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Chapter XVII. Last Words
Before going to Europe some events came into my life which were
great surprises to me. In fact, my whole life has largely been
one of surprises. I believe that any man's life will be filled
with constant, unexpected encouragements of this kind if he makes
up his mind to do his level best each day of his life--that is,
tries to make each day reach as nearly as possible the high-water
mark of pure, unselfish, useful living. I pity the man, black or
white, who has never experienced the joy and satisfaction that
come to one by reason of an effort to assist in making some one
else more useful and more happy.
Six months before he died, and nearly a year after he had been
stricken with paralysis, General Armstrong expressed a wish to
visit Tuskegee again before he passed away. Notwithstanding the
fact that he had lost the use of his limbs to such an extent that
he was practically helpless, his wish was gratified, and he was
brought to Tuskegee. The owners of the Tuskegee Railroad, white
men living in the town, offered to run a special train, without
cost, out of the main station--Chehaw, five miles away--to meet
him. He arrived on the school grounds about nine o'clock in the
evening. Some one had suggested that we give the General a
"pine-knot torchlight reception." This plan was carried out, and
the moment that his carriage entered the school grounds he began
passing between two lines of lighted and waving "fat pine" wood
knots held by over a thousand students and teachers. The whole
thing was so novel and surprising that the General was completely
overcome with happiness. He remained a guest in my home for
nearly two months, and, although almost wholly without the use of
voice or limb, he spent nearly every hour in devising ways and
means to help the South. Time and time again he said to me,
during this visit, that it was not only the duty of the country
to assist in elevating the Negro of the South, but the poor white
man as well. At the end of his visit I resolved anew to devote
myself more earnestly than ever to the cause which was so near
his heart. I said that if a man in his condition was willing to
think, work, and act, I should not be wanting in furthering in
every possible way the wish of his heart.
The death of General Armstrong, a few weeks later, gave me the
privilege of getting acquainted with one of the finest, most
unselfish, and most attractive men that I have ever come in
contact with. I refer to the Rev. Dr. Hollis B. Frissell, now the
Principal of the Hampton Institute, and General Armstrong's
successor. Under the clear, strong, and almost perfect leadership
of Dr. Frissell, Hampton has had a career of prosperity and
usefulness that is all that the General could have wished for. It
seems to be the constant effort of Dr. Frissell to hide his own
great personality behind that of General Armstrong--to make
himself of "no reputation" for the sake of the cause.
More than once I have been asked what was the greatest surprise
that ever came to me. I have little hesitation in answering that
question. It was the following letter, which came to me one
Sunday morning when I was sitting on the veranda of my home at
Tuskegee, surrounded by my wife and three children:--
Harvard University, Cambridge, May 28, 1896.
President Booker T. Washington,
My Dear Sir: Harvard University desired to confer on you at the
approaching Commencement an honorary degree; but it is our custom
to confer degrees only on gentlemen who are present. Our
Commencement occurs this year on June 24, and your presence would
be desirable from about noon till about five o'clock in the
afternoon. Would it be possible for you to be in Cambridge on
that day?
Believe me, with great regard,
Very truly yours,
Charles W. Eliot.
This was a recognition that had never in the slightest manner
entered into my mind, and it was hard for me to realize that I
was to be honoured by a degree from the oldest and most renowned
university in America. As I sat upon my veranda, with this letter
in my hand, tears came into my eyes. My whole former life--my
life as a slave on the plantation, my work in the coal-mine, the
times when I was without food and clothing, when I made my bed
under a sidewalk, my struggles for an education, the trying days
I had had at Tuskegee, days when I did not know where to turn for
a dollar to continue the work there, the ostracism and sometimes
oppression of my race,--all this passed before me and nearly
overcame me.
I had never sought or cared for what the world calls fame. I have
always looked upon fame as something to be used in accomplishing
good. I have often said to my friends that if I can use whatever
prominence may have come to me as an instrument with which to do
good, I am content to have it. I care for it only as a means to
be used for doing good, just as wealth may be used. The more I
come into contact with wealthy people, the more I believe that
they are growing in the direction of looking upon their money
simply as an instrument which God has placed in their hand for
doing good with. I never go to the office of Mr. John D.
