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It
is now long ago that I learned this lesson from General Armstrong, and
resolved that I would permit no man, no matter what his colour might be, to
narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him. With God's help, I believe
that I have completely rid myself of any ill feeling toward the Southern
white man for any wrong that he may have inflicted upon my race. I am made
to feel just as happy now when I am rendering service to Southern white men
as when the service is rendered to a member of my own race. I pity from the
bottom of my heart any individual who is so unfortunate as to get into the
habit of holding race prejudice.
The
more I consider the subject, the more strongly I am convinced that the most
harmful effect of the practice to which the people in certain sections of
the South have felt themselves compelled to resort, in order to get rid of
the force of the Negroes' ballot, is not wholly in the wrong done to the
Negro, but in the permanent injury to the morals of the white man. The wrong
to the Negro is temporary, but to the morals of the white man the injury is
permanent. I have noted time and time again that when an individual perjures
himself in order to break the force of the black man's ballot, he soon
learns to practise dishonesty in other relations of life, not only where the
Negro is concerned, but equally so where a white man is concerned. The white
man who begins by cheating a Negro usually ends by cheating a white man. The
white man who begins to break the law by lynching a Negro soon yields to the
temptation to lynch a white man. All this, it seems to me, makes it
important that the whole Nation lend a hand in trying to lift the burden of
ignorance from the South.
Another
thing that is becoming more apparent each year in the development of
education in the South is the influence of General Armstrong's idea of
education; and this not upon the blacks alone, but upon the whites also. At
the present time there is almost no Southern state that is not putting forth
efforts in the direction of securing industrial education for its white boys
and girls, and in most cases it is easy to trace the history of these
efforts back to General Armstrong.
Soon
after the opening of our humble boarding department students began coming to
us in still larger numbers. For weeks we not only had to contend with the
difficulty of providing board, with no money, but also with that of
providing sleeping accommodations. For this purpose we rented a number of
cabins near the school. These cabins were in a dilapidated condition, and
during the winter months the students who occupied them necessarily suffered
from the cold. We charge the students eight dollars a month--all they were
able to pay--for their board. This included, besides board, room, fuel, and
washing. We also gave the students credit on their board bills for all the
work which they did for the school which was of any value to the
institution. The cost of tuition, which was fifty dollars a year for each
student, we had to secure then, as now, wherever we could.
This
small charge in cash gave us no capital with which to start a boarding
department. The weather during the second winter of our work was very cold.
We were not able to provide enough bed-clothes to keep the students warm. In
fact, for some time we were not able to provide, except in a few cases,
bedsteads and mattresses of any kind. During the coldest nights I was so
troubled about the discomfort of the students that I could not sleep myself.
I recall that on several occasions I went in the middle of the night to the
shanties occupied by the young men, for the purpose of confronting them.
Often I found some of them sitting huddled around a fire, with the one
blanket which we had been able to provide wrapped around them, trying in
this way to keep warm. During the whole night some of them did not attempt
to lie down. One morning, when the night previous had been unusually cold, I
asked those of the students in the chapel who thought that they had been
frostbitten during the night to raise their hands. Three hands went up.
Notwithstanding these experiences, there was almost no complaining on the
part of the students. They knew that we were doing the best that we could
for them. They were happy in the privilege of being permitted to enjoy any
kind of opportunity that would enable them to improve their condition. They
were constantly asking what they might do to lighten the burdens of the
teachers.
I
have heard it stated more than once, both in the North and in the South,
that coloured people would not obey and respect each other when one member
of the race is placed in a position of authority over others. In regard to
this general belief and these statements, I can say that during the nineteen
years of my experience at Tuskegee I never, either by word or act, have been
treated with disrespect by any student or officer connected with the
institution. On the other hand, I am constantly embarrassed by the many acts
of thoughtful kindness. The students do not seem to want to see me carry a
large book or a satchel or any kind of a burden through the grounds. In such
cases more than one always offers to relieve me. I almost never go out of my
office when the rain is falling that some student does not come to my side
with an umbrella and ask to be allowed to hold it over me.
While
writing upon this subject, it is a pleasure for me to add that in all my
contact with the white people of the South I have never received a single
personal insult. The white people in and near Tuskegee, to an especial
degree, seem to count it as a privilege to show me all the respect within
their power, and often go out of their way to do this.
Not
very long ago I was making a journey between Dallas (Texas) and Houston. In
some way it became known in advance that I was on the train. At nearly every
station at which the train stopped, numbers of white people, including in
most cases of the officials of the town, came aboard and introduced
themselves and thanked me heartily for the work that I was trying to do for
the South.
On
another occasion, when I was making a trip from Augusta, Georgia, to
Atlanta, being rather tired from much travel, I road in a Pullman sleeper.
When I went into the car, I found there two ladies from Boston whom I knew
well. These good ladies were perfectly ignorant, it seems, of the customs of
the South, and in the goodness of their hearts insisted that I take a seat
with them in their section. After some hesitation I consented. I had been
there but a few minutes when one of them, without my knowledge, ordered
supper to be served for the three of us. This embarrassed me still further.
The car was full of Southern white men, most of whom had their eyes on our
party. When I found that supper had been ordered, I tried to contrive some
excuse that would permit me to leave the section, but the ladies insisted
that I must eat with them. I finally settled back in my seat with a sigh,
and said to myself, "I am in for it now, sure."
