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The
ministry was the profession that suffered most--and still suffers, though
there has been great improvement--on account of not only ignorant but in
many cases immoral men who claimed that they were "called to
preach." In the earlier days of freedom almost every coloured man who
learned to read would receive "a call to preach" within a few days
after he began reading. At my home in West Virginia the process of being
called to the ministry was a very interesting one. Usually the
"call" came when the individual was sitting in church. Without
warning the one called would fall upon the floor as if struck by a bullet,
and would lie there for hours, speechless and motionless. Then the news
would spread all through the neighborhood that this individual had received
a "call." If he were inclined to resist the summons, he would fall
or be made to fall a second or third time. In the end he 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 learned to 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 an
education, it can be seen at a glance that the supply of ministers was
large. In fact, some time ago I knew a certain church that had a total
membership of about two hundred, and eighteen of that number were ministers.
But, I repeat, in many communities in the South the character of the
ministry is being improved, and I believe that within the next two or three
decades a very large proportion of the unworthy ones will have disappeared.
The "calls" to preach, I am glad to say, are not nearly so
numerous now as they were formerly, and the calls to some industrial
occupation are growing more numerous. The improvement that has taken place
in the character of the teachers is even more marked than in the case of the
ministers.
During
the whole of the Reconstruction period our people throughout the South
looked to the Federal Government for everything, very much as a child looks
to its mother. This was not unnatural. The central government gave them
freedom, and the whole Nation had been enriched for more than two centuries
by the labour of the Negro. Even as a youth, and later in manhood, I had the
feeling that it was cruelly wrong in the central government, at the
beginning of our freedom, to fail to make some provision for the general
education of our people in addition to what the states might do, so that the
people would be the better prepared for 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 in charge of the conduct
of affairs did the only thing that could be done at the time. Still, as I
look back now over the entire period of our freedom, I cannot help feeling
that it would have been wiser if some plan could have been put in operation
which would have made the possession of a certain amount of education or
property, or both, a test for the exercise of the franchise, and a way
provided by which this test should be made to apply honestly and squarely to
both the white and black races.
Though
I was but little more than a youth during the period of Reconstruction, I
had the feeling that mistakes were being made, and that things could not
remain in the condition that they were in then very long. I felt that the
Reconstruction policy, so far as it related to my race, was in a large
measure on a false foundation, was artificial and forced. In many cases it
seemed to me that the ignorance of my race was being used as a tool with
which to help white men into office, and that there was an element in the
North which wanted to punish the Southern white men by forcing the Negro
into positions over the heads of the Southern whites. I felt that the Negro
would be the one to suffer for this in the end. Besides, the general
political agitation drew the attention of our people away from the more
fundamental matters of perfecting themselves in the industries at their
doors and in securing property.
The
temptations to enter political life were so alluring that I came very near
yielding to them at one time, but I was kept from doing so by the feeling
that I would be helping in a more substantial way by assisting in the laying
of the foundation of the race through a generous education of the hand,
head, and heart. I saw coloured men who were members of the state
legislatures, and county officers, who, in some cases, could not read or
write, and whose morals were as weak as their education. Not long ago, when
passing through the streets of a certain city in the South, I heard some
brick-masons calling out, from the top of a two-story brick building on
which they were working, for the "Governor" to "hurry up and
bring up some more bricks." Several times I heard the command,
"Hurry up, Governor!" "Hurry up, Governor!" My curiosity
was aroused to such an extent that I made inquiry as to who the
"Governor" was, and soon found that he was a coloured man who at
one time had held the position of Lieutenant-Governor of his state.
But
not all the coloured people who were in office during Reconstruction were
unworthy of their positions, by any means. Some of them, like the late
Senator B.K. Bruce, Governor Pinchback, and many others, were strong,
upright, useful men. Neither were all the class designated as carpetbaggers
dishonourable men. Some of them, like ex-Governor Bullock, of Georgia, were
men of high character and usefulness.
