armstrong, and resolved that I would permit no man, no matter
what his colour might be, to narrow and degrade my soul by making
me hate him. With God's help, I believe that I have completely
rid myself of any ill feeling toward the Southern white man for
any wrong that he may have inflicted upon my race. I am made to
feel just as happy now when I am rendering service to Southern
white men as when the service is rendered to a member of my own
race. I pity from the bottom of my heart any individual who is so
unfortunate as to get into the habit of holding race prejudice.
The more I consider the subject, the more strongly I am convinced
that the most harmful effect of the practice to which the people
in certain sections of the South have felt themselves compelled
to resort, in order to get rid of the force of the Negroes'
ballot, is not wholly in the wrong done to the Negro, but in the
permanent injury to the morals of the white man. The wrong to the
Negro is temporary, but to the morals of the white man the injury
is permanent. I have noted time and time again that when an
individual perjures himself in order to break the force of the
black man's ballot, he soon learns to practise dishonesty in
other relations of life, not only where the Negro is concerned,
but equally so where a white man is concerned. The white man who
begins by cheating a Negro usually ends by cheating a white man.
The white man who begins to break the law by lynching a Negro
soon yields to the temptation to lynch a white man. All this, it
seems to me, makes it important that the whole Nation lend a hand
in trying to lift the burden of ignorance from the South.
Another thing that is becoming more apparent each year in the
development of education in the South is the influence of General
Armstrong's idea of education; and this not upon the blacks
alone, but upon the whites also. At the present time there is
almost no Southern state that is not putting forth efforts in the
direction of securing industrial education for its white boys and
girls, and in most cases it is easy to trace the history of these
efforts back to General Armstrong.
Soon after the opening of our humble boarding department students
began coming to us in still larger numbers. For weeks we not only
had to contend with the difficulty of providing board, with no
money, but also with that of providing sleeping accommodations.
For this purpose we rented a number of cabins near the school.
These cabins were in a dilapidated condition, and during the
winter months the students who occupied them necessarily suffered
from the cold. We charge the students eight dollars a month--all
they were able to pay--for their board. This included, besides
board, room, fuel, and washing. We also gave the students credit
on their board bills for all the work which they did for the
school which was of any value to the institution. The cost of
tuition, which was fifty dollars a year for each student, we had
to secure then, as now, wherever we could.
This small charge in cash gave us no capital with which to start
a boarding department. The weather during the second winter of
our work was very cold. We were not able to provide enough
bed-clothes to keep the students warm. In fact, for some time we
were not able to provide, except in a few cases, bedsteads and
mattresses of any kind. During the coldest nights I was so
troubled about the discomfort of the students that I could not
sleep myself. I recall that on several occasions I went in the
middle of the night to the shanties occupied by the young men,
for the purpose of confronting them. Often I found some of them
sitting huddled around a fire, with the one blanket which we had
been able to provide wrapped around them, trying in this way to
keep warm. During the whole night some of them did not attempt to
lie down. One morning, when the night previous had been unusually
cold, I asked those of the students in the chapel who thought
that they had been frostbitten during the night to raise their
hands. Three hands went up. Notwithstanding these experiences,
there was almost no complaining on the part of the students. They
knew that we were doing the best that we could for them. They
were happy in the privilege of being permitted to enjoy any kind
of opportunity that would enable them to improve their condition.
They were constantly asking what they might do to lighten the
burdens of the teachers.
I have heard it stated more than once, both in the North and in
the South, that coloured people would not obey and respect each
other when one member of the race is placed in a position of
authority over others. In regard to this general belief and these
statements, I can say that during the nineteen years of my
experience at Tuskegee I never, either by word or act, have been
treated with disrespect by any student or officer connected with
the institution. On the other hand, I am constantly embarrassed
by the many acts of thoughtful kindness. The students do not seem
to want to see me carry a large book or a satchel or any kind of
a burden through the grounds. In such cases more than one always
offers to relieve me. I almost never go out of my office when the
rain is falling that some student does not come to my side with
an umbrella and ask to be allowed to hold it over me.
While writing upon this subject, it is a pleasure for me to add
that in all my contact with the white people of the South I have
never received a single personal insult. The white people in and
near Tuskegee, to an especial degree, seem to count it as a
privilege to show me all the respect within their power, and
often go out of their way to do this.
Not very long ago I was making a journey between Dallas (Texas)
and Houston. In some way it became known in advance that I was on
the train. At nearly every station at which the train stopped,
numbers of white people, including in most cases of the officials
of the town, came aboard and introduced themselves and thanked me
heartily for the work that I was trying to do for the South.
On another occasion, when I was making a trip from Augusta,
Georgia, to Atlanta, being rather tired from much travel, I road
in a Pullman sleeper. When I went into the car, I found there two
ladies from Boston whom I knew well. These good ladies were
perfectly ignorant, it seems, of the customs of the South, and in
the goodness of their hearts insisted that I take a seat with
them in their section. After some hesitation I consented. I had
been there but a few minutes when one of them, without my
knowledge, ordered supper to be served for the three of us. This
embarrassed me still further. The car was full of Southern white
men, most of whom had their eyes on our party. When I found that
supper had been ordered, I tried to contrive some excuse that
would permit me to leave the section, but the ladies insisted
that I must eat with them. I finally settled back in my seat with
a sigh, and said to myself, "I am in for it now, sure."
