CHAPTER-II
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON
BLACK ENIGMA
CHAPTER-II
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON
BLACK ElfiGMA
Born as a slave, Booker T. Washington was the most
powerful Black American of his times. Between the end of
the Civil War and the outbreak of World War I,
Black
workers struggled hard to find a way to benefit from the
Southern industrialization and to free themselves from
the bonds & linkages of slavery of their former owners
and thereafter new empl eyers. Whi 1 e some blacks depended
upon the benevolence of their employers, others realized
that such dependence would not free them from the basic
domination of
Whites.
among
Washington
Blacks,
As
the mixed
rose
to
be
feelings
the
existed
only
Black
leader to enjoy unparalleled prestige among Whites at a
time of extreme racism in America.
Booker
T.
Washington
was
born
in
1856
on
a
plantation in Virginia, the Census Report of 1860 gave
the year of Washington's birth as 1856. 1 The detai 1s
1
According to the 1860 census, Washington's year of
birth is 1865; though in his autobiography he gives,
"1858 or 1859" as his birth year. No date is mentioned.
Census Report taken from Louis R. Harlan, et.al., The
Booker T. Washington Papers, vol.2 (University of
Illinois Press, Urbana, 1973}, p.3. Also Booker T.
Washington Papers available at the University of Mass.
library, Amherst.
After Booker T. Washington's death,
John H.
washington his brother reported seeing Booker T.
Washington's birth date April 5, 1856 in a Burrough's
family Bible. On his testimony the Tuskegee trustees
(continued ... )
32
furnished in this regard suggested that his mother was
a slave who worked in the family of her master, called
James Burroughs. She was in the custody of her master,
James Burroughs when Booker T. Washington was
born.
Washington later recalled:
I was born in a typical 1og cabin, about
fourteen by sixteen feet square. In this
cabin I 1 i ved with my mother and a brother
and sister till after the civil war, when we
were all dec! a red free. Of my ancestry, I
knew nothing.
Booker never knew who his father was, except that
he was someone from the neighbourhood. "Of my father I
know even less than of my mother. I do not even know his
name. I have heard reports to the effect that he was a
white,
who
lived on one of
the
nearby plantations.
Whoever he was, I never heard of his taking the least
interest in me of providing in any way for my rearing."
At the same time he writes, "But I do not find special
fault with him. He was simply another unfortunate victim
of
the
institution
which
the
nation
unhappily
had
engrafted upon it at the time. " 3
1( ... continued)
formally adopted that day as "the exact date of his
birth".
2Louis Harlan,
et.al.,
eds., The Booker T.
Washington Papers : Vol. I (University of Illinois Press,
1972), p.215.
laooker T. Washington, Up From Slavery (Hew York,
1901), p.2.
33
Booker's
name
was
probably
not
a
clue
to
his
parentage. The last name was taken years later from his
step-father. The middle name Taliaferro,
said, was given o him by his mother,
Booker later
"but that was not
her name only her fancy, and I was never called anything
but Booker. " 4
Booker's home was a cabin of split oak logs, about
14xl6 feet.
worn-out
In narrow doors swung in the wind on rusty,
hinges,
a
wooden
shutter
"usually
hung
dejectedly on uncertain hinges against the walls of the
house" in summer and closed out the air and 1 ight
in
winter. 5
Educational
opportunity
in
the
slavery
era
was
confined by law to white people. The Burroughs children
probably attended one of the schools of Franklin county.
One of the children, Laura Burroughs taught school and
perhaps she taught Booker to read and write. Booker was
"quite a favourite with Aunt Laura." 6
~St.Paul Despatch, January 14, 1896, .... [1028].
5
Booker T. Washington, "Negro Homes",
Hagazine, LXXVI {May, 1908}, pp.71-79.
6
.
Century
James A. Burroughs to Booker T. Washington,
November 7, 1903 [Con.251]. Booker T. Washington Papers
at UMass. Amherst.
34
"I had no schooling whatever while I was a slave,"
Booker said,
though I remember on several occasions I went
as far as the schoolhouse door with one of my
young mistresses to carry her books.
