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Finding a Way Out
An Autobiography
By
Robert Russa Moton
Garden City, N. Y., and Toronto
Doubleday, Page & Company
1921
COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
All RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION
INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES,
INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN
Page v
PREFACE
THE story that is recorded here is written only at
the repeated and urgent solicitation of those of my
friends who have known me best, and have insisted
that the telling of it would serve a useful
purpose, especially at this time, in helping to a
clearer understanding of the hopes and aspirations
of my own people and the difficulties which they
have overcome in making the progress of the last
fifty years which has been so frequently described
as "the most remarkable of any race in so short a
time."
There is no other justification, I am sure, for
telling a story that is so simple and lacks so many
of those elements which compel interest and hold
attention. As a matter of fact, I do not believe
it to be very different in its main outline from the
story of hundreds and perhaps thousands of other
coloured men who have found their way out of the
Page vi
difficulties which face the average Negro youth in
the midst of American life.
I have tried to record the events that have given
character and colour to my own life, and at the
same time to reflect the impressions made upon my
mind by experiences that I could not always reconcile
with what I had learned of American ideals
and standards. In doing this I have also found
the opportunity to acknowledge the kindly advice
and help that have come to me from hundreds of
friends among men and women of both races and
sections, and of every walk in life.
Whatever of labour and pains may have gone
into this story, I shall feel amply repaid if it encourages
any member of my race to greater faith
in himself, as well as in other selves, both white and
black; and shall help him to make his life count
for the very most in meeting and solving the great
human problem which we in this country call the
"race problem."
And I shall be further repaid if it shall have some
slight part in leading any youth of the white race
to follow the example of other members of his own
Page vii
race of both North and South, and dedicate himself
to the service of human welfare in securing justice
and a fair opportunity for the humblest American
citizen, whatever his race or colour, to the end that
the white man of the North, the white man of the
South, and the Negro shall work harmoniously together
in bringing forward that Peace on Earth
which results when men have Good Will.
R. R. MOTON.
Tuskegee Institute,
Alabama, 1919
Page ix
CONTENTS
- I. OUT OF AFRICA . . . . .
3
- II. ON A VIRGINIA PLANTATION . . . . .
16
- III. THROUGH RECONSTRUCTION . . . . .
39
- IV. DOING AND LEARNING . . . . .
50
- V. A TOUCH OF REAL LIFE . . . . .
77
- VI. ENDING STUDENT DAYS . . . . .
104
- VII. BLACK, WHITE, AND RED . . . . .
120
- VIII. WITH NORTH AND SOUTH . . . . .
153
- IX. FROM HAMPTON TO TUSKEGEE . . . . .
188
- X. AT TUSKEGEE . . . . .
209
- XI. WAR ACTIVITIES . . . . .
234
- XII. FORWARD MOVEMENTS IN THE SOUTH . . . . .
266
- INDEX . . . . . 291.
Page 3
FINDING A WAY OUT
An Autobiography
CHAPTER I
OUT OF AFRICA
ABOUT the year 1735 a fierce battle was waged
between two strong tribes on the west coast of
Africa. The chief of one of these tribes was counted
among the most powerful of his time. This chief
overpowered his rival and slaughtered and captured
a great number of his band. Some of the captives
escaped, others died, others still committed
suicide, till but few were left. The victorious chief
delivered to his son about a dozen of this forlorn
remnant, and he, with an escort, took them away
to be sold into slavery. The young African pushed
his way through the jungle with his bodyguard
until he reached the coast. Arrived there, he
sold his captives to the captain of an American
Page 4
slave ship and received his pay in trinkets of various
kinds, common to the custom of the trade.
Then he was asked to row out in a boat and inspect
the wonderful ship. He went, and with the
captain and the crew saw every part of the vessel.
When it was all over they offered him food and he
ate it heartily. After that he remembered no more
till he woke to find himself in the hold of the ship
chained to one of the miserable creatures whom he
himself had so recently sold as a slave, and the
vessel itself was far beyond the sight of land.
After many days the ship arrived at the shores
of America; the human cargo was brought to
Richmond and this African slave merchant was
sold along with his captives at public auction in the
slave markets of the city. He was bought by
a tobacco planter and carried to Amelia County,
Virginia, where he lived to be a very old man. This
man was my grandmother's great-grandfather.
