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 down
payment 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 increased 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
colored 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 colored 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 color 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 practice 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 charged 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 comforting 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
frost-bitten 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 colored 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 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 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 rode 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 to 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 into 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
criticizing 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 labor 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
carpenter’s tools, and the bedsteads made by the students then were very
rough and very weak. Not infrequently 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 so 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
toothbrush. “The gospel of the tooth-brush,” as General Armstrong used
to call it, is apart of our creed at Tuskegee. No student is permitted to
remain 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 older 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 nightgown 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 and no 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 chapel in the evening and their dress
is inspected, as it is every night, not one button is to be found missing.
CHAPTER XII