Washington, yet the prevailing public opinion of the land has been buttoo willing to deliver the solution of a wearisome problem into his hands,and say, “If that is all you and your race ask, take it.”

when in fact the burden belongs to the nation, and the hands of none ofus are clean if we bend not our energies to righting these great wrongs

To praise this intricate whirl ofthought and prejudice is nonsense; to inveigh indiscriminately against“the South” is unjust

he present generation of Southerners are not responsible for the past

.

they insist that the way to truthand right lies in straightforward honesty, not in indiscriminate flattery

relentless color-prejudice is more often a cause than a result of the Ne-gro’s degradation

1. The right to vote.2. Civic equality.3. The education of youth according to ability.

He is striving nobly to make Negro artisans business menand property-owners

meagre

First, political power,Second, insistence on civil rights,Third, higher education of Negro youth,—and concentrate all their energies on industrial education, and accu-mulation of wealth, and the conciliation of the South

more advanced races are comingin closer contact with the less developed races, and the race-feelingis therefore intensified

But Booker T.Washington arose as essentially the leader not of one race but of two,—acompromiser between the South, the North, and the Negro

the suppression of the Negro votes,the changing and shifting of ideals, and the seeking of new lights in thegreat night

butthe assertion of the manhood rights of the Negro by himself was themain reliance

as “people of color,” not as“Negroes.”

insurrection

ardor

Now in the past the American Negro has had instructive experience inthe choosing of group leaders, founding thus a peculiar dynasty which inthe light of present conditions is worth while studying

If the best of the AmericanNegroes receive by outer pressurea leader whom they had not recog-nized before, manifestly there is herea certain palpable gain.

It leads some of the best of the critics to unfortunate silence andparalysis of effort, and others toburst into speech so passionatelyand intemperately as to lose listeners.

demagogues

mere envy

Mr. Washington has encounteredthe strongest and most lasting opposition, amounting at times to bit-terness, and even today continuing strong and insistent even thoughlargely silenced in outward expression by the public opinion of thenation.

hitherto

So Mr. Washington’s culthas gained unquestioning followers, his work has wonderfully prospered,his friends are legion, and his enemies are confounded

and training, so by singular insight he intuitively grasped the spiritof the age which was dominating the North

This “Atlanta Compromise” is by all odds the most notable thing inMr. Washington’s career. The South interpreted it in different ways: theradicals received it as a complete surrender of the demand for civil andpolitical equality; the conservatives, as a generously conceived workingbasis for mutual understanding

the Free Negroes from 1830 up to war-time hadstriven to build industrial schools, and the American Missionary Associ-ation had from the first taught various trades; and Price and others hadsought a way of honorable alliance with the best of the Southerners. ButMr. Washington first indissolubly linked these things; he put enthusiasm,unlimited energy, and perfect faith into his programme, and changed itfrom a by-path into a veritable Way of Life

It was empty, and theywere grown into fat, lazy farm-hands

jovial

with a stoop in his shoulders; and the rest

My log schoolhouse was gone. In its place stood Progress; and Progress, I understand, isnecessarily ugly.

Reuben is a Baptist preacher now

Fisk University

“mean”

but people said that he would surely fail, and the “white folks wouldget it all

little feet bare

their faces shading from a palecream to a deep brown,

There was an entrance where adoor once was, and within, a massive rickety fireplace; great chinks between the logs served aswindows.

The father was a quiet, simple soul, calmly ignorant, with no touch of vulgarity. The mother wasdifferent,—strong, bustling, and energetic, with a quick, restless tongue, and an ambition to live“like folks.”

varmints

white teachers inthe morning, Negroes at nigh

as a slave theNegro was worked, and that as a freeman he must learnto work.

but an education through agricultureand education, through natural symbols andpractical forms, which will educate as deeply, asbroadly and as truly as any other system which theworld has known.

Ours is anagricultural population. The school must be broughtmore closely to the soil.

This is far from my conception of industrial education. Ifthis training is worth anything to the Negro, it consists inteaching him how not to work, but how to make theforces of nature–air, steam, water, horse-power andelectricity–work for him.

We opened a dairy department in connectionwith the school, where a number of young men couldhave instruction in the latest and most scientic methodsof dairy work.

It seems to me that too often mere book educationleaves the Negro young man or woman in a weakposition.

they wanted their childrentaught books, but not how to work.

Hampton Institute

Iplead for industrial education and development for theNegro not because I want to cramp him, but because Iwant to free him.

“Every blow of the sledge hammer wielded by a sable armis a powerful blow in support of our cause.

Out of it in the future will grow practicaleducation, professional education, positions of publicresponsibility. Out of it will grow moral and religiousstrength. Out of it will grow wealth from which alone cancome leisure and the opportunity for the enjoyment ofliterature and the ne arts.

And just the same with theprofessional class which the race needs and must have, Iwould say give the men and women of that class, too, thetraining which will best t them to perform in the mostsuccessful manner the service which the race demands

It is discouraging to nd agirl who can tell you the geographical location of anycountry on the globe and who does not know where toplace the dishes upon a common dinner table. It isdiscouraging to nd a woman who knows much abouttheoretical chemistry, and who cannot properly wash andiron a shirt.

I wasamazed to nd that it was almost impossible to nd inthe whole country an educated colored man who couldteach the making of clothing.

Our schools teach everybody a little of almosteverything, but, in my opinion, they teach very fewchildren just what they ought to know in order tomake their way successfully in life.

that all forms of labor are honorable

Think, though,how frequently it is the case that from the rst day that apupil begins to go to school his books teach him muchabout the cities of the world and city life, and almostnothing about the country.

In all these works theNegro did most of the heavy work.

In a certain wayevery slave plantation in the South was an industrialschool

neither white nor black properly understood the case.Nor is it any wonder that this was so, for never before inthe history of the world had just such a problem beenpresented as that of the two races at the coming offreedom in this country

by which the Negro has beenhelped to nd himself and to learn the secrets ofcivilization