Rockefeller, who more than once has been generous to Tuskegee,
without being reminded of this. The close, careful, and minute
investigation that he always makes in order to be sure that every
dollar that he gives will do the most good--an investigation that
is just as searching as if he were investing money in a business
enterprise--convinces me that the growth in this direction is
most encouraging.
At nine o'clock, on the morning of June 24, I met President
Eliot, the Board of Overseers of Harvard University, and the
other guests, at the designated place on the university grounds,
for the purpose of being escorted to Sanders Theatre, where the
Commencement exercises were to be held and degrees conferred.
Among others invited to be present for the purpose of receiving a
degree at this time were General Nelson A. Miles, Dr. Bell, the
inventor of the Bell telephone, Bishop Vincent, and the Rev.
Minot J. Savage. We were placed in line immediately behind the
President and the Board of Overseers, and directly afterward the
Governor of Massachusetts, escorted by the Lancers, arrived and
took his place in the line of march by the side of President
Eliot. In the line there were also various other officers and
professors, clad in cap and gown. In this order we marched to
Sanders Theatre, where, after the usual Commencement exercises,
came the conferring of the honorary degrees. This, it seems, is
always considered the most interesting feature at Harvard. It is
not known, until the individuals appear, upon whom the honorary
degrees are to be conferred, and those receiving these honours
are cheered by the students and others in proportion to their
popularity. During the conferring of the degrees excitement and
enthusiasm are at the highest pitch.
When my name was called, I rose, and President Eliot, in
beautiful and strong English, conferred upon me the degree of
Master of Arts. After these exercises were over, those who had
received honorary degrees were invited to lunch with the
President. After the lunch we were formed in line again, and were
escorted by the Marshal of the day, who that year happened to be
Bishop William Lawrence, through the grounds, where, at different
points, those who had been honoured were called by name and
received the Harvard yell. This march ended at Memorial Hall,
where the alumni dinner was served. To see over a thousand strong
men, representing all that is best in State, Church, business,
and education, with the glow and enthusiasm of college loyalty
and college pride,--which has, I think, a peculiar Harvard
flavour,--is a sight that does not easily fade from memory.
Among the speakers after dinner were President Eliot, Governor
Roger Wolcott, General Miles, Dr. Minot J. Savage, the Hon. Henry
Cabot Lodge, and myself. When I was called upon, I said, among
other things:--
It would in some measure relieve my embarrassment if I could,
even in a slight degree, feel myself worthy of the great honour
which you do me to-day. Why you have called me from the Black
Belt of the South, from among my humble people, to share in the
honours of this occasion, is not for me to explain; and yet it
may
not be inappropriate for me to suggest that it seems to me that
one of the most vital questions that touch our American life is
how to bring the strong, wealthy, and learned into helpful touch
with the poorest, most ignorant, and humblest, and at the same
time make one appreciate the vitalizing, strengthening influence
of the other. How shall we make the mansion on yon Beacon Street
feel and see the need of the spirits in the lowliest cabin in
Alabama cotton-fields or Louisiana sugar-bottoms? This problem
Harvard University is solving, not by bringing itself down, but
by bringing the masses up.
*
If my life in the past has meant anything in the lifting up of my
people and the bringing about of better relations between your
race and mine, I assure you from this day it will mean doubly
more. In the economy of God there is but one standard by which an
individual can succeed--there is but one for a race. This
country demands that every race shall measure itself by the
American standard. By it a race must rise or fall, succeed or
fail, and in the last analysis mere sentiment counts for little.
During the next half-century and more, my race must continue
passing through the severe American crucible. We are to be tested
in our patience, our forbearance, our perseverance, our power to
endure wrong, to withstand temptations, to economize, to acquire
and use skill; in our ability to compete, to succeed in commerce,
to disregard the superficial for the real, the appearance for the
substance, to be great and yet small, learned and yet simple,
high and yet the servant of all.