According to the story as he told it to my grandmother,
he brought more at auction than any other
member of the party. He was a very fine specimen
of physical manhood, weighing somewhere around
two hundred pounds, and standing about six feet
Page 5
two inches in height. My grandmother said of
him that he learned very little of the English
language and used that little always with a pronounced
foreign accent. He never grew to like
America or Americans, white or black; and certain
days, after the passing of so many moons, he
observed religiously throughout his life. These
were feast days with certain ceremonies of their
own, in which, when possible, two other members
of that same party though not of his tribe would
join him. Each understood the tribal language
of the others. These days, so my grandmother
said, which occurred about three times a year, his
owner permitted him to take off, leaving him undisturbed,
for at other times he was entirely faithful
and conscientious in his work. His great-
granddaughter - my mother's mother - was not, I
should judge, very unlike this great-great-great-
grandfather of mine, for in her youth she was a
magnificent type of womanhood, both physically and
mentally; and even to her death, at ninety-six years
of age, she was possessed of remarkable physical and
mental vigour. She "carried the keys" on her
owner's, Doctor Craddock's, plantation, and stood
Page 6
next on the female side of the household to his wife,
superintending the making of the clothes, caring
for the children on the plantation, and in later
years conducting what would in the present day be
called a Day Nursery; that is, caring for the
children of the mothers who were in the field, seeing
to their food and dress, and to their conduct, of
course. Frequently these old mothers were very
clever in story telling, so that "Uncle Remus,"
"Brer Fox," and "Brer Rabbit" were familiar
to the children of the South, both white and black,
many years before they got into print.
My father's mother, who lived to be 108 years old,
was also brought directly from Africa, and was
finally sold to a planter who lived in Charlotte
County, Virginia. It was there my father was
born. He was owned by Doctor Alexander of
that county, and when he died, about 1850, and
the estate was divided, my father was sold to John
Crowder of Prince Edward County, and, I think,
presented to his wife as a Christmas present. I
have many times heard my father tell of his experiences
as a slave; of the many hardships through
which he passed, and of the many good times he had
Page 7
even as a slave, for one of the fortunate traits
of the Negro is his jovial nature, his ability to see
humour even in adversity, and to laugh and sing
under almost any circumstances. I have often
thought that most other races, had they gone
through the difficulties which the Negro faced,
would have produced much more insanity than has
been found in the past among Negroes; unfortunately,
however, insanity is increasing very much
indeed among my people, an indication in all probability
that they are taking life much more seriously
than they have done in the past.
There were many kind masters during slavery
days; and there must have been such a thing as
kindness even between master and slave. The overseers
who were generally of the poorer class of white
people were, as a rule, the cause of much of the contention
and usually made most of the trouble; at
least the Negroes thought so. They were night patrollers,
or, as the Negroes called them, "patter-rollers,"
and were paid by the hour in many places to catch
and whip any slave found off his master's plantation
after nightfall without a pass. Not infrequently
these people received from the master
Page 8
class less consideration even than the slave, and in
most cases the bitterest animosity and hatred existed
between the overseers and the slaves. It was
not unusual that Negroes considered themselves
superior in every respect to the overseer class,
whose members were generally referred to among
them as "po'h white trash." This expression was
"the last word" in degradation, infamy, and general
contempt that Negroes could command.
Even to-day, when Negroes refer to people as "poor
white trash," it has a meaning all its own, and I am
of the opinion that much of the ill feeling between
the races in our country to-day had its origin in
these unpleasant relations between overseer and
slaves before Emancipation.
On the Crowder plantation there was an overseer
who had a particular dislike for my father,
probably because he thought that my father received
entirely too much consideration from his
master and mistress; in short, there was a kind of
jealous rivalry between them. It is unnecessary
to say that the dislike on the part of the overseer
was generously reciprocated by my father.
If there was any difference, it was that the hatred
Page 9
on my father's part was the stronger - if that were
possible; and without doubt, being in the confidence
of his master, he used his opportunity to the
disadvantage of the overseer. It was the rule of
the plantation that no slaves except such as the
master designated should be whipped by the overseer.
My father, of course, was thus exempted. On
one occasion the overseer, unfortunately, and against
the order of his employer, insisted upon whipping
my father. The scene took place in a tobacco
barn where my father was engaged with perhaps
fifty other slaves in sorting and stripping tobacco.