The
picture of several dozen boys and girls in a
school room engaged in study made a deep
impression upon me, and I had the feeling
that to get into a school house and study in
his way waul d be about the same as getting
into paradise. 7
Then came the tumultuous years of the Civil War
(1861-65). By the famous proclamation of 1863, Abraham
Lincoln made the historic decision to set all
slaves
free. Booker T. Washington and his mother, as the story
goes, were called to the "big house" by their master,
Burroughs. A stranger, perhaps an officer, made a short
speech and read a rather
1 ong paper,
presumably
the
Emancipation Proclamation. The stranger then told the
slaves they
were all free, that they could go when and
where they pleased.
The scene dissolved in to "great
rejoicing, and thanksgiving, and wild scene of ecstasy."
As
Booker
and his brother
and sister
stood by
his
mother's side, she leaned over and kissed her children,
while "tears of joy ran down her cheeks." 8
7Booker, T. Washington, Up From Slavery, pp.6-7.
1Ihid., pp.19-21.
35
Washington recalls in his autobiography, "This act
was hailed with joy by all the slaves, but it threw a
tremendous
responsibi 1 i ty upon my mother,
upon the other slaves." 9 Hereafter,
as well
as
they were supposed
to lead their lives independently. There was nobody to
provide them the basic necessities of 1 i fe.
they skilled in any profession.
"AI though
was
I
born a
Nor were
Washington confesses:
Slave,
was
I
too
young
to
experience much of its hardships. nlO Washington paid a
compliment to his master when he said that his owners
were "not so cruel as were many others'."
After
the
Proclamation,
declaration
of
the
Emancipation
Blacks wanted to change their names and
leave the plantations of the South so that they felt
sure that they were free. During the 1870s, his mother
left South Virginia and went to Malden county in West
Virginia. There she married a man known as Washington
Ferguson.
Booker's
inquisitiveness
immense.
He
had no
carried
the
books
access
of
his
as
a
slave
to school,
master's
but
child
he
children
was
always
as
an
attendant. He was not allowed to enter the school as he
9
Booker 'I'. Washington, The Story of Hy Life and
Hork (J.L. Bicholas & Co., Bew York, 1900), p.l3.
10 Ibid., p.l2.
36
was a slave child. But he learnt a good deal
at the
doorsteps of the school, while he awaited his master's
children. This is how he gradually developed an interest
in reading and writing. His curiosity did not stop here.
Working in the salt industry with his
step
father,
Booker continued his intense desire to learn to read. 11
His mother who had a deep impact on him provided him
with lessons in virtues of thrift. She fully shared his
ambition, but she was as ignorant of book learning as
him. 12 She managed to get hold of a book for his son.
She continued to aid him fully and helped him fulfil his
educational ambition.
Early Schooling:
It was during this time that a school was opened
for the col cured chi 1dren in the vi 11 age. Booker was
admitted to this school. A black man,
called William
Davis became Booker's first teacher. This school
was
owned by the Freedmen of the Malden area. They evolved
an ingenious idea to pay him the tuition fees by a small
subscription which each fami 1 y would contribute month! y.
The teacher would eat and sleep one day with one family
11 Booker T. Washington,
1901).
12 rhid., p.27.
Up
From Slavery (New York,
37
and the next with another.u In 1865,
the Black schools in the Malden area,
Davis felt
were
that
not well
received by the Whites, whereas the Freedmen's Bureau
encouraged
them.
It
is
the same school
Washington
mentions
in
his
about
which
autobiography,, Up
From
Slavery, but does not mention his teacher's name. 14 When
the Tinkersville School was opened, Booker suffered a
sharp disappointment for Washington Ferguson refused to
allow Booker to attend. The stepfather decided that he
was too poor to allow his son to live at home without
working.
And at
value in the
the same
economy of
time children had
economic
the salt furnaces.
Booker's
disappointment at missing school became keener when he
1 coked out
from
the salt-packing shed and saw
children passing happily
to and
other
from the school.
He
joined the night class which Davis organized primarily
for
adults.
Booker was
tired by
the time
he got
to
school, but his desire to learn was ·so strong that he
believed he learned more at night than more fortunate
children did·during the day.
carrier
he
became
a
strong
In his later educational
advocate
of
the
night
school.~ Then one day, he heard about a great school
1
lnetails about the school have been
Harlan, et.al., n.l, pp.l7-18.
"Booker T. Washington, n.4, p.36.
1Ssooker T. Washington, n.7, pp.29-30.
taken
from
38
for
col cured
people
somewhere
in
Virginia.
