Chapter VI. Black Race And Red Race

by Booker T. Washington

　　During the year that I spent in Washington, and for some littletime before this, there had been considerable agitation in thestate of West Virginia over the question of moving the capital ofthe state from Wheeling to some other central point. As a resultof this, the Legislature designated three cities to be voted uponby the citizens of the state as the permanent seat of government.Among these cities was Charleston, only five miles from Malden,my home. At the close of my school year in Washington I was verypleasantly surprised to receive, from a committee of three whitepeople in Charleston, an invitation to canvass the state in theinterests of that city. This invitation I accepted, and spentnearly three months in speaking in various parts of the state.Charleston was successful in winning the prize, and is now thepermanent seat of government.The reputation that I made as a speaker during this campaigninduced a number of persons to make an earnest effort to get meto enter political life, but I refused, still believing that Icould find other service which would prove of more permanentvalue to my race. Even then I had a strong feeling that what ourpeople most needed was to get a foundation in education,industry, and property, and for this I felt that they couldbetter afford to strive than for political preferment. As for myindividual self, it appeared to me to be reasonably certain thatI could succeed in political life, but I had a feeling that itwould be a rather selfish kind of success--individual success atthe cost of failing to do my duty in assisting in laying afoundation for the masses.At this period in the progress of our race a very largeproportion of the young men who went to school or to college didso with the expressed determination to prepare themselves to begreat lawyers, or Congressmen, and many of the women planned tobecome music teachers; but I had a reasonably fixed idea, even atthat early period in my life, that there was a need for somethingto be done to prepare the way for successful lawyers,Congressmen, and music teachers.I felt that the conditions were a good deal like those of an oldcoloured man, during the days of slavery, who wanted to learn howto play on the guitar. In his desire to take guitar lessons heapplied to one of his young masters to teach him, but the youngman, not having much faith in the ability of the slave to masterthe guitar at his age, sought to discourage him by telling him:"Uncle Jake, I will give you guitar lessons; but, Jake, I willhave to charge you three dollars for the first lesson, twodollars for the second lesson, and one dollar for the thirdlesson. But I will charge you only twenty-five cents for the lastlesson."Uncle Jake answered: "All right, boss, I hires you on dem terms.But, boss! I wants yer to be sure an' give me dat las' lessonfirst."Soon after my work in connection with the removal of the capitalwas finished, I received an invitation which gave me great joyand which at the same time was a very pleasant surprise. This wasa letter from General Armstrong, inviting me to return to Hamptonat the next Commencement to deliver what was called the"post-graduate address." This was an honour which I had notdreamed of receiving. With much care I prepared the best addressthat I was capable of. I chose for my subject "The Force ThatWins."As I returned to Hampton for the purpose of delivering thisaddress, I went over much of the same ground--now, however,covered entirely by railroad--that I had traversed nearly sixyears before, when I first sought entrance into Hampton Instituteas a student. Now I was able to ride the whole distance in thetrain. I was constantly contrasting this with my first journey toHampton. I think I may say, without seeming egotism, that it isseldom that five years have wrought such a change in the life andaspirations of an individual.At Hampton I received a warm welcome from teachers and students.I found that during my absence from Hampton the institute eachyear had been getting closer to the real needs and conditions ofour people; that the industrial reaching, as well as that of theacademic department, had greatly improved. The plan of the schoolwas not modelled after that of any other institution then inexistence, but every improvement was made under the magnificentleadership of General Armstrong solely with the view of meetingand helping the needs of our people as they presented themselvesat the time. Too often, it seems to me, in missionary andeducational work among underdeveloped races, people yield to thetemptation of doing that which was done a hundred years before,or is being done in other communities a thousand miles away. Thetemptation often is to run each individual through a certaineducational mould, regardless of the condition of the subject orthe end to be accomplished. This was not so at Hampton Institute.The address which I delivered on Commencement Day seems to havepleased every one, and many kind and encouraging words werespoken to me regarding it. Soon after my return to my home inWest Virginia, where I had planned to continue teaching, I wasagain surprised to receive a letter from General Armstrong,asking me to return to Hampton partly as a teacher and partly topursue some supplementary studies. This was in the summer of1879. Soon after I began my first teaching in West Virginia I hadpicked out four of the brightest and most promising of my pupils,in addition to my two brothers, to whom I have already referred,and had given them special attention, with the view of havingthem go to Hampton. They had gone there, and in each case theteachers had found them so well prepared that they enteredadvanced classes. This fact, it seems, led to my being calledback to