In the scuffle, in which several other slaves helped
the overseer in response to his call, my father easily
got the upper hand, for he was a man of unusual
strength. He not only overpowered the overseer
but the men who undertook to assist him, maiming
the overseer and one of the men very seriously.
This was in the midst of a severe snow storm. My
father took the only course, as it seemed, that was
open to "obstreperous" slaves - he took to the
woods. This was in early December. Here he
remained, picking up what food he could at nights
in cabins and elsewhere, until March, when, for
Page 10
want of food and sufficient clothing, his feet having
been frost bitten, he was obliged to give in. He
returned one snowy afternoon, slipped into the
stable, and hid himself in the loft under the hay.
His hat was discovered by his master's two sons
whose conversation, which he overheard, showed
that they were afraid of him. They ran to the
house and told their father of his return, and he
came out to the barn and urged him to come to
the house and be looked after, for the entire family
was really very fond of him. He was taken back
to the house where his mistress, the mother of the
two boys, treated him most kindly. Indeed, he
said, they all wept over his pitiable condition.
His feet were finally, but only after careful nursing
for several months, in shape to permit him to resume
his usual duties. He promised that he would
not commit the same offense again, provided,
however, no "po'h white trash" attempted again
to whip him. He apologized to the overseer, and
the two agreed that there would be no further
trouble. But a few weeks afterward he went to
his master and told him he was very sorry it was
not possible for him to get along with that overseer
Page 11
and asked that his master sell him to a near-by
planter, who had agreed to give him better treatment.
This time it would appear that he and the
master came very near the "parting of the ways."
This seems strange, I know, but it was not infrequent
that slaves of the more intelligent type would
make definite arrangements with some near or
distant planter to buy them; thus slaves very often
picked their own masters. But in this case Mr.
Crowder made it plain to him that they could get
along; that he was unwilling to sell him; that he belonged
especially to his mistress and that she
depended on him. My father insisted, however,
that the overseer be discharged. Whether his
attitude in this case produced the desired result
my father did not know, but in any case within
a few weeks the objectionable overseer left and a
new overseer took his place, who established better
relations, not only as between himself and my
father, but with the other slaves as well, in consequence
of which the master got better and more
efficient service with very much less friction.
From that time forward my father lived pleasantly
on the Crowder plantation, neither he nor
Page 12
the master nor the overseer breaking their mutual
promise - my father's being that he would not
fight again unless someone attempted to whip him;
and the overseer's, that he would not attempt to
whip him. My father used to say that one man
could not chastise another, although two men
might fight and one might get the better of the
other. That idea was very strong in his mind.
When the Civil War broke out my father went
with Mrs. Crowder's brother - Captain Womack of
Cumberland County, Virginia, who was afterward
Colonel Womack - into the fray as his "body
servant." I think they would say "valet" today.
He was with him during the first three years of
that bitter struggle, suffering all the privations and
hardships so familiar to those who know what the
Southern Army endured.
One experience he used often to relate was that
near Petersburg he accidentally got within the Union
lines and was told that he might remain with the
Yankees if he so desired; but he told them that he
could not do so at the time because he had given his
definite promise that he would stand by Colonel
Womack until the war was over. He could not
Page 13
break his promise. He had also sworn to see to it,
so far as he could, that no harm came to his master
and he felt that he would remain true to that
pledge so long as Colonel Womack was equally true
to his promises to him. I am told that the friendship
between the two men, one black, one white,
was very strong; that nothing ever separated them
save Colonel Womack's death which, as I recall my
father's account of it, occurred in one of the famous
charges near Petersburg.
When the war was over my father "hired himself"
to the Crowders, where he remained until
Christmas of 1866 when he married my mother,
Emily Brown. They were married in the old
plantation house of the Hillmans of Amelia
County. The Hillmans, as I recall, were Scottish
Presbyterians and like many other Southerners, had
lost everything during the war except their name
and honour and the pride of aristocratic ancestry.
My mother, like her own mother, was a woman of
very strong character in many ways, very much
like my father. Among my early recollections is
the fact that my mother frequently, after working
in the field all day, would hurry us through the
Page 14
evening meal in order to get the cabin ready for
the night school which met regularly in our simple
home. I recall now the eagerness with which some
twenty-five or thirty men and women struggled
with their lessons, trying to learn to read and write
while I was supposed to be asleep in my trundle
bed, to which I had been hurried to make room for
this little band of anxious, aspiring ex-slaves, some
of whom came as far as six miles in order to
take advantage of this rare opportunity which
but a few years before had been denied them.