To add further to the embarrassment of the situation, soon after
the supper was placed on the table one of the ladies remembered
that she had in her satchel a special kind of tea which she
wished served, and as she said she felt quite sure the porter did
not know how to brew it properly, she insisted upon getting up
and preparing and serving it herself. At last the meal was over;
and it seemed the longest one that I had ever eaten. When we were
through, I decided to get myself out of the embarrassing
situation and go to the smoking-room, where most of the men were
by that time, to see how the land lay. In the meantime, however,
it had become known in some way throughout the car who I was.
When I went into the smoking-room I was never more surprised in
my life than when each man, nearly every one of them a citizen of
Georgia, came up and introduced himself to me and thanked me
earnestly for the work that I was trying to do for the whole
South. This was not flattery, because each one of these
individuals knew that he had nothing to gain by trying to flatter
me.
From the first I have sought to impress the students with the
idea that Tuskegee is not my institution, or that of the
officers, but that it is their institution, and that they have as
much interest in it as any of the trustees or instructors. I have
further sought to have them feel that I am at the institution as
their friend and adviser, and not as their overseer. It has been
my aim to have them speak with directness and frankness about
anything that concerns the life of the school. Two or three times
a year I ask the students to write me a letter criticising or
making complaints or suggestions about anything connected with
the institution. When this is not done, I have them meet me in
the chapel for a heart-to-heart talk about the conduct of the
school. There are no meetings with our students that I enjoy more
than these, and none are more helpful to me in planning for the
future. These meetings, it seems to me, enable me to get at the
very heart of all that concerns the school. Few things help an
individual more than to place responsibility upon him, and to let
him know that you trust him. When I have read of labour troubles
between employers and employees, I have often thought that many
strikes and similar disturbances might be avoided if the
employers would cultivate the habit of getting nearer to their
employees, of consulting and advising with them, and letting them
feel that the interests of the two are the same. Every individual
responds to confidence, and this is not more true of any race
than of the Negroes. Let them once understand that you are
unselfishly interested in them, and you can lead them to any
extent.
It was my aim from the first at Tuskegee to not only have the
buildings erected by the students themselves, but to have them
make their own furniture as far as was possible. I now marvel at
the patience of the students while sleeping upon the floor while
waiting for some kind of a bedstead to be constructed, or at
their sleeping without any kind of a mattress while waiting for
something that looked like a mattress to be made.
In the early days we had very few students who had been used to
handling carpenters' tools, and the bedsteads made by the
students then were very rough and very weak. Not unfrequently
when I went into the students' rooms in the morning I would find
at least two bedsteads lying about on the floor. The problem of
providing mattresses was a difficult one to solve. We finally
mastered this, however, by getting some cheap cloth and sewing
pieces of this together as to make large bags. These bags we
filled with the pine straw--or, as it is sometimes called, pine
needles--which we secured from the forests near by. I am glad to
say that the industry of mattress-making has grown steadily since
then, and has been improved to such an extent that at the present
time it is an important branch of the work which is taught
systematically to a number of our girls, and that the mattresses
that now come out of the mattress-shop at Tuskegee are about as
good as those bought in the average store. For some time after
the opening of the boarding department we had no chairs in the
students' bedrooms or in the dining rooms. Instead of chairs we
used stools which the students constructed by nailing together
three pieces of rough board. As a rule, the furniture in the
students' rooms during the early days of the school consisted of
a bed, some stools, and sometimes a rough table made by the
students. The plan of having the students make the furniture is
still followed, but the number of pieces in a room has been
increased, and the workmanship has so improved that little fault
can be found with the articles now. One thing that I have always
insisted upon at Tuskegee is that everywhere there should be
absolute cleanliness. Over and over again the students were
reminded in those first years--and are reminded now--that people
would excuse us for our poverty, for our lack of comforts and
conveniences, but that they would not excuse us for dirt.
Another thing that has been insisted upon at the school is the
use of the tooth-brush. "The gospel of the tooth-brush," as
General Armstrong used to call it, is part of our creed at
Tuskegee. No student is permitted to retain who does not keep and
use a tooth-brush. Several times, in recent years, students have
come to us who brought with them almost no other article except a
tooth-brush. They had heard from the lips of other students about
our insisting upon the use of this, and so, to make a good
impression, they brought at least a tooth-brush with them. I
remember that one morning, not long ago, I went with the lady
principal on her usual morning tour of inspection of the girls'
rooms. We found one room that contained three girls who had
recently arrived at the school. When I asked them if they had
tooth-brushes, one of the girls replied, pointing to a brush:
"Yes, sir. That is our brush. We bought it together, yesterday."
It did not take them long to learn a different lesson.
It has been interesting to note the effect that the use of the
tooth-brush has had in bringing about a higher degree of
civilization among the students. With few exceptions, I have
noticed that, if we can get a student to the point where, when
the first or second tooth-brush disappears, he of his own motion
buys another, I have not been disappointed in the future of that
individual. Absolute cleanliness of the body has been insisted
upon from the first. The students have been taught to bathe as
regularly as to take their meals. This lesson we began teaching
before we had anything in the shape of a bath-house. Most of the
students came from plantation districts, and often we had to
teach them how to sleep at night; that is, whether between the
two sheets--after we got to the point where we could provide them
two sheets--or under both of them. Naturally I found it difficult
to teach them to sleep between two sheets when we were able to
supply but one. The importance of the use of the night-gown
received the same attention.
For a long time one of the most difficult tasks was to teach the
students that all the buttons were to be kept on their clothes,
and that there must be no torn places or grease-spots. This
lesson, I am pleased to be able to say, has been so thoroughly
learned and so faithfully handed down from year to year by one
set of students to another that often at the present time, when
the students march out of the chapel in the evening and their
dress is inspected, as it is every night, not one button is found
to be missing.
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