Without
having any knowledge about it, he decided to go to the
Hampon Normal and Agricultural Institute in Virginia.
Washington recalled:
I resolved at once to go to the school,
although I had no idea where it was, or how
many miles away, or how I was going to reach
it ... I was on fire constant! y with one
ambition, and that was to go to Hampton. 16
For about a year or little more, Booker had to work
as a house boy in the family of General Lewis Ruffner,
the owner
of
the Salt
Furnace and
coal
mine.
Mrs.
Ruffner, known for her strict behaviour soon became one
of his best friends. Here too, Booker did not leave any
moment to keep up with whatever little he could grasp,
even though the opportunity came at night. He received
full encouragement of Mrs. Ruffner to get education. At
first he trembled whenever he went
in Mrs.Ruffner's
presence, but soon he came to understand her and even
agree with her, and as the years passed he came to love
and honour her as one of his great benefactress. She was
the first person to teach him the puritan ethics of hard
work, cleanliness, and
thrift on which his later social
philosophy was based. "I soon began that, first of all,
she wanted everything kept clean about her," he later
recalled,
1
"that
she wanted things done promptly and
~arlan, et.al., eds., op.cit., p.236.
39
systematically, and that at the bottom of everything she
wanted absolute honesty and frankness. " 17 A remarkable
bond of affection and trust grew up between the two.
Mrs .Ruffner remembered that Booker was never wasteful of
time. She recalled that,
as there was little for him to do, he had
much spare time which I proposed he should
use by learning to read, which he readily
accepted. I would help and direct, and he was
more than willing to follow direction. He ~as
always willing to quit playing for study.
Besides, she allowed Booker, if he worked faithfully in
the morning, to attend William Davis' school again for
every afternoon . 19 In the
a few hours
fall
of 187 2,
Booker decided to leave for Hampton. It was Washington's
mother who finally saved her child from oblivion in the
salt
furnaces
decision
to
and
go
to
let
him
Hampton
go
too,
to
school.~
In
Washington's
his
mother
supported him however, unwillingly. In his journey from
Halden to Hampton, Booker realised the subtleties of the
racial differences being practised by the whites toward
his
race.
After
reaching
Hampton
Institute,
Booker
17 Ibid,p.43-44.
1
'viola Ruffner's interview with Max B. Thrasher, in
Cincinnati Commercial Tribune, Feb.26, 1899, Clipping
[Con.l069]. Booker T.Washington papers.
19Booker T.Washington,
Hork, n.9,p.50.
20 Ibid,p.34.
The Story of
Hy
Life and
40
presented himself, with all his humble background, to
the 1 ady Principal, Miss Mary F. Mackie. She asked Booker
to clean a room and also asked some questions,
after
clearing his "Sweeping Examination," 21 Booker was given
admission in the Hampton Institute.
The difficulties that he faced in his boyhood made
Booker a man with stoic courage and a determined person
in the pursuit of his ambition. He was also immensely
influenced
by
guided him
at
General
General
Samuel
every step
Armstrong
was
Chapman
until
the
his
Principal
Armstrong
death in
at
the
who
1893.
Hampton
Institute. It was he who helped Booker, a great deal,
morally and spiritually.
While giving due credit
General Armstrong's inf 1 uence, Booker wrote that,
to
"He
was a man who could not endure for a minute hypocrisy or
want of truth in any one. This moral lesson he impressed
upon every one who came in contact with him. " 22 Booker
inherited this idea of General's Social Philosophy as
the
guiding
principle
of
his
life.
To
Washington,
Armstrong was not only a great teacher but "a great man
- the noblest, rarest human being that it has ever been
my pri vi 1 ege
to meet .... " He further
stated
in
his
autobiography, "I shall always remember that the first
21
Harlan, et al., no.l,p.21.
22 Ibid.
41
time I went into his presence he made the impression
upon me of being a perfect man: I was made to feel that
there was something about him that was superhuman. " 23
Nathalie Lord who influenced Booker as a teacher
besides the
helpful
other great personalities, was
1 ady whom Booker respected.
the most
He at tended her
Sunday school classes and studied the Bible under her
direction.