The teacher of this night school was my mother's
brother, who, in spite of the penalties attached, had
learned to read and write from his young master,
picking up here and there snatches of information
while they played and worked together, ofttimes
without the young master's realizing the gravity
of his actions. All this took place but a few years
after the close of the war and before any schools had
been established for coloured or white children in
that section. My mother was one of the most enthusiastic
of the students, while my father, who was
much older than my mother, although giving his
unqualified approval and encouragement to the
Page 15
school, sat by and listened and once in a while
in a mischievous mood threw in an ejaculation
which upset the order and dignity of the school,
much to the embarrassment and annoyance of the
teacher and, I fear, sometimes to the indignation
of the more serious-minded students, especially my
mother.
Thinking of the experiences through which my
ancestors passed, along with thousands of other
slaves, in their contact with the white people of
America, I have often felt that somehow - in spite
of the hardships and oppression which they suffered -
that in the providence of God, the Negro,
when all is summed up dispassionately, has come
through the ordeal with much to his credit, and with
a great many advantages over his condition when he
entered the relationship. The white man, on the
other hand, has reaped certain disadvantages from
which the whole country still suffers and from which
it will probably take several generations to recover
completely.
Page 16
CHAPTER II
ON A VIRGINIA PLANTATION
IN JANUARY, 1867, my father hired himself to Mr.
Samuel Vaughan of Prince Edward County, and
was made foreman or "head man" on the Vaughan
plantation while his family continued to live in
Amelia County. It was in Amelia County that I
was born on the 26th day of August of the same
year. Among my earliest recollections is one of
my father appearing on a Saturday morning with
a team of four mules hitched to a large farm wagon
in charge of a coloured man, Beverley Jones, who
rode one of the mules. My father and my mother,
assisted by friends, packed our few belongings into
this wagon and took me with my mother to the
Vaughan plantation in Prince Edward County
where my father had been working. I remember
perfectly the long drive and how they wrapped
me in an old gray blanket and a blue military
overcoat - which were very common in those days
Page 17
- in order to protect me from the bitter cold.
Here in an old house, in the rear of a Virginia
mansion known as "Pleasant Shade," I spent
most of the years of my early youth. My mother
for many years was cook, and my father "led
the hands" on the plantation. It was here that I
caught my first glimpses of real culture and got
my first inspiration as to what I would like to be
and something of what I would like to do.
On account of my parents' relation to the household,
and because I was the only child near the "big
house," I naturally received much attention from
the Vaughan family. I can never forget Mrs.
Vaughan - "Miss Lucy" we called her, as was the
custom not only among the coloured people but
among the white folks also - and her three daughters,
Misses Patty, Jennie, and Mollie. I was soon
big enough to carry Miss Lucy's key basket. This
was considered a great honour for a small Negro
boy before the war and immediately afterward.
I felt the "dignity and responsibility" of my office.
As I grew older my duties increased until I assisted
her and her daughters in the care of the fowls, of
which she had a great number - turkeys, geese,
Page 18
ducks, and a great many chickens. But proud
as I was of these duties, I have never since so
sincerely envied any one his position as I did Sam
Reed, the general house boy and waiter in the
family. Miss Lucy had promised me that
when Sam was big enough he would be transferred
to the farm, as was the custom, and I could
have his place. Sam helped the cook, made all the
fires, was in the "big house" much of the time, and
generally wore "good clothes." He was a favourite
on the plantation. Besides all this, Sam was a
remarkable acrobat. He could turn somersaults,
stand on his head, turn a cart wheel, go wheelbarrow
fashion, and could perform what were to me
many very wonderful acrobatic feats, in addition
to being a wonderfully good reel and jig dancer
and a remarkably fine singer. He must have inherited
his ability to sing from his father, "Uncle
Jim," who was a noted "shout singer" in the
neighbourhood. Sam was not a "Christian" and
so sang anything; and he did it very effectively.
Under Sam's direction I practised many of his accomplishments,
and with his careful tutelage became
a close second. As a result, he and I were
Page 19
frequently called into the "big house" to perform.