As this was the first time that a New England university had
conferred an honorary degree upon a Negro, it was the occasion of
much newspaper comment throughout the country. A correspondent of
a New York Paper said:--
When the name of Booker T. Washington was called, and he arose to
acknowledge and accept, there was such an outburst of applause as
greeted no other name except that of the popular soldier patriot,
General Miles. The applause was not studied and stiff,
sympathetic and condoling; it was enthusiasm and admiration.
Every part of the audience from pit to gallery joined in, and a
glow covered the cheeks of those around me, proving sincere
appreciation of the rising struggle of an ex-slave and the work
he has accomplished for his race.
A Boston paper said, editorially:--
In conferring the honorary degree of Master of Arts upon the
Principal of Tuskegee Institute, Harvard University has honoured
itself as well as the object of this distinction. The work which
Professor Booker T. Washington has accomplished for the
education, good citizenship, and popular enlightenment in his
chosen field of labour in the South entitles him to rank with our
national
benefactors. The university which can claim him on its list of
sons, whether in regular course or honoris causa, may be proud.
It has been mentioned that Mr. Washington is the first of his
race to receive an honorary degree from a New England university.
This, in itself, is a distinction. But the degree was not
conferred because Mr. Washington is a coloured man, or because he
was born in slavery, but because he has shown, by his work for
the elevation of the people of the Black Belt of the South, a
genius and a broad humanity which count for greatness in any man,
whether his skin be white or black.
Another Boston paper said:--
It is Harvard which, first among New England colleges, confers an
honorary degree upon a black man. No one who has followed the
history of Tuskegee and its work can fail to admire the courage,
persistence, and splendid common sense of Booker T. Washington.
Well may Harvard honour the ex-slave, the value of whose
services, alike to his race and country, only the future can
estimate.
The correspondent of the New York Times wrote:--
All the speeches were enthusiastically received, but the coloured
man carried off the oratorical honours, and the applause which
broke out when he had finished was vociferous and long-continued.
Soon after I began work at Tuskegee I formed a resolution, in the
secret of my heart, that I would try to build up a school that
would be of so much service to the country that the President of
the United States would one day come to see it. This was, I
confess, rather a bold resolution, and for a number of years I
kept it hidden in my own thoughts, not daring to share it with
any one.
In November, 1897, I made the first move in this direction, and
that was in securing a visit from a member of President
McKinley's Cabinet, the Hon. James Wilson, Secretary of
Agriculture. He came to deliver an address at the formal opening
of the Slater-Armstrong Agricultural Building, our first large
building to be used for the purpose of giving training to our
students in agriculture and kindred branches.
In the fall of 1898 I heard that President McKinley was likely to
visit Atlanta, Georgia, for the purpose of taking part in the
Peace Jubilee exercises to be held there to commemorate the
successful close of the Spanish-American war. At this time I had
been hard at work, together with our teachers, for eighteen
years, trying to build up a school that we thought would be of
service to the Nation, and I determined to make a direct effort
to secure a visit from the President and his Cabinet. I went to
Washington, and I was not long in the city before I found my way
to the White House. When I got there I found the waiting rooms
full of people, and my heart began to sink, for I feared there
would not be much chance of my seeing the President that day, if
at all. But, at any rate, I got an opportunity to see Mr. J.
Addison Porter, the secretary to the President, and explained to
him my mission. Mr. Porter kindly sent my card directly to the
President, and in a few minutes word came from Mr. McKinley that
he would see me.
How any man can see so many people of all kinds, with all kinds
of errands, and do so much hard work, and still keep himself
calm, patient, and fresh for each visitor in the way that
President McKinley does, I cannot understand. When I saw the
President he kindly thanked me for the work which we were doing
at Tuskegee for the interests of the country. I then told him,
briefly, the object of my visit. I impressed upon him the fact
that a visit from the Chief Executive of the Nation would not
only encourage our students and teachers, but would help the
entire race. He seemed interested, but did not make a promise to
go to Tuskegee, for the reason that his plans about going to
Atlanta were not then fully made; but he asked me to call the
matter to his attention a few weeks later.
