Chapter V. The Reconstruction Period

by Booker T. Washington

　　The years from 1867 to 1878 I think may be called the period ofReconstruction. This included the time that I spent as a studentat Hampton and as a teacher in West Virginia. During the whole ofthe Reconstruction period two ideas were constantly agitating inthe minds of the coloured people, or, at least, in the minds of alarge part of the race. One of these was the craze for Greek andLatin learning, and the other was a desire to hold office.It could not have been expected that a people who had spentgenerations in slavery, and before that generations in thedarkest heathenism, could at first form any proper conception ofwhat an education meant. In every part of the South, during theReconstruction period, schools, both day and night, were filledto overflowing with people of all ages and conditions, some beingas far along in age as sixty and seventy years. The ambition tosecure an education was most praiseworthy and encouraging. Theidea, however, was too prevalent that, as soon as one secured alittle education, in some unexplainable way he would be free frommost of the hardships of the world, and, at any rate, could livewithout manual labour. There was a further feeling that aknowledge, however little, of the Greek and Latin languages wouldmake one a very superior human being, something bordering almoston the supernatural. I remember that the first coloured man whomI saw who knew something about foreign languages impressed me atthe time as being a man of all others to be envied.Naturally, most of our people who received some little educationbecame teachers or preachers. While among those two classes therewere many capable, earnest, godly men and women, still a largeproportion took up teaching or preaching as an easy way to make aliving. Many became teachers who could do little more than writetheir names. I remember there came into our neighbourhood one ofthis class, who was in search of a school to teach, and thequestion arose while he was there as to the shape of the earthand how he could teach the children concerning the subject. Heexplained his position in the matter by saying that he wasprepared to teach that the earth was either flat or round,according to the preference of a majority of his patrons.The ministry was the profession that suffered most--and stillsuffers, though there has been great improvement--on account ofnot only ignorant but in many cases immoral men who claimed thatthey were "called to preach." In the earlier days of freedomalmost every coloured man who learned to read would receive "acall to preach" within a few days after he began reading. At myhome in West Virginia the process of being called to the ministrywas a very interesting one. Usually the "call" came when theindividual was sitting in church. Without warning the one calledwould fall upon the floor as if struck by a bullet, and would liethere for hours, speechless and motionless. Then the news wouldspread all through the neighborhood that this individual hadreceived a "call." If he were inclined to resist the summons, hewould fall or be made to fall a second or third time. In the endhe always yielded to the call. While I wanted an education badly,I confess that in my youth I had a fear that when I had learnedto read and write very well I would receive one of these "calls";but, for some reason, my call never came.When we add the number of wholly ignorant men who preached or"exhorted" to that of those who possessed something of aneducation, it can be seen at a glance that the supply ofministers was large. In fact, some time ago I knew a certainchurch that had a total membership of about two hundred, andeighteen of that number were ministers. But, I repeat, in manycommunities in the South the character of the ministry is beingimproved, and I believe that within the next two or three decadesa very large proportion of the unworthy ones will havedisappeared. The "calls" to preach, I am glad to say, are notnearly so numerous now as they were formerly, and the calls tosome industrial occupation are growing more numerous. Theimprovement that has taken place in the character of the teachersis even more marked than in the case of the ministers.During the whole of the Reconstruction period our peoplethroughout the South looked to the Federal Government foreverything, very much as a child looks to its mother. This wasnot unnatural. The central government gave them freedom, and thewhole Nation had been enriched for more than two centuries by thelabour of the Negro. Even as a youth, and later in manhood, I hadthe feeling that it was cruelly wrong in the central government,at the beginning of our freedom, to fail to make some provisionfor the general education of our people in addition to what thestates might do, so that the people would be the better preparedfor the duties of citizenship.It is easy to find fault, to remark what might have been done,and perhaps, after all, and under all the circumstances, those incharge of the conduct of affairs did the only thing that could bedone at the time. Still, as I look back now over the entireperiod of our freedom, I cannot help feeling that it would havebeen wiser if some plan could have been put in operation whichwould have made the possession of a certain amount of educationor property, or both, a test for the exercise of the franchise,and a way provided by which this test should be made to applyhonestly and squarely to both the white and black races.Though I was but little more than a youth during the period ofReconstruction, I had the feeling that mistakes were being made,and that things could not remain in the condition that they werein then very long. I felt that the Reconstruction policy, so faras it related to my race, was in a large measure on a falsefoundation, was artificial and forced. In many cases it seemed tome that the ignorance of my race was being used as a tool withwhich to help white men into office, and that there was anelement in the North which wanted to punish the Southern whitemen by forcing the Negro into positions over the heads of theSouthern whites. I felt that the Negro would be the one to sufferfor this in the end. Besides, the general political agitationdrew the attention of our people away from the more fundamentalmatters of perfecting themselves in the industries at their doorsand in securing property.The temptations to enter political life were so alluring that Icame very near yielding to them at one time, but I was kept fromdoing so by the feeling that I would be helping in a moresubstantial way by assisting in the laying of the foundation ofthe race through a generous education of the hand, head, andheart. I saw coloured men who were members of the statelegislatures, and county officers, who, in some cases, could notread or write, and whose morals were as weak as their education.Not long ago, when passing through the streets of a certain cityin the South, I heard some brick-masons calling out, from the topof a two-story brick building on which they were working, for the"Governor" to "hurry up and bring up some more bricks." Severaltimes I heard the command, "Hurry up, Governor!" "Hurry up,Governor!" My curiosity was aroused to