But there was one thing I had against Sam. He
grew so slowly it seemed that I would soon be bigger
than he, and would lose my chance to get his
place when he should be sent on to another. Fortunately
for me, but perhaps unfortunately for Sam,
his father now insisted that it was time for him
to leave the house, as he considered him too old to
devote himself to "doing chores"; and being only a
house boy, his pay was too small. He would earn
more by working on the farm. So Sam had to go.
I never shall forget the joy I felt when told
that I was to wait on the table at breakfast the
following morning, and how Sam and my mother
instructed me until late in the night how to perform
my new duties; how I should stand; and how
to all appearances I was to pay no attention to the
conversation. I remember how they sat at the
table and had me pass things - empty plates and
dishes - I do not recall whether from the right
or left side, but judge now it must have been from
the left. In any case, I got through my first day
with some show of success and proved myself fairly
equal to my new responsibilities. As a compliment
Page 20
to the honours of the post, the young ladies
at the house made me a couple of suits which I
should wear only on special occasions. I think
I have never had a position since then in which I
took any more pride than in this youthful promotion
to the place to which I had aspired for several
years. Yet there was more in my position than
was at first apparent. "Mr. Willie" Vaughan,
the only son, I took in many things as a model. I
copied his laugh, his walk, his dress, the way he
handled his knife and fork, and other characteristic
manners of his in a fashion that must have sometimes
amused those who observed me. But aside
from its humorous aspects, this contact with the
Vaughan family meant for me a certain kind of
most valuable training and education.
About this time a rather interesting incident
happened. While my work was new, my mother
made me devote an hour at night to my blue backed
Holmes's Primer. She was my teacher,
being one of the very few coloured women in our
neighbourhood who could read at all. There was
a popular belief that the Vaughans, notwithstanding
their kindness and aristocratic ideas, objected to
Page 21
and opposed Negroes' reading and writing. My
mother was very careful, therefore, that they should
not know that she was teaching me to read, or even
that she herself could read. For several years she
had kept from them the fact that she even knew
one letter of the alphabet from another; but one
night after the day's work was done there was a
gentle rap at the door of our two roomed house.
I remember that we were sitting before a big, open
fire - my father, my mother, and I - my mother
teaching me by the light from the fire. As the
custom was in those days my mother called out
to learn who was there. Imagine our consternation
when the answer came back: "Miss Lucy."
My mother was tempted to hide the book when
she discovered who was at the door, but my father
objected, saying we were free and that he would
leave the Vaughans if they made any objections;
that he could find plenty of work at good pay at
any one of a dozen plantations in the district. So
the door was opened and in walked "Miss Lucy",
to find us in the very act. She expressed the greatest
surprise when she discovered what was taking
place, but she astonished us equally when she
Page 22
indicated that she was very much pleased, and commended
my mother on the fact that she could read
and told her she was very wise to teach her son
to read. The next day we were even more astonished
and of course pleased when Miss Mollie,
her youngest daughter, said to my mother that
Mrs. Vaughan had asked her to give me a
lesson for one hour every afternoon and to do the
same for my mother if my mother would care to
have her do so. So the next time my father went
to Farmville, eight miles away, he bought the
necessary books both for my mother and me,
and my lessons began in a more systematic way
with Miss Mollie as teacher and my mother as
my "classmate" for one hour each afternoon. My
mother finally dropped out but I continued for some
time, though intermittently.
One of the saddest recollections of my childhood
was the death of Mrs. Vaughan. I can never forget
the impression it made upon me, the wailing
of the coloured women on the plantation and the
sadness of the coloured men. There must have been
between three and four hundred people on the
Vaughan estate, including men, women, and children.
Page 23
Mrs. Vaughan, like her husband, possessed a
very beautiful character and was beloved of
everybody on the plantation. While I did not
then appreciate the full gravity of the situation,
I wept along with the others; for in spite of my youth
I realized somewhat the loss that this death was to
me as well as to others. For there was not a family
on the plantation and scarcely a person who had
not at some time been helped by her kindly personal
attention to their needs and difficulties.