By the middle of the following month the President had definitely
decided to attend the Peace Jubilee at Atlanta. I went to
Washington again and saw him, with a view of getting him to
extend his trip to Tuskegee. On this second visit Mr. Charles W.
Hare, a prominent white citizen of Tuskegee, kindly volunteered
to accompany me, to reenforce my invitation with one from the
white people of Tuskegee and the vicinity.
Just previous to my going to Washington the second time, the
country had been excited, and the coloured people greatly
depressed, because of several severe race riots which had
occurred at different points in the South. As soon as I saw the
President, I perceived that his heart was greatly burdened by
reason of these race disturbances. Although there were many
people waiting to see him, he detained me for some time,
discussing the condition and prospects of the race. He remarked
several times that he was determined to show his interest and
faith in the race, not merely in words, but by acts. When I told
him that I thought that at that time scarcely anything would go
father in giving hope and encouragement to the race than the fact
that the President of the Nation would be willing to travel one
hundred and forty miles out of his way to spend a day at a Negro
institution, he seemed deeply impressed.
While I was with the President, a white citizen of Atlanta, a
Democrat and an ex-slaveholder, came into the room, and the
President asked his opinion as to the wisdom of his going to
Tuskegee. Without hesitation the Atlanta man replied that it was
the proper thing for him to do. This opinion was reenforced by
that friend of the race, Dr. J.L.M. Curry. The President promised
that he would visit our school on the 16th of December.
When it became known that the President was going to visit our
school, the white citizens of the town of Tuskegee--a mile
distant from the school--were as much pleased as were our
students and teachers. The white people of this town, including
both men and women, began arranging to decorate the town, and to
form themselves into committees for the purpose of cooperating
with the officers of our school in order that the distinguished
visitor might have a fitting reception. I think I never realized
before this how much the white people of Tuskegee and vicinity
thought of our institution. During the days when we were
preparing for the President's reception, dozens of these people
came to me and said that, while they did not want to push
themselves into prominence, if there was anything they could do
to help, or to relieve me personally, I had but to intimate it
and they would be only too glad to assist. In fact, the thing
that touched me almost as deeply as the visit of the President
itself was the deep pride which all classes of citizens in
Alabama seemed to take in our work.
The morning of December 16th brought to the little city of
Tuskegee such a crowd as it had never seen before. With the
President came Mrs. McKinley and all of the Cabinet officers but
one; and most of them brought their wives or some members of
their families. Several prominent generals came, including
General Shafter and General Joseph Wheeler, who were recently
returned from the Spanish-American war. There was also a host of
newspaper correspondents. The Alabama Legislature was in session
in Montgomery at this time. This body passed a resolution to
adjourn for the purpose of visited Tuskegee. Just before the
arrival of the President's party the Legislature arrived, headed
by the governor and other state officials.
The citizens of Tuskegee had decorated the town from the station
to the school in a generous manner. In order to economize in the
matter of time, we arranged to have the whole school pass in
review before the President. Each student carried a stalk of
sugar-cane with some open bolls of cotton fastened to the end of
it. Following the students the work of all departments of the
school passed in review, displayed on "floats" drawn by horses,
mules, and oxen. On these floats we tried to exhibit not only the
present work of the school, but to show the contrasts between the
old methods of doing things and the new. As an example, we showed
the old method of dairying in contrast with the improved methods,
the old methods of tilling the soil in contrast with the new, the
old methods of cooking and housekeeping in contrast with the new.
These floats consumed an hour and a half of time in passing.
In his address in our large, new chapel, which the students had
recently completed, the President said, among other things:--
To meet you under such pleasant auspices and to have the
opportunity of a personal observation of your work is indeed most
gratifying. The Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute is ideal
in its conception, and has already a large and growing reputation
in the country, and is not unknown abroad. I congratulate all who
are associated in this undertaking for the good work which it is
doing in the education of its students to lead lives of honour
and usefulness, thus exalting the race for which it was
established.
Nowhere, I think, could a more delightful location have been
chosen for this unique educational experiment, which has
attracted the attention and won the support even of conservative
philanthropists in all sections of the country.
To speak of Tuskegee without paying special tribute to Booker T.
