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 to 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 “pineknot 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 desires 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 mansions 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 reinforce 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 farther 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
reinforced 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 the
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 at Montgomery at this time. This body
passed a resolution to adjourn for the purpose of visiting 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 program 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 favorably 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 labor 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 these students works half of 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 hour; 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 hour;
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 effort, are showing the
masses of our race how 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 character 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 and 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 held 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- 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 unanimous 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.
THE END