Several years later Mr. Vaughan was married
again - to Miss Pattie Perkinson, a daughter of Captain
Perkinson, the head of another of Virginia's
fine families, who owned a large estate a few
miles away. I confess that I did not entirely approve
of the marriage. The truth of the matter was
I shared the feelings - perhaps in less degree - of
most of the people on the plantation, especially
the women; though my own feelings were more
personal than general. I was not so worried about
the marriage itself as I was anxious that whoever
took "Miss Lucy's" place should not interfere
with the position I was occupying in the Vaughan
household. I was certain that no one could be so
Page 24
kind as "Miss Lucy" had been to me, and I felt sure
that "Miss Pattie" would not be: and what I had
heard of the dealings of certain members of her
family with coloured people rather tended further
to disquiet than to allay my youthful anxiety
about my own future. My position at this time
in the Vaughan household was, in my mind, of a
very important sort. I was doing, so I supposed,
just about as I wished, and running things much
to my own liking. I carried the keys all day and
hung them at the head of Mr. Vaughan's bed the
last thing at night. I issued the corn for the stock
and frequently helped in weighing the rations to
the scores of men who came up Saturday afternoon
for their allowances. I went hunting with Mr.
Vaughan, visited the rabbit traps in the morning,
and also went fishing with him on the Appomattox
River. He rode a magnificent bay mare we
called Fannie, while I rode a mule, blind in both
eyes, named Kit. It is not surprising, therefore,
that I should have been more or less jealous of my
position and anxious that the new mistress of the
house should be of a kind to meet my approval,
for by this time the three daughters had all married
Page 25
and only Mr. Vaughan's son, Mr. William S.
Vaughan, was left.
My mother was still the cook, and my father was
running things as headman on the farm, but neither
my father nor my mother counted very much in my
mind so far as this situation was concerned; indeed
Mr. Vaughan and his son did not count very much,
looking at it from the mental angles of my youth. I
was, however, very pleasantly surprised when "Miss
Pattie" came to "Pleasant Shade." The things that
had been prophesied regarding her were not fulfilled.
She did not take the keys from me and I
had just about as much leeway as before, in some
respects more. She was more careful than the
men folks had been about setting the table
and cleaning the house, pulling up weeds, the
clearing of the garden, and such things. She made
me sweep off the porches once and sometimes twice
or three times a day - I had gotten to the place
where I swept them perhaps twice and sometimes
only once a week. And besides all this, the new
Mrs. Vaughan insisted that my mother should
continue my lessons, and encouraged me in various
other ways.
Page 26
In the fall following this important event a
school was opened for coloured children a few miles
from the Vaughan plantation. This was the first
school for Negroes in that neighbourhood; indeed
the first school of any kind, for there had been no
public schools of consequence for either white or
coloured children before that time. In the fall of
the previous year the coloured people had been
urged to vote with the promise that if they did so
a public school for their children would be established
in our district. They voted according to
instructions and the promise was kept.
In early October a free school was opened for
coloured people, with Mr. John Morrisette, a
white man, as teacher. My father and my mother
decided that I should go. They consulted the
Vaughans, particularly Mrs. Vaughan. She readily
approved. Forthwith she and my mother fitted
me out and I appeared in school the opening day.
I recall how I felt when I observed that there were
so many children bigger than myself who could not
read. Because of my instruction at home I was
in the highest class in the school. And I had
special pride in the fact. I think I was reading in
Page 27
the third reader. But reading at all by a coloured
boy in those days was rather unusual; and a
coloured free school, with fifty or sixty children
on the opening day, and meeting in the daytime
as well, was a real marvel. Mr. Morrisette, who,
by the way, had been an officer in the Southern
Army, was most kind and thoughtful and very
patient, and took a great deal of care and pains,
even on the opening day, to classify us. He
brought many books of various kinds, and his wife,
who was a very unusual woman, came in later to
help him in the difficult task of organizing this large
number of Negro children into a real school. His
task no doubt was a hard one, not only because of
the children directly, but because of the parents as
well, many of whom, as time went on, troubled
him very much. All of us naturally thought the
more books the student carried the more he knew,
and many parents were therefore willing to get the
fourth, fifth, and even the sixth reader for their
children without any protest at the expense so
long as they were carrying "bigger" and "higher"
books. My father shared this feeling along with
the rest. He was not altogether happy at my
Page 28
having only a third reader; but Mrs. Vaughan, who
knew what I was doing, came to the rescue and
assured him that I would have "bigger" books in
ample time, and that I would probably learn more
than many others who had many more books.
I continued my work in the Vaughan family,
before and after school, at intervals for many years,
and without doubt what I learned from my contact
with them was worth quite as much to me