Hampton as a teacher. One of the young men that I sent toHampton in this way is now Dr. Samuel E. Courtney, a successfulphysician in Boston, and a member of the School Board of thatcity.About this time the experiment was being tried for the firsttime, by General Armstrong, of education Indians at Hampton. Fewpeople then had any confidence in the ability of the Indians toreceive education and to profit by it. General Armstrong wasanxious to try the experiment systematically on a large scale. Hesecured from the reservations in the Western states over onehundred wild and for the most part perfectly ignorant Indians,the greater proportion of whom were young men. The special workwhich the General desired me to do was be a sort of "housefather" to the Indian young men--that is, I was to live in thebuilding with them and have the charge of their discipline,clothing, rooms, and so on. This was a very tempting offer, but Ihad become so much absorbed in my work in West Virginia that Idreaded to give it up. However, I tore myself away from it. I didnot know how to refuse to perform any service that GeneralArmstrong desired of me.On going to Hampton, I took up my residence in a building withabout seventy-five Indian youths. I was the only person in thebuilding who was not a member of their race. At first I had agood deal of doubt about my ability to succeed. I knew that theaverage Indian felt himself above the white man, and, of course,he felt himself far above the Negro, largely on account of thefact of the Negro having submitted to slavery--a thing which theIndian would never do. The Indians, in the Indian Territory,owned a large number of slaves during the days of slavery. Asidefrom this, there was a general feeling that the attempt toeducation and civilize the red men at Hampton would be a failure.All this made me proceed very cautiously, for I felt keenly thegreat responsibility. But I was determined to succeed. It was notlong before I had the complete confidence of the Indians, and notonly this, but I think I am safe in saying that I had their loveand respect. I found that they were about like any other humanbeings; that they responded to kind treatment and resentedill-treatment. They were continually planning to do somethingthat would add to my happiness and comfort. The things that theydisliked most, I think, were to have their long hair cut, to giveup wearing their blankets, and to cease smoking; but no whiteAmerican ever thinks that any other race is wholly civilizeduntil he wears the white man's clothes, eats the white man'sfood, speaks the white man's language, and professes the whiteman's religion.When the difficulty of learning the English language wassubtracted, I found that in the matter of learning trades and inmastering academic studies there was little difference betweenthe coloured and Indian students. It was a constant delight to meto note the interest which the coloured students took in tryingto help the Indians in every way possible. There were a few ofthe coloured students who felt that the Indians ought not to beadmitted to Hampton, but these were in the minority. Wheneverthey were asked to do so, the Negro students gladly took theIndians as room-mates, in order that they might teach them tospeak English and to acquire civilized habits.I have often wondered if there was a white institution in thiscountry whose students would have welcomed the incoming of morethan a hundred companions of another race in the cordial way thatthese black students at Hampton welcomed the red ones. How oftenI have wanted to say to white students that they lift themselvesup in proportion as they help to lift others, and the moreunfortunate the race, and the lower in the scale of civilization,the more does one raise one's self by giving the assistance.This reminds me of a conversation which I once had with the Hon.Frederick Douglass. At one time Mr. Douglass was travelling inthe state of Pennsylvania, and was forced, on account of hiscolour, to ride in the baggage-car, in spite of the fact that hehad paid the same price for his passage that the other passengershad paid. When some of the white passengers went into thebaggage-car to console Mr. Douglass, and one of them said to him:"I am sorry, Mr. Douglass, that you have been degraded in thismanner," Mr. Douglass straightened himself up on the box uponwhich he was sitting, and replied: "They cannot degrade FrederickDouglass. The soul that is within me no man can degrade. I am notthe one that is being degraded on account of this treatment, butthose who are inflicting it upon me."In one part of the country, where the law demands the separationof the races on the railroad trains, I saw at one time a ratheramusing instance which showed how difficult it sometimes is toknow where the black begins and the white ends.There was a man who was well known in his community as a Negro,but who was so white that even an expert would have hard work toclassify him as a black man. This man was riding in the part ofthe train set aside for the coloured passengers. When the trainconductor reached him, he showed at once that he was perplexed.If the man was a Negro, the conductor did not want to send him tothe white people's coach; at the same time, if he was a whiteman, the conductor did not want to insult him by asking him if hewas a Negro. The official looked him over carefully, examininghis hair, eyes, nose, and hands, but still seemed puzzled.Finally, to solve the difficulty, he stooped over and peeped atthe man's feet. When I saw the conductor examining the feet ofthe man in question, I said to myself, "That will settle it;" andso it did, for the trainman promptly decided that the passengerwas a Negro, and let him remain where he was. I congratulatedmyself that my race was fortunate