To add further to the embarrassment of the situation, soon after the
supper was placed on the table one of the ladies remembered that she had in
her satchel a special kind of tea which she wished served, and as she said
she felt quite sure the porter did not know how to brew it properly, she
insisted upon getting up and preparing and serving it herself. At last the
meal was over; and it seemed the longest one that I had ever eaten. When we
were through, I decided to get myself out of the embarrassing situation and
go to the smoking-room, where most of the men were by that time, to see how
the land lay. In the meantime, however, it had become known in some way
throughout the car who I was. When I went into the smoking-room I was never
more surprised in my life than when each man, nearly every one of them a
citizen of Georgia, came up and introduced himself to me and thanked me
earnestly for the work that I was trying to do for the whole South. This was
not flattery, because each one of these individuals knew that he had nothing
to gain by trying to flatter me.
From
the first I have sought to impress the students with the idea that Tuskegee
is not my institution, or that of the officers, but that it is their
institution, and that they have as much interest in it as any of the
trustees or instructors. I have further sought to have them feel that I am
at the institution as their friend and adviser, and not as their overseer.
It has been my aim to have them speak with directness and frankness about
anything that concerns the life of the school. Two or three times a year I
ask the students to write me a letter criticising or making complaints or
suggestions about anything connected with the institution. When this is not
done, I have them meet me in the chapel for a heart-to-heart talk about the
conduct of the school. There are no meetings with our students that I enjoy
more than these, and none are more helpful to me in planning for the future.
These meetings, it seems to me, enable me to get at the very heart of all
that concerns the school. Few things help an individual more than to place
responsibility upon him, and to let him know that you trust him. When I have
read of labour troubles between employers and employees, I have often
thought that many strikes and similar disturbances might be avoided if the
employers would cultivate the habit of getting nearer to their employees, of
consulting and advising with them, and letting them feel that the interests
of the two are the same. Every individual responds to confidence, and this
is not more true of any race than of the Negroes. Let them once understand
that you are unselfishly interested in them, and you can lead them to any
extent.
It
was my aim from the first at Tuskegee to not only have the buildings erected
by the students themselves, but to have them make their own furniture as far
as was possible. I now marvel at the patience of the students while sleeping
upon the floor while waiting for some kind of a bedstead to be constructed,
or at their sleeping without any kind of a mattress while waiting for
something that looked like a mattress to be made.
In
the early days we had very few students who had been used to handling
carpenters' tools, and the bedsteads made by the students then were very
rough and very weak. Not unfrequently when I went into the students' rooms
in the morning I would find at least two bedsteads lying about on the floor.
The problem of providing mattresses was a difficult one to solve. We finally
mastered this, however, by getting some cheap cloth and sewing pieces of
this together as to make large bags. These bags we filled with the pine
straw--or, as it is sometimes called, pine needles--which we secured from
the forests near by. I am glad to say that the industry of mattress-making
has grown steadily since then, and has been improved to such an extent that
at the present time it is an important branch of the work which is taught
systematically to a number of our girls, and that the mattresses that now
come out of the mattress-shop at Tuskegee are about as good as those bought
in the average store. For some time after the opening of the boarding
department we had no chairs in the students' bedrooms or in the dining
rooms. Instead of chairs we used stools which the students constructed by
nailing together three pieces of rough board. As a rule, the furniture in
the students' rooms during the early days of the school consisted of a bed,
some stools, and sometimes a rough table made by the students. The plan of
having the students make the furniture is still followed, but the number of
pieces in a room has been increased, and the workmanship has so improved
that little fault can be found with the articles now. One thing that I have
always insisted upon at Tuskegee is that everywhere there should be absolute
cleanliness. Over and over again the students were reminded in those first
years--and are reminded now--that people would excuse us for our poverty,
for our lack of comforts and conveniences, but that they would not excuse us
for dirt.
Another
thing that has been insisted upon at the school is the use of the
tooth-brush. "The gospel of the tooth-brush," as General Armstrong
used to call it, is part of our creed at Tuskegee. No student is permitted
to retain who does not keep and use a tooth-brush. Several times, in recent
years, students have come to us who brought with them almost no other
article except a tooth-brush. They had heard from the lips of other students
about our insisting upon the use of this, and so, to make a good impression,
they brought at least a tooth-brush with them. I remember that one morning,
not long ago, I went with the lady principal on her usual morning tour of
inspection of the girls' rooms. We found one room that contained three girls
who had recently arrived at the school. When I asked them if they had
tooth-brushes, one of the girls replied, pointing to a brush: "Yes,
sir. That is our brush. We bought it together, yesterday." It did not
take them long to learn a different lesson.
It
has been interesting to note the effect that the use of the tooth-brush has
had in bringing about a higher degree of civilization among the students.
With few exceptions, I have noticed that, if we can get a student to the
point where, when the first or second tooth-brush disappears, he of his own
motion buys another, I have not been disappointed in the future of that
individual. Absolute cleanliness of the body has been insisted upon from the
first. The students have been taught to bathe as regularly as to take their
meals. This lesson we began teaching before we had anything in the shape of
a bath-house. Most of the students came from plantation districts, and often
we had to teach them how to sleep at night; that is, whether between the two
sheets--after we got to the point where we could provide them two sheets--or
under both of them. Naturally I found it difficult to teach them to sleep
between two sheets when we were able to supply but one. The importance of
the use of the night-gown received the same attention.
For
a long time one of the most difficult tasks was to teach the students that
all the buttons were to be kept on their clothes, and that there must be no
torn places or grease-spots. This lesson, I am pleased to be able to say,
has been so thoroughly learned and so faithfully handed down from year to
year by one set of students to another that often at the present time, when
the students march out of the chapel in the evening and their dress is
inspected, as it is every night, not one button is found to be missing.
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