She
also
taught
him
the
art
of
public
speaking and later helped him prepare his post graduate
oration,
"The Force that Wins" at
the
1879 Hampton
Commencement. The advantages of Industrial Education and
the ideas of puritan values were also stressed by Miss
Lord. Throughout her career she gave Booker frank and
cogent advice and encouraged him to continue the Hampton
approach to educational and social philosophy. Miss Lord
gave him private 1 essons in technical aspects of the
speaking
art.
When he left
school,
he
owed sixteen
dollars to the institution which was a clear indication
to the difficulties he faced in financing his education.
The self-less regard for human values taught by his
teachers at Hampton made a deep impact
Washington.
The
protestant
virtues:
of Booker T.
"industry,
frugality, cleanliness, temperance, order, decorum and
2
~ooker T.Washington, n-7,p.54-57.
42
punctuality became the virtues of his life too." 24 This
kind
of
education
mentally
prepared
Washington
to
function within the existing social system, a trait that
was to go a long way in his life. The success that one
could attribute to him is his ability to make the most
out of the prevailing social ethos.
I repeat for emphasis that any work
looking towards the permanent improvement of
the Negro South must have for one of its aims
the fitting of him to live friendly and
peaceably with his Whi1r neighbours both
socially and politically.
This was the schooling which was somewhat limited
in the context of its pragmatism where even the smallest
success and achievement became his objective. But it was
a training that knew no limit to challenges in life.
After having
several
Ministry,
experimented with others'
years,
including
Booker
returned
politics
to
careers,
and
Hampton
the
in
for
Baptist
1879
as
a
teacher and a dormitory supervisor where he helped the
students community a great deal.
Tuskegee Institute
Washington's role
In May, 1881, General Armstrong received a letter
from a gentleman in Alabama asking him to recommend a
24 Harlan, et.al., n.l., p.XXVI.
25 "The Educational outlook in the South," by Booker
T. Washington. Booker T. Washington Papers. University of
Massachusetts, Amherst.
43
person who could take charge of a school which was to be
set up for
the colored people in the 1 itt 1 e town of
Tuskegee. In the Hampton magazine, The Southern Workman,
General Armstrong stated:
Be Thrifty and industrious, command the
respect of your neighbours by a good record
and a good character. Own your own houses.
Educate your children. Make the best of your
difficulties. Live down prejudice cultivate
peaceful relations with all. As a voter act
as you think and not as you are told.
Remember that
you have seen marvellous
changes in sixteen years. In views of tkat be
patient -- thank God and take courage.
Booker T. Washington was the obvious choice. The
authorities
agreed,
after
a
slight
hesitation
in
appointing a colored teacher. Tuskegee was a town which
was well-known as the Black Belt of the South, here the
whites were outnumbered by the Blacks.
the Tuskegee
Normal
and Industrial
Booker founded
Institute
on
the
Hampton model. To preside over the Tuskegee Institute,
Washington had to combine all of his ability as a shrewd
politician and a preacher.
Booker T.
Washington took
with him to Tuskegee not only educational methods but
also the basic assumptions regarding the Negro race in
America: Since he had an intimate knowledge
~f
his own
race, he did not regard that emancipation brought the
2
~ditorial in Southern ~orkman, VI (Feb.l877) p.lO
University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
44
millennium, and that freedow. could not get a position of
equality,
he found to his dismay that the Blacks in
America tended to believe as did the Whites,
Black man was
economic
inferior
heritage.
in his
"Whi 1 e
cultural,
the
colored
that a
social
people
and
were
ignorant", he said in his autobiography, "they had not,
as a rule degraded and weakened their bodies by vices
such as are common to the lower class of people in large
cities." 27
His educational, social and political philosophies
were intimately related. His reading of Black history
convinced
him
that
Reconstruction
had
not
prepared
Blacks for freedom, because they had never been trained
in
t.~-.~·-
attitudes essential
for
economic achievement,
belief in the dignity of labour and habits of thrift and
hard
work.
He
felt
that
unless
a
Black
man
feels
innately confident about himself,
he cannot face the
white
for
world.
This
plan
called
a
long-phased
orientation. Washington felt that too much emphasis was
being laid on the importance of securing the political
rights and getting the Blacks on voting lists and their
holding
political
offices.
He,
instead,
wanted
to
prepare them for the highest qualities of citizenship.
The Black must prove his worth, became the advocacy of
nBooker T. Washington, n-7,p.l09.
