Multimedia Mania/abacus-multimedia-mania.iso/dp/0010/00103.txt

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$Unique_ID{bob00103}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Up From Slavery An Autobiography
Chapter VI. Black Race And Red Race}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Washington, Booker T.}
$Affiliation{}
$Subject{hampton
white
students
indian
time
work
general
race
young
indians}
$Date{1902}
$Log{}
Title:       Up From Slavery An Autobiography
Author:      Washington, Booker T.
Date:        1902

Chapter VI. Black Race And Red Race

     During the year that I spent in Washington, and for some little time
before this, there had been considerable agitation in the state of West
Virginia over the question of moving the capital of the state from Wheeling to
some other central point.  As a result of this, the Legislature designated
three cities to be voted upon by 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 very
pleasantly surprised to receive, from a committee of white people in
Charleston, an invitation to canvass the state in the interests of that city.
This invitation I accepted, and spent nearly three months in speaking in
various parts of the state.  Charleston was successful in winning the prize,
and is now the permanent seat of government.

     The reputation that I made as a speaker during this campaign induced a
number of persons to make an earnest effort to get me to enter political life,
but I refused, still believing that I could find other service which would
prove of more permanent value to my race.  Even then I had a strong feeling
that what our people most needed was to get a foundation in education,
industry, and property, and for this I felt that they could better afford to
strive than for political preferment.  As for my individual self, it appeared
to me to be reasonably certain that I could succeed in political life, but I
had a feeling that it would be a rather selfish kind of success - individual
success at the cost of failing to do my duty in assisting in laying a
foundation for the masses.

     At this period in the progress of our race a very large proportion of the
young men who went to school or to college did so with the expressed
determination to prepare themselves to be great lawyers, or Congressmen, and
many of the women planned to become music teachers; but I had a reasonably
fixed idea, even at that early period in my life, that there was need for
something to 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 old coloured
man, during the days of slavery, who wanted to learn how to play on the
guitar.  In his desire to take guitar lessons he applied to one of his young
masters to teach him; but the young man, not having much faith in the ability
of the slave to master the guitar at his age, sought to discourage him by
telling him: "Uncle Jake, I will give you guitar lessons; but, Jake, I will
have to charge you three dollars for the first lesson, two dollars for the
second lesson, and one dollar for the third lesson.  But I will charge you
only twenty-five cents for the last lesson."

     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' lesson first."

     Soon after my work in connection with the removal of the capital was
finished, I received an invitation which gave me great joy and which at the
same time was a very pleasant surprise.  This was a letter from General
Armstrong, inviting me to return to Hampton at the next Commencement to
deliver what was called the "post-graduate address." This was an honour which
I had not dreamed of receiving.  With much care I prepared the best address
that I was capable of.  I chose for my subject "The Force That Wins."

     As I returned to Hampton for the purpose of delivering this address, I
went over much of the same ground - now, however, covered entirely by railroad
- that I had traversed nearly six years before, when I first sought entrance
into Hampton Institute as a student.  Now I was able to ride the whole
distance in the train.  I was constantly contrasting this with my first
journey to Hampton.  I think I may say, without seeming egotism, that it is
seldom that five years have wrought such a change in the life and aspirations
of an individual.

     At Hampton I received a warm welcome from teachers and students.  I found
that during my absence from Hampton the institute each year had been getting
closer to the real needs and conditions of our people; that the industrial
teaching, as well as that of the academic department, had greatly improved.
The plan of the school was not modelled after that of any other institution
then in existence, but every improvement was made under the magnificent
leadership of General Armstrong solely with the view of meeting and helping
the needs of our people as they presented themselves at the time.  Too often,
it seems to me, in missionary and educational work among undeveloped races,
people yield to the temptation of doing that which was done a hundred years
before, or is being done in other communities a thousand miles away.  The
temptation often is to run each individual through a certain educational
mould, regardless of the condition of the subject or the end to be
accomplished.  This was not so at Hampton Institute.

     The address which I delivered on Commencement Day seems to have pleased
every one, and many kind and encouraging words were spoken to me regarding it.
Soon after my return to my home in West Virginia, where I had planned to
continue teaching, I was again surprised to receive a letter from General
Armstrong, asking me to return to Hampton partly as a teacher and partly to
pursue some supplementary studies.  This was in the summer of 1879.  Soon
after I began my first teaching in West Virginia I had picked 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 having them go to Hampton.  They had gone there, and in each case the
teachers had found them so well prepared that they entered advanced classes.
This fact, it seems, led to my being called back to Hampton as a teacher.  One
of the young men that I sent to Hampton in this way is now Dr. Samuel E.
Courtney, a successful physician in Boston, and a member of the School Board
of that city.