Washington's genius and perseverance would be impossible. The
inception of this noble enterprise was his, and he deserves high
credit for it. His was the enthusiasm and enterprise which made
its steady progress possible and established in the institution
its present high standard of accomplishment. He has won a worthy
reputation as one of the great leaders of his race, widely known
and much respected at home and abroad as an accomplished
educator, a great orator, and a true philanthropist.
The Hon. John D. Long, the Secretary of the Navy, said in part:--
I cannot make a speech to-day. My heart is too full--full of
hope, admiration, and pride for my countrymen of both sections
and both colours. I am filled with gratitude and admiration for
your work, and from this time forward I shall have absolute
confidence in your progress and in the solution of the problem in
which you are engaged.
The problem, I say, has been solved. A picture has been presented
to-day which should be put upon canvas with the pictures of
Washington and Lincoln, and transmitted to future time and
generations--a picture which the press of the country should
spread broadcast over the land, a most dramatic picture, and that
picture is this: The President of the United States standing on
this platform; on one side the Governor of Alabama, on the other,
completing the trinity, a representative of a race only a few
years ago in bondage, the coloured President of the Tuskegee
Normal and Industrial Institute.
God bless the President under whose majesty such a scene as that
is presented to the American people. God bless the state of
Alabama, which is showing that it can deal with this problem for
itself. God bless the orator, philanthropist, and disciple of the
Great Master--who, if he were on earth, would be doing the same
work--Booker T. Washington.
Postmaster General Smith closed the address which he made with
these words:--
We have witnessed many spectacles within the last few days. We
have seen the magnificent grandeur and the magnificent
achievements of one of the great metropolitan cities of the
South. We have seen heroes of the war pass by in procession. We
have seen floral parades. But I am sure my colleagues will agree
with me in saying that we have witnessed no spectacle more
impressive and more encouraging, more inspiring for our future,
than that which we have witnessed here this morning.
Some days after the President returned to Washington I received
the letter which follows:--
Executive Mansion, Washington, Dec. 23, 1899.
Dear Sir: By this mail I take pleasure in sending you engrossed
copies of the souvenir of the visit of the President to your
institution. These sheets bear the autographs of the President
and the members of the Cabinet who accompanied him on the trip.
Let me take this opportunity of congratulating you most heartily
and sincerely upon the great success of the exercises provided
for and entertainment furnished us under your auspices during our
visit to Tuskegee. Every feature of the programme was perfectly
executed and was viewed or participated in with the heartiest
satisfaction by every visitor present. The unique exhibition
which you gave of your pupils engaged in their industrial
vocations was not only artistic but thoroughly impressive. The
tribute paid by the President and his Cabinet to your work was
none too high, and forms a most encouraging augury, I think, for
the future prosperity of your institution. I cannot close without
assuring you that the modesty shown by yourself in the exercises
was most favourably commented upon by all the members of our
party.
With best wishes for the continued advance of your most useful
and patriotic undertaking, kind personal regards, and the
compliments of the season, believe me, always,
Very sincerely yours,
John Addison Porter,
Secretary to the President.
To President Booker T. Washington, Tuskegee Normal and Industrial
Institute, Tuskegee, Ala.
Twenty years have now passed since I made the first humble effort
at Tuskegee, in a broken-down shanty and an old hen-house,
without owning a dollar's worth of property, and with but one
teacher and thirty students. At the present time the institution
owns twenty-three hundred acres of land, one thousand of which
are under cultivation each year, entirely by student labour.
There are now upon the grounds, counting large and small,
sixty-six buildings; and all except four of these have been
almost wholly erected by the labour of our students. While the
students are at work upon the land and in erecting buildings,
they are taught, by competent instructors, the latest methods of
agriculture and the trades connected with building.
There are in constant operation at the school, in connection with
thorough academic and religious training, thirty industrial
departments. All of these teach industries at which our men and
women can find immediate employment as soon as they leave the
institution. The only difficulty now is that the demand for our
graduates from both white and black people in the South is so
great that we cannot supply more than one-half the persons for
whom applications come to us. Neither have we the buildings nor
the money for current expenses to enable us to admit to the
school more than one-half the young men and women who apply to us
for admission.