in not losing one of itsmembers.My experience has been that the time to test a true gentleman isto observe him when he is in contact with individuals of a racethat is less fortunate than his own. This is illustrated in nobetter way than by observing the conduct of the old-school typeof Southern gentleman when he is in contact with his formersalves or their descendants.An example of what I mean is shown in a story told of GeorgeWashington, who, meeting a coloured man in the road once, whopolitely lifted his hat, lifted his own in return. Some of hiswhite friends who saw the incident criticised Washington for hisaction. In reply to their criticism George Washington said: "Doyou suppose that I am going to permit a poor, ignorant, colouredman to be more polite than I am?"While I was in charge of the Indian boys at Hampton, I had one ortwo experiences which illustrate the curious workings of caste inAmerica. One of the Indian boys was taken ill, and it became myduty to take him to Washington, deliver him over to the Secretaryof the Interior, and get a receipt for him, in order that hemight be returned to his Western reservation. At that time I wasrather ignorant of the ways of the world. During my journey toWashington, on a steamboat, when the bell rang for dinner, I wascareful to wait and not enter the dining room until after thegreater part of the passengers had finished their meal. Then,with my charge, I went to the dining saloon. The man in chargepolitely informed me that the Indian could be served, but that Icould not. I never could understand how he knew just where todraw the colour line, since the Indian and I were of about thesame complexion. The steward, however, seemed to be an expert inthis manner. I had been directed by the authorities at Hampton tostop at a certain hotel in Washington with my charge, but when Iwent to this hotel the clerk stated that he would be glad toreceive the Indian into the house, but said that he could notaccommodate me.An illustration of something of this same feeling came under myobservation afterward. I happened to find myself in a town inwhich so much excitement and indignation were being expressedthat it seemed likely for a time that there would be a lynching.The occasion of the trouble was that a dark-skinned man hadstopped at the local hotel. Investigation, however, developed thefact that this individual was a citizen of Morocco, and thatwhile travelling in this country he spoke the English language.As soon as it was learned that he was not an American Negro, allthe signs of indignation disappeared. The man who was theinnocent cause of the excitement, though, found it prudent afterthat not to speak English.At the end of my first year with the Indians there came anotheropening for me at Hampton, which, as I look back over my lifenow, seems to have come providentially, to help to prepare me formy work at Tuskegee later. General Armstrong had found out thatthere was quite a number of young coloured men and women who wereintensely in earnest in wishing to get an education, but who wereprevented from entering Hampton Institute because they were toopoor to be able to pay any portion of the cost of their board, oreven to supply themselves with books. He conceived the idea ofstarting a night-school in connection with the Institute, intowhich a limited number of the most promising of these young menand women would be received, on condition that they were to workfor ten hours during the day, and attend school for two hours atnight. They were to be paid something above the cost of theirboard for their work. The greater part of their earnings was tobe reserved in the school's treasury as a fund to be drawn on topay their board when they had become students in the day-school,after they had spent one or two years in the night-school. Inthis way they would obtain a start in their books and a knowledgeof some trade or industry, in addition to the other far-reachingbenefits of the institution.General Armstrong asked me to take charge of the night-school,and I did so. At the beginning of this school there were abouttwelve strong, earnest men and women who entered the class.During the day the greater part of the young men worked in theschool's sawmill, and the young men worked in the laundry. Thework was not easy in either place, but in all my teaching I nevertaught pupils who gave me much genuine satisfaction as these did.They were good students, and mastered their work thoroughly. Theywere so much in earnest that only the ringing of theretiring-bell would make them stop studying, and often they wouldurge me to continue the lessons after the usual hour for going tobed had come.These students showed so much earnestness, both in their hardwork during the day, as well as in their application to theirstudies at night, that I gave them the name of "The PluckyClass"--a name which soon grew popular and spread throughout theinstitution. After a student had been in the night-school longenough to prove what was in him, I gave him a printed certificatewhich read something like this:--"This is to certify that James Smith is a member of The PluckyClass of the Hampton Institute, and is in good and regularstanding."The students prized these certificates highly, and they addedgreatly to the popularity of the night-school. Within a few weeksthis department had grown to such an extent that there were abouttwenty-five students in attendance. I have followed the course ofmany of these twenty-five men and women ever since then, and theyare now holding important and useful positions in nearly everypart of the South. The night-school at Hampton, which startedwith only twelve students, now numbers between three and fourhundred, and is one of the permanent and most important featuresof the institution.