     About this time the experiment was being tried for the first time, by
General Armstrong, of educating Indians at Hampton.  Few people then had any
confidence in the ability of the Indians to receive education and to profit by
it.  General Armstrong was anxious to try the experiment systematically on a
large scale.  He secured from the reservations in the Western states over one
hundred wild and for the most part perfectly ignorant Indians, the greater
proportion of whom were young men.  The special work which the General desired
me to do was to be a sort of "house father" to the Indian young men - that is,
I was to live in the building with them and have the charge of their
discipline, clothing, rooms, and so on.  This was a very tempting offer, but I
had become so much absorbed in my work in West Virginia that I dreaded to give
it up.  However, I tore myself away from it.  I did not know how to refuse to
perform any service that General Armstrong desired of me.

     On going to Hampton, I took up my residence in a building with about
seventy-five Indian youths.  I was the only person in the building who was not
a member of their race.  At first I had a good deal of doubt about my ability
to succeed.  I knew that the average Indian felt himself above the white man,
and, of course, he felt himself far above the Negro, largely on account of the
fact of the Negro having submitted to slavery - a thing which the Indian would
never do.  The Indians, in the Indian Territory, owned a large number of
slaves during the days of slavery.  Aside from this, there was a general
feeling that the attempt to educate and civilize the red men at Hampton would
be a failure.  All this made me proceed very cautiously, for I felt keenly the
great responsibility.  But I was determined to succeed.  It was not long
before I had the complete confidence of the Indians, and not only this, but I
think I am safe in saying that I had their love and respect.  I found that
they were about like any other human beings; that they responded to kind
treatment and resented ill-treatment.  They were continually planning to do
something that would add to my happiness and comfort.  The things that they
disliked most, I think, were to have their long hair cut, to give up wearing
their blanklets, and to cease smoking; but no white American ever thinks that
any other race is wholly civilized until he wears the white man's clothes,
eats the white man's food, speaks the white man's language, and professes the
white man's religion.

     When the difficulty of learning the English language was subtracted, I
found that in the matter of learning trades and in mastering academic studies
there was little difference between the coloured and Indian students.  It was
constant delight to me to note the interest which the coloured students took
in trying to help the Indians in every way possible.  There were a few of the
coloured students who felt that the Indians ought not to be admitted to
Hampton, but these were in the minority.  Whenever they were asked to do so,
the Negro students gladly took the Indians as room-mates, in order that they
might teach them to speak English and to acquire civilized habits.

     I have often wondered if there was a white institution in this country
whose students would have welcomed the incoming of more than a hundred
companions of another race in the cordial way that these black students at
Hampton welcomed the red ones.  How often I have wanted to say to white
students that they lift themselves up in proportion as they help to lift
others, and the more unfortunate 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 in the state of
Pennsylvania, and was forced, on account of his colour, to ride in the
baggage-car, in spite of the fact that he had paid the same price for his
passage that the other passengers had paid.  When some of the white passengers
went into the baggage-car to console Mr. Douglass, and one of them said to
him: "I am sorry, Mr. Douglass, that you have been degraded in this manner,"
Mr. Douglass straightened himself up on the box upon which he was sitting, and
replied: "They cannot degrade Frederick Douglass.  The soul that is within me
no man can degrade.  I am not the one that is being degraded on account of
this treatment, but those who are inflicting it upon me."

     In one part of our country, where the law demands the separation of the
races on the railroad trains, I saw at one time a rather amusing instance
which showed how difficult it sometimes is to know 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 to classify him as a
black man.  This man was riding in the part of the train set aside for the
coloured passengers.  When the train conductor reached him, he showed at once
that he was perplexed.  If the man was a Negro, the conductor did not want to
send him into the white people's coach; at the same time, if he was a white
man, the conductor did not want to insult him by asking him if he was a Negro.
The official looked him over carefully, examining his hair, eyes, nose, and
hands, but still seemed puzzled.  Finally, to solve the difficulty, he stooped
over and peeped at the man's feet.  When I saw the conductor examining the
feet of the man in question, I said to myself, "That will settle it;" and so
it did, for the trainman promptly decided that the passenger was a Negro, and
let him remain where he was.  I congratulated myself that my race was
fortunate in not losing one of its members.