45
Washington, that he should prove worthy of his freedom
became his
focus.
His shortcomings could be remedied
through education. The accomplishment in the realm of
education would require much more than a mere academic
training. A systematic method of education was
imparted~
to be
After he had made his foundations secure could
he think of "Cultural" training. Learning how to make a
living was much more necessary than learning to enjoy
life. His strategy was
to gain more
praising
of
the
virtues
condemning their
faults.
the
for his cause by
White
South
Washington urged
than
by
parents to
educate their children for the duties of citizenship. "I
think there are many," he wrote,
"who,
if they could
count up the time spent by them in vain and idle street
talk, would find it to amount to hours and days enough
in which they might
have obtained for
themselves
a
valuable and respectable education. " 28
Self-help, Self-Reliance:
At Tuskegee, 1 essons in self-reliance were given to
all the students. They practically had to do everything
that they needed in their everyday life -- from tilling
their land to erecting their own buildings. Washington
nBooker T. Washington in Charleston, West Virginia
Journal
reprinted
in
Southern
Workman,
VI
(Aug.l877)p.62
46
accepted the common nineteenth century attitudes that
through self-help one could rise from poverty to riches;
indeed
he
was
convinced
that
Blacks
must
prove
themselves, must demonstrate tangibly and concrete! y
that they are worthy of the blessings of emancipation.
Relating
to
the
importance
of
being
self-reliant,
Washington said, "The individual who can do something
that the world wants done, will in the end, make his way
regard! ess of his race. " 29He warned that "the time is
fast coming when bondage can no longer be a plea for
ignorance." The whites who had lifted the slaves out of
bondage now expected them, through self-help and mutual
help, to achieve on their own. Washington urged parents
to educate their children for the duties of citizenship,
and to fill everything in the child's life. "I think
there are many," he wrote, "who, if they could count up
the times spent by them in vain and idle street talk,
would find it to amount to hours and days enough in
which they might have obtained for themselves a valuable
and respectable education. " 30
29 samuel
R. Spencer, Booker T. Hashington and the
Place in American Life. (Barton and Toronto,
Tren.&Co., 1955)p.94.
Negro's
~Booker T.Washington in Charleston, Hest Virginia
Journal,
reprinted
in
Southern
liforkman,
VI
(Aug.l877)p.62.
47
To fight off his critics and to retain his power,
however, Washington showed a different personality. He
felt the need to assume a certain public role no matter
what
he
offend
himself
the
believed in.
Whites,
Any
Washington
action
that
tried
to
might
do
it
clandestinely. During the period of 1880's and 1890's he
had to face several political and economic challenges.
It
was
in
the
political
sphere,
however,
that
Washington's 1 i fe saw its greatest expansion. Coinciding
with Washington's meteoric rise to become a counsellor
of
Presidents,
plummeted
black
through
political
rights
disfranchisement
and
in
a
the
South
worsening
racial climate.
Condemning the Grandfather clause of the Louisiana
constitution, Jesse Lawson wrote to Booker T.Washington
saying that Blacks would accept
before the Supreme Court if
voting qualifications
they applied equal I y
to
Whites and Blacks. 31
nBooker T. Washington, Post. May 13, 1901, p.lO.
AI so cited in TLS Container 203, Booker T. Washing.
Papers DLC. Written on stationary of the head quarters
of the National Afro-American Council.
While delivering an Address in Charleston, South
Carolina, Washington reiterated his emphasis on the
advantages of educating his race:
More and more we must be judged as a race by the
best that we can produce and not by the worst types
of the race. Some people are under the false
(continued ... )
48
His Ideological Stance:
It has usually been suggested that the Civil War
was
fought
for
the
liberation of Blacks
from human
bondage, and the Reconstruction that followed after the
war, held a great deal of promise for Blacks to restore
themselves, economically, politically and socially. But
very little improvement was discernible either in the
economic or in the social status of the Blacks at the
end
of
gains
Reconstruction.
they
had
Moreover,
achieved
were
whatever
taken
away
political
by
the
vindictive attitudes of some of the southern terrorist
societies. Foremost among them being, the Ku Klux Klan
(KKK). The remarkable ascendancy of Booker T. Washington
after the post Reconstruction period and the reaction
thereof must be understood against that background. He
tried to meet the legacy of Slavery on its own terms. He
31 ( ... continued)
impression that education injures the negro ... we
need not disturb ourselves too much about the
relations that are to exist between the white man
and the black man when the negro becomes a tax
payer and property holder. Education brings with it
conunon sense, patience and forbearance to the negro
: and the negro who is intelligent knows the only
help for him is to possess a bank account and
become a taxpayer and he becomes in every instance
a stranger and more helpful person in his
conununity.