In our industrial teaching we keep three things in mind: first,
that the student shall be so educated that he shall be enabled to
meet conditions as they exist now, in the part of the South where
he lives--in a word, to be able to do the thing which the world
wants done; second, that every student who graduates from the
school shall have enough skill, coupled with intelligence and
moral character, to enable him to make a living for himself and
others; third, to send every graduate out feeling and knowing
that labour is dignified and beautiful--to make each one love
labour instead of trying to escape it. In addition to the
agricultural training which we give to young men, and the
training given to our girls in all the usual domestic
employments, we now train a number of girls in agriculture each
year. These girls are taught gardening, fruit-growing, dairying,
bee-culture, and poultry-raising.
While the institution is in no sense denominational, we have a
department known as the Phelps Hall Bible Training School, in
which a number of students are prepared for the ministry and
other forms of Christian work, especially work in the country
districts. What is equally important, each one of the students
works . . . each day at some industry, in order to get skill and
the love of work, so that when he goes out from the institution
he is prepared to set the people with whom he goes to labour a
proper example in the matter of industry.
The value of our property is now over $700,000. If we add to this
our endowment fund, which at present is $1,000,000, the value of
the total property is now $1,700,000. Aside from the need for
more buildings and for money for current expenses, the endowment
fund should be increased to at least $3,000,000. The annual
current expenses are now about $150,000. The greater part of this
I collect each year by going from door to door and from house to
house. All of our property is free from mortgage, and is deeded
to an undenominational board of trustees who have the control of
the institution.
From thirty students the number has grown to fourteen hundred,
coming from twenty-seven states and territories, from Africa,
Cuba, Porto Rico, Jamaica, and other foreign countries. In our
departments there are one hundred and ten officers and
instructors; and if we add the families of our instructors, we
have a constant population upon our grounds of not far from
seventeen hundred people.
I have often been asked how we keep so large a body of people
together, and at the same time keep them out of mischief. There
are two answers: that the men and women who come to us for an
education are in earnest; and that everybody is kept busy. The
following outline of our daily work will testify to this:--
5 a.m., rising bell; 5.50 a.m., warning breakfast bell; 6 a.m.,
breakfast bell; 6.20 a.m., breakfast over; 6.20 to 6.50 a.m.,
rooms are cleaned; 6.50, work bell; 7.30, morning study hours;
8.20, morning school bell; 8.25, inspection of young men's toilet
in ranks; 8.40, devotional exercises in chapel; 8.55, "five
minutes with the daily news;" 9 a.m., class work begins; 12,
class work closes; 12.15 p.m., dinner; 1 p.m., work bell; 1.30
p.m., class work begins; 3.30 p.m., class work ends; 5.30 p.m.,
bell to "knock off" work; 6 p.m., supper; 7.10 p.m., evening
prayers; 7.30 p.m., evening study hours; 8.45 p.m., evening study
hour closes; 9.20 p.m., warning retiring bell; 9.30 p.m.,
retiring bell.
We try to keep constantly in mind the fact that the worth of the
school is to be judged by its graduates. Counting those who have
finished the full course, together with those who have taken
enough training to enable them to do reasonably good work, we can
safely say that at least six thousand men and women from Tuskegee
are now at work in different parts of the South; men and women
who, by their own example or by direct efforts, are showing the
masses of our race now to improve their material, educational,
and moral and religious life. What is equally important, they are
exhibiting a degree of common sense and self-control which is
causing better relations to exist between the races, and is
causing the Southern white man to learn to believe in the value
of educating the men and women of my race. Aside from this, there
is the influence that is constantly being exerted through the
mothers' meeting and the plantation work conducted by Mrs.
Washington.
Wherever our graduates go, the changes which soon begin to appear
in the buying of land, improving homes, saving money, in
education, and in high moral characters are remarkable. Whole
communities are fast being revolutionized through the
instrumentality of these men and women.
Ten years ago I organized at Tuskegee the first Negro Conference.