     My experience has been that the time to test a true gentleman is to
observe him when he is in contact with individuals of a race that is less
fortunate than his own.  This is illustrated in no better way than by
observing the conduct of the old-school type of Southern gentleman when he is
in contact with his former slaves or their descendants.

     An example of what I mean is shown in a story told of George Washington,
who, meeting a coloured man in the road once, who politely lifted his hat,
lifted his own in return.  Some of his white friends who saw the incident
criticised Washington for his action.  In reply to their criticism George
Washington said: "Do you suppose that I am going to permit a poor, ignorant,
coloured man to be more polite than I am?"

     While I was in charge of the Indian boys at Hampton, I had one or two
experiences which illustrate the curious workings of caste in America.  One of
the Indian boys was taken ill, and it became my duty to take him to
Washington, deliver him over to the Secretary of the Interior, and get a
receipt for him, in order that he might be returned to his Western
reservation.  At that time I was rather ignorant of the ways of the world.
During my journey to Washington, on a steamboat, when the bell rang for
dinner, I was careful to wait and not enter the dining room until after the
greater part of the passengers had finished their meal.  Then, with my charge,
I went to the dining saloon.  The man in charge politely informed me that the
Indian could be served, but that I could not.  I never could understand how he
knew just where to draw the colour line, since the Indian and I were of about
the same complexion.  The steward, however, seemed to be an expert in this
matter.  I had been directed by the authorities at Hampton to stop at a
certain hotel in Washington with my charge, but when I went to this hotel the
clerk stated that he would be glad to receive the Indian into the house, but
said that he could not accommodate me.

     An illustration of something of this same feeling came under my
observation afterward.  I happened to find myself in a town in which so much
excitement and indignation were being expressed that it seemed likely for a
time that there would be a lynching.  The occasion of the trouble was that a
dark-skinned man had stopped at the local hotel.  Investigation, however,
developed the fact that this individual was a citizen of Morocco, and that
while travelling in this country he spoke the English language.  As soon as it
was learned that he was not an American Negro, all the signs of indignation
disappeared.  The man who was the innocent cause of the excitement, though,
found it prudent after that not to speak English.

     At the end of my first year with the Indians there came another opening
for me at Hampton, which, as I look back over my life now, seems to have come
providentially, to help to prepare me for my work at Tuskegee later.  General
Armstrong had found out that there was quite a number of young coloured men
and women who were intensely in earnest in wishing to get an education, but
who were prevented from entering Hampton Institute because they were too poor
to be able to pay any portion of the cost of their board, or even to supply
themselves with books.  He conceived the idea of starting a night-school in
connection with the Institute, into which a limited number of the most
promising of these young men and women would be received, on condition that
they were to work for ten hours during the day, and attend school for two
hours at night.  They were to be paid something above the cost of their board
for their work.  The greater part of their earnings was to be reserved in the
school's treasury as a fund to be drawn on to pay their board when they had
become students in the day-school, after they had spent one or two years in
the night-school.  In this way they would obtain a start in their books and a
knowledge of some trade or industry, in addition to the other far-reaching
benefits 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 about twelve strong, earnest
men and women who entered the class.  During the day the greater part of the
young men worked in the school's sawmill, and the young women worked in the
laundry.  The work was not easy in either place, but in all my teaching I
never taught pupils who gave me such genuine satisfaction as these did.  They
were good students, and mastered their work thoroughly.  They were so much in
earnest that only the ringing of the retiring-bell would make them stop
studying, and often they would urge me to continue the lessons after the usual
hour for going to bed had come.

     These students showed so much earnestness, both in their hard work during
the day, as well as in their application to their studies at night, that I
gave them the name of "The Plucky Class" - a name which soon grew popular and
spread throughout the institution.  After a student had been in the
night-school long enough to prove what was in him, I gave him a printed
certificate which read something like this: -

     "This is to certify that James Smith is a member of The Plucky Class of
the Hampton Institute, and is in good and regular standing."

     The students prized these certificates highly, and they added greatly to
the popularity of the night-school.  Within a few weeks this department had
grown to such an extent that there were about twenty-five students in
attendance.  I have followed the course of many of these twenty-five men and
women ever since then, and they are now holding important and useful positions
in nearly every part of the South.  The night-school at Hampton, which started
with only twelve students, now numbers between three and four hundred, and is
one of the permanent and most important features of the institution.