Booker T. Washington's address in Charleston, News aDd
Courier, September 13, 1901, Clipping Container No .1033,
Booker T. Washington Papers, DLC.
49
knew that s 1avery could not
political
leadership;
he
prepare his
therefore
people for
retreated
from
political demands. However, in the field of education
some progress was made. Many schools were started at
that time and it was hoped that Blacks would make some
progress
through
education.
To
escape
from
the
indignities imposed by the Southern Whiteman, the Blacks
viewed education as a means to escape their inhumanity.
Many church organizations tried to help the Blacks.
The Philanthropists
too contributed substantially
in
improving the status of Blacks. But education brought
many problems
for
them.
Many
people
felt
that
the
success or fai 1ure of Blacks in adjusting themselves
depended on the type of education they were exposed to.
The role of Booker T. Washington in the history of
American education and of race relations, in fact is,
the most significant
one.
The years
that Washington
spent at Hampton Institute brought about transformation
of his life and thought. The years at Hampton have also
been called as "The years in which he was born again."
Washington found a father figure in General Samuel C.
Armstrong's idea of Social Philosophy because it was the
beacon
that
guided
Washington became
Washington
the most
throughout
his
eloquent exponent
life.
of
the
ideas he enunciated. He emphasized on Black achievements
50
by acquiring vocations and skills, which would be in the
long run useful for the world.
In 1881, Washington went to Tuskegee. He did not
find any of the equipment to develop the educational
institution. He promulgated a two-fold task to secure
the necessary resources by which he could conduct the
school. At the same time, he felt an urgent need to
conci 1 ia te with the White South. In his task, Washington
received full cooperation of the students. They helped
in constructing the building. Tuskegee Normal School was
officially opened on
shanty.n
toward
Here,
making
July 4,
Washington
Black
1881,
began
people
in a dilapidated
the
long
struggle
self-supporting
and
industrious citizen of the South. Booker T. Washington
later thought of his years of teaching in Malden as one
of the happiest
periods of
his 1 i fe because
of
the
opportunity they provided "to bel p the people of my home
town to higher life. " 33 What his students noted was his
strangeness, his difference from others of his age in
the
town.
"You
always
appeared
to
be
1 coking
for
something in the distant future," recalled his pupi 1
DBooker
T.
Washington,
"Negro
Self-Help",
Independent, LIX (November 23, 1905), pp.l207-08.
33 Up From Slavery, n.7, p.75.
51
W.T. McKinney. "There was always seen a future look in
your eyes," McKinney said. 34
Booker T.
Washington
saw the
effects
of such
a
programme to his advantage. He became convinced that he
could provide a panacea to the deteriorating conditions
in the South by elevating the status of the Black man in
the economic sense. He contended that the basis of race
advancement should be economic and mora 1 rather than
political. Economic prosperity and economic independence
was regarded as the vital need of the hour. This would,
in turn, make Blacks acceptable in the white society.
Throughout
the
1880s,
Washington
secured
Northern
support for his earnest and straightforward approach to
Negro
education.
He
acquiesced
in
segregation.
He
repressed freedom of speech and press among his faculty,
students
political
and
graduates.
independence
for
He
was
willing
educational
and
to
trade
economic
gain.
The Civil Rights Act of 1875,
the most important
piece of social legislation during Reconstruction, was
struck down by the Supreme Court in 1883, a year before
Washington's speech. The decision ran down the curtain
on the whole Reconstruction experiment,
but Washington
34Booker T. Washington, September 11, 1911 (Con.429)
University of Hassachussets Library, Amherst).
52
took it complacently. "Brains, property and character
for the Negro wi 11 set t 1 e the question of ci vi 1 rights,"
he
said.