such an extent that I madeinquiry as to who the "Governor" was, and soon found that he wasa coloured man who at one time had held the position ofLieutenant-Governor of his state.But not all the coloured people who were in office duringReconstruction were unworthy of their positions, by any means.Some of them, like the late Senator B.K. Bruce, GovernorPinchback, and many others, were strong, upright, useful men.Neither were all the class designated as carpetbaggersdishonourable men. Some of them, like ex-Governor Bullock, ofGeorgia, were men of high character and usefulness.Of course the coloured people, so largely without education, andwholly without experience in government, made tremendousmistakes, just as many people similarly situated would have done.Many of the Southern whites have a feeling that, if the Negro ispermitted to exercise his political rights now to any degree, themistakes of the Reconstruction period will repeat themselves. Ido not think this would be true, because the Negro is a muchstronger and wiser man than he was thirty-five years ago, and heis fast learning the lesson that he cannot afford to act in amanner that will alienate his Southern white neighbours from him.More and more I am convinced that the final solution of thepolitical end of our race problem will be for each state thatfinds it necessary to change the law bearing upon the franchiseto make the law apply with absolute honesty, and withoutopportunity for double dealing or evasion, to both races alike.Any other course my daily observation in the South convinces me,will be unjust to the Negro, unjust to the white man, and unfairto the rest of the state in the Union, and will be, like slavery,a sin that at some time we shall have to pay for.In the fall of 1878, after having taught school in Malden for twoyears, and after I had succeeded in preparing several of theyoung men and women, besides my two brothers, to enter theHampton Institute, I decided to spend some months in study atWashington, D.C. I remained there for eight months. I derived agreat deal of benefit from the studies which I pursued, and Icame into contact with some strong men and women. At theinstitution I attended there was no industrial training given tothe students, and I had an opportunity of comparing the influenceof an institution with no industrial training with that of onelike the Hampton Institute, that emphasizes the industries. Atthis school I found the students, in most cases, had more money,were better dressed, wore the latest style of all manner ofclothing, and in some cases were more brilliant mentally. AtHampton it was a standing rule that, while the institution wouldbe responsible for securing some one to pay the tuition for thestudents, the men and women themselves must provide for their ownboard, books, clothing, and room wholly by work, or partly bywork and partly in cash. At the institution at which I now was, Ifound that a large portion of the students by some means hadtheir personal expenses paid for them. At Hampton the student wasconstantly making the effort through the industries to helphimself, and that very effort was of immense value incharacter-building. The students at the other school seemed to beless self-dependent. They seemed to give more attention to mereoutward appearances. In a word, they did not appear to me to bebeginning at the bottom, on a real, solid foundation, to theextent that they were at Hampton. They knew more about Latin andGreek when they left school, but they seemed to know less aboutlife and its conditions as they would meet it at their homes.Having lived for a number of years in the midst of comfortablesurroundings, they were not as much inclined as the Hamptonstudents to go into the country districts of the South, wherethere was little of comfort, to take up work for our people, andthey were more inclined to yield to the temptation to becomehotel waiters and Pullman-car porters as their life-work.During the time I was a student at Washington the city wascrowded with coloured people, many of whom had recently come fromthe South. A large proportion of these people had been drawn toWashington because they felt that they could lead a life of easethere. Others had secured minor government positions, and stillanother large class was there in the hope of securing Federalpositions. A number of coloured men--some of them very strong andbrilliant--were in the House of Representatives at that time, andone, the Hon. B.K. Bruce, was in the Senate. All this tended tomake Washington an attractive place for members of the colouredrace. Then, too, they knew that at all times they could have theprotection of the law in the District of Columbia. The publicschools in Washington for coloured people were better then thanthey were elsewhere. I took great interest in studying the lifeof our people there closely at that time. I found that whileamong them there was a large element of substantial, worthycitizens, there was also a superficiality about the life of alarge class that greatly alarmed me. I saw young coloured men whowere not earning more than four dollars a week spend two dollarsor more for a buggy on Sunday to ride up and down PennsylvaniaAvenue in, in order that they might try to convince the worldthat they were worth thousands. I saw other young men whoreceived seventy-five or one hundred dollars per month from theGovernment, who were in debt at the end of every month. I saw menwho but a few months previous were members of Congress, thenwithout employment and in poverty. Among a large class thereseemed to be a dependence upon the Government for everyconceivable thing. The members of this class had little ambitionto create a position for themselves, but wanted the Federalofficials to create one for them. How many times I wished them,and have often wished since, that by some power of magic I mightremove the great bulk of these people into the county districtsand plant them upon the soil, upon the solid and never deceptivefoundation of Mother Nature, where all nations and races thathave ever succeeded have gotten their start,--a start that atfirst may be slow and toilsome, but one that nevertheless isreal.In Washington I saw girls whose mothers were earning their livingby laundrying. These girls were taught by their mothers, inrather a crude way it is true, the industry of laundrying. Later,these girls entered the public schools and remained there perhapssix or eight years. When the public school course was finallyfinished, they wanted more costly dresses, more costly hats andshoes. In a word, while their wants have been increased, theirability to supply their wants had not been increased in the samedegree. On the other hand, their six or eight years of bookeducation had weaned them away from the occupation of theirmothers. The result of this was in too many cases that the girlswent to the bad. I often thought how much wiser it would havebeen to give these girls the same amount of maternaltraining--and I favour any kind of training, whether in thelanguages or mathematics, that gives strength and culture to themind --but at the same time to give them the most thoroughtraining in the latest and best methods of laundrying and otherkindred occupations.