Of
course the coloured people, so largely without education, and wholly without
experience in government, made tremendous mistakes, just as many people
similarly situated would have done. Many of the Southern whites have a
feeling that, if the Negro is permitted to exercise his political rights now
to any degree, the mistakes of the Reconstruction period will repeat
themselves. I do not think this would be true, because the Negro is a much
stronger and wiser man than he was thirty-five years ago, and he is fast
learning the lesson that he cannot afford to act in a manner that will
alienate his Southern white neighbours from him. More and more I am
convinced that the final solution of the political end of our race problem
will be for each state that finds it necessary to change the law bearing
upon the franchise to make the law apply with absolute honesty, and without
opportunity 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 unfair to 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 two years, and
after I had succeeded in preparing several of the young men and women,
besides my two brothers, to enter the Hampton Institute, I decided to spend
some months in study at Washington, D.C. I remained there for eight months.
I derived a great deal of benefit from the studies which I pursued, and I
came into contact with some strong men and women. At the institution I
attended there was no industrial training given to the students, and I had
an opportunity of comparing the influence of an institution with no
industrial training with that of one like the Hampton Institute, that
emphasizes the industries. At this school I found the students, in most
cases, had more money, were better dressed, wore the latest style of all
manner of clothing, and in some cases were more brilliant mentally. At
Hampton it was a standing rule that, while the institution would be
responsible for securing some one to pay the tuition for the students, the
men and women themselves must provide for their own board, books, clothing,
and room wholly by work, or partly by work and partly in cash. At the
institution at which I now was, I found that a large portion of the students
by some means had their personal expenses paid for them. At Hampton the
student was constantly making the effort through the industries to help
himself, and that very effort was of immense value in character-building.
The students at the other school seemed to be less self-dependent. They
seemed to give more attention to mere outward appearances. In a word, they
did not appear to me to be beginning at the bottom, on a real, solid
foundation, to the extent that they were at Hampton. They knew more about
Latin and Greek when they left school, but they seemed to know less about
life and its conditions as they would meet it at their homes. Having lived
for a number of years in the midst of comfortable surroundings, they were
not as much inclined as the Hampton students to go into the country
districts of the South, where there was little of comfort, to take up work
for our people, and they were more inclined to yield to the temptation to
become hotel waiters and Pullman-car porters as their life-work.
During
the time I was a student at Washington the city was crowded with coloured
people, many of whom had recently come from the South. A large proportion of
these people had been drawn to Washington because they felt that they could
lead a life of ease there. Others had secured minor government positions,
and still another large class was there in the hope of securing Federal
positions. A number of coloured men--some of them very strong and
brilliant--were in the House of Representatives at that time, and one, the
Hon. B.K. Bruce, was in the Senate. All this tended to make Washington an
attractive place for members of the coloured race. Then, too, they knew that
at all times they could have the protection of the law in the District of
Columbia. The public schools in Washington for coloured people were better
then than they were elsewhere. I took great interest in studying the life of
our people there closely at that time. I found that while among them there
was a large element of substantial, worthy citizens, there was also a
superficiality about the life of a large class that greatly alarmed me. I
saw young coloured men who were not earning more than four dollars a week
spend two dollars or more for a buggy on Sunday to ride up and down
Pennsylvania Avenue in, in order that they might try to convince the world
that they were worth thousands. I saw other young men who received
seventy-five or one hundred dollars per month from the Government, who were
in debt at the end of every month. I saw men who but a few months previous
were members of Congress, then without employment and in poverty. Among a
large class there seemed to be a dependence upon the Government for every
conceivable thing. The members of this class had little ambition to create a
position for themselves, but wanted the Federal officials to create one for
them. How many times I wished them, and have often wished since, that by
some power of magic I might remove the great bulk of these people into the
county districts and plant them upon the soil, upon the solid and never
deceptive foundation of Mother Nature, where all nations and races that have
ever succeeded have gotten their start,--a start that at first may be slow
and toilsome, but one that nevertheless is real.
In
Washington I saw girls whose mothers were earning their living by laundrying.
These girls were taught by their mothers, in rather a crude way it is true,
the industry of laundrying. Later, these girls entered the public schools
and remained there perhaps six or eight years. When the public school course
was finally finished, they wanted more costly dresses, more costly hats and
shoes. In a word, while their wants have been increased, their ability to
supply their wants had not been increased in the same degree. On the other
hand, their six or eight years of book education had weaned them away from
the occupation of their mothers. The result of this was in too many cases
that the girls went to the bad. I often thought how much wiser it would have
been to give these girls the same amount of maternal training--and I favour
any kind of training, whether in the languages or mathematics, that gives
strength and culture to the mind --but at the same time to give them the
most thorough training in the latest and best methods of laundrying and
other kindred occupations.
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