Washington
formula as
just.
accepted
"Separate
but
equal"
Poverty and ignorance of Blacks had
often justified the whiteman's contempt. "But the day is
breaking,
1 ight. " 35
and
education
Washington
will
proposed
bring
the
through
complete
"industrial
education coupled with the mental", would secure white
cooperation and
trades.
save the Negro hold on
Washington's
1884
speech
the ski 11 ed
contained
all
the
elements of the social philosophy by which he was later
known. On "the broad question of the relation of the two
races", he later remarked, "since that time I have not
found any reason for changing my views on any important
points. " 36
Booker · T.
Washington
justified
the
need
for
a
programme of industrial education for the Black as early
as 1882. In a speech before the Alabama State Teacher's
Association, he said:
I think that three distinct advantages may be
claimed for such an education. First - under
wise management it aids the student in
securing mental
training;
Second I y,
it
"Booker T. Washington, "The Educational Outlook in
the South", in E. Davidson Washington, ed., Selected
Speeches of Booker T. Washington (Garden City, New York,
1932), pp.1-11.
~Booker T. Washington, n.7, pp.1-11.
53
teaches him
thirdlfi, it
labor.
how to
teaches
Even
he
before
earn a living; and
him the dignity of
emerged
as
a
national
black
spokesman, Washington, in speeches and letters to the
Northern and Southern press, constantly stressed that
good would come to the South - and to the nation - if
the Tuskegee experiment was successful. He informed a
...
mee ... ~ng
of
the
National
Association
Educational
in
Madison, Wisconsin, in 1884 that:
Any movements for the elevation of the
Southern Negro in order to be successful,
must have to a certain extent the cooperation
of the southern whites. They control the
government and own property
whatever
benefits the white man .... In spite of all
talk of exodus,
the Negro's home
is
permanently in the South; for comin~ to the
bread-and-meat side of the question, the
whiteman needs fhe Negro, and the Negro needs
the white man. 3
He further said in the Madison Address that it was
in the South that the Negro can achieve considerable
success. "It ki 11 s two birds with one stone ... secures
the
cooperation
of
the
whites,
and
does
the
best
possible thing for the black man. " 39 It appeared from
his
speech
that
he
was
appealing
to
his
Northern
audience to assist the South, in general and Blacks in
37Harlan, et.al., n.l, pp.l91-192.
~arlan, et.al., (eds.). vol.II, pp.256, 258.
3'rbid.
I
p.259.
54
particular. Washington sought to produce a moral man in
a society where all men could be considered men. Again,
he could inform the editor of the Tuskegee Macon Mai 1 in
the same year: 'The race will grow in proportion as we
learn to help ourselves in matters of education'.~ In
an address to the Alabama State Teachers' Association in
1882, Washington made an artful plea for the industrial
education of Blacks, one calculated to impress his White
audience.
Two hundred years of forced labour taught the
coloured man that there was no dignity in
1 abour but rather a disgrace. The chi 1 d of
the ex-slave, naturally influenced by his
parent example grows up believing that he
sees what he thinks is the sense of work. To
remove this idea is one of the great missions
of the industrial school. The school teacher
must be taught that it will not disgrace him
to work with his hands when he cannot get a
school. 41
Even the Alabama State Teachers Association, 1888,
Washington's central message was: "the use that is to be
made of education should be kept constantly in mind."
Education should "fit us for the work around us and
demanded by the times in which we 1 i ve." "Hitherto, the
education of the Negro has too largely failed to produce
~Ibid., pp.220-21.
41 Ibid., p.249.
55
special men for special work. The jacks-of-all-trades
are too numerous. " 42
washington stressed
the
solidarity
between both the races in a gradual
manner.
In
prominence
1895,
in
International
he
was
Exposition.
the
There
interest
and evolutionary
catapulted
At1 ant a before
of
into
national
Cot ton States
was
nothing
and
in
the
speech that Washington had not said over and over for a
decade or more. And yet the speech was as significant as
it was
proc 1 aimed to be by the press
people. Washington was
first
Black
indeed the Black. He was
even to address
Southern Whites.
He
and prominent
such a
reasserted
his
1 arge
the
group
conviction
of
that
Blacks must help themselves through economic development
rather than political agitation. Washington received so
many and much hearty congratulations that he found it
difficult
therefore,
to
in
get
the
out
of
Atlanta
the
building.
address
to
He
set
sought,
a
new
direction.