This is an annual gathering which now brings to the school eight
or nine hundred representative men and women of the race, who
come to spend a day in finding out what the actual industrial,
mental, and moral conditions of the people are, and in forming
plans for improvement. Out from this central Negro Conference at
Tuskegee have grown numerous state an local conferences which are
doing the same kind of work. As a result of the influence of
these gatherings, one delegate reported at the last annual
meeting that ten families in his community had bought and paid
for homes. On the day following the annual Negro Conference,
there is the "Workers' Conference." This is composed of officers
and teachers who are engaged in educational work in the larger
institutions in the South. The Negro Conference furnishes a rare
opportunity for these workers to study the real condition of the
rank and file of the people.
In the summer of 1900, with the assistance of such prominent
coloured men as Mr. T. Thomas Fortune, who has always upheld my
hands in every effort, I organized the National Negro Business
League, which held its first meeting in Boston, and brought
together for the first time a large number of the coloured men
who are engaged in various lines of trade or business in
different parts of the United States. Thirty states were
represented at our first meeting. Out of this national meeting
grew state and local business leagues.
In addition to looking after the executive side of the work at
Tuskegee, and raising the greater part of the money for the
support of the school, I cannot seem to escape the duty of
answering at least a part of the calls which come to me unsought
to address Southern white audiences and audiences of my own race,
as well as frequent gatherings in the North. As to how much of my
time is spent in this way, the following clipping from a Buffalo
(N.Y.) paper will tell. This has reference to an occasion when I
spoke before the National Educational Association in that city.
Booker T. Washington, the foremost educator among the coloured
people of the world, was a very busy man from the time he arrived
in the city the other night from the West and registered at the
Iroquois. He had hardly removed the stains of travel when it was
time to partake of supper. Then he held a public levee in the
parlours of the Iroquois until eight o'clock. During that time he
was greeted by over two hundred eminent teachers and educators
from all parts of the United States. Shortly after eight o'clock
he was driven in a carriage to Music Hall, and in one hour and a
half he made two ringing addresses, to as many as five thousand
people, on Negro education. Then Mr. Washington was taken in
charge by a delegation of coloured citizens, headed by the Rev.
Mr. Watkins, and hustled off to a small informal reception,
arranged in honour of the visitor by the people of his race.
Nor can I, in addition to making these addresses, escape the duty
of calling the attention of the South and of the country in
general, through the medium of the press, to matters that pertain
to the interests of both races. This, for example, I have done in
regard to the evil habit of lynching. When the Louisiana State
Constitutional Convention was in session, I wrote an open letter
to that body pleading for justice for the race. In all such
efforts I have received warm and hearty support from the Southern
newspapers, as well as from those in all other parts of the
country.
Despite superficial and temporary signs which might lead one to
entertain a contrary opinion, there was never a time when I felt
more hopeful for the race than I do at the present. The great
human law that in the end recognizes and rewards merit is
everlasting and universal. The outside world does not know,
neither can it appreciate, the struggle that is constantly going
on in the hearts of both the Southern white people and their
former slaves to free themselves from racial prejudice; and while
both races are thus struggling they should have the sympathy, the
support, and the forbearance of the rest of the world.
As I write the closing words of this autobiography I find
myself--not by design--in the city of Richmond, Virginia: the
city which only a few decades ago was the capital of the Southern
Confederacy, and where, about twenty-five years ago, because of
my poverty I slept night after night under a sidewalk.
This time I am in Richmond as the guest of the coloured people of
the city; and came at their request to deliver an address last
night to both races in the Academy of Music, the largest and
finest audience room in the city. This was the first time that
the coloured people had ever been permitted to use this hall. The
day before I came, the City Council passed a vote to attend the
meeting in a body to hear me speak. The state Legislature,
including the House of Delegates and the Senate, also passed a
unaminous vote to attend in a body. In the presence of hundreds
of coloured people, many distinguished white citizens, the City
Council, the state Legislature, and state officials, I delivered
my message, which was one of hope and cheer; and from the bottom
of my heart I thanked both races for this welcome back to the
state that gave me birth.
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