This seemed to me the time and place, without
condemning what had been done,
not of
destruction, but of construction; not of
defence, but of aggression; a policy not of
hosti 1 i ty or surrender,
but of friendship
and advance. I stated, as vigorously as I was
42opening address in Proceedings of the Seventh
Annual Session, Alabama State Teachers Association,
Montgomery, Alabama, April 11-13, 1888 (Montgomery,
1888), pp.5-9.
56
able, that usefulness in the community where
we resided was our surest and most potent
protection. 43 With the "patient, sympathetic
help" of both races for each other, the
blotting
out
of
sectional
and
racial
animosities, and a transfusion of Northern
capital would come a release of material
energy and "being into our pel oved south a
new heaven and a new earth." 4
Washington delivered a speech designed to 'cement
the
friendship
of
the races and bring
about
hearty
cooperation between them.' Although there was nothing
new in what Washington said at Atlanta, the timing and
circumstances of his address ensured that it would reach
and
impress
a
national
audience.
White
and
Black
Americans welcomed Washington's faith that not through
social
conflict
but
through
upward
striving,
White
benevolence, and Providence, his race could overcome, as
he had overcome,
Washington's
the obstacles
purpose
at
Atlanta
of
the
was
col our
to
1 ine.
announce
a
pragmatic compromise that would resolve the antagonism
between the Southern Whites, Northern Whites and the
Blacks.
In
a
period
of
worsening
race
relations,
Washington urged Blacks ~o remain in the South, worked
at 'the common occupations of life', and accepted the
fact of White Supremacy. He deprecated political action
43 Booker T. Washington,
Hy Larger
Education, pp .106-
9.
~Booker T. Washington, n.7, pp.218-25.
57
and black performances as voters and legislators during
Reconstruction, reminded Blacks that they were to live
and prosper by manual labour, and, to whites, stressed
the loyalty and fidelity of Southern Black -- 'the most
potent faithful, law-abiding and unresentful people in
the world.' But Washington's strongest protest against
discrimination did not appear until
a
after his death, in
posthumously
Segregation
published article, 'My View of the
Laws. • 45 Racial
segregation Washington
asserted, was 'ill-advised' because:
1. It is unjust. 2. It invites other unjust
measures. 3. It will not be productive of
good, because practi ca 11 y every thoughtful
Negro resents its injustice and doubts its
sincerity. 4. It is unnecessary. 5. It is
inconsistent. The Negro is separated from his
white neighbour, but white businessmen are
not prevented from doing business in Negro
neighbourhoods.
6.
Wherever
a form
of
segregation exists it will be found that it
has been administered in such a way as to
embitter the Negro and harms more or less the
moral fibre of the white man. That the Negro
does not express this constant sense o~ wrong
is no proof that he does not feel it.
Washington emphasized that Blacks held no hold in
securing social equality: 'In a 11 things that are pure 1 y
social we can be as separate as the five fingers, yet
one
as
the
hand
in
all
things
essential
to
human
~Booker T. Washington, "My View of the Segregation
Laws", New Republic, 4 December 1915.
46 Ibid.
58
progress' . 47
Reduced
to
their
simplest
terms,
his
proposals to the South were for economic cooperation and
social segregation. But Washington went
further than
this, and assured Whites that they had nothing to fear- and everything to gain -- from trusting Blacks.
As we have proved our loyalty to you in the
past, in nursing your chi 1dren, watching by
the sick bed of your mothers and fathers, and
often following them with tear-dimmed eyes to
their graves, so in the future in our humble
way, we shall stand by you with a devotion
that no foreigner can approach, ready to lay
down o rr 1 i ves, if need be, in defence of
yours. 4
Turning to Blacks in the audience, Washington informed
them:
Our greatest danger is that in the great leap
from slavery to freedom we may overlook the
fact that the masses of us are to live by the
productions of our hands, and fail to keep in
mind that we shall prosper in proportion as
we learn to dignify and glorify common
labour .... It is important and right that all
the privileges of the law be ours, but it is
vastly more important that we be prepared for
the exercise of these vast pri vi 1 eges. The
opportunity to earn a dollar in a factory
just now is worth infinitely more than the
opportHnity to spend a dollar in an opera
house.
47 Booker T. Washington, The At 1 ant a Address, Booker
T. Washington Papers. Also reprinted in Louis R. Harlan,
The booker T. Washington Papers, vol.2 (University of
Illinois Press, 1973).
48 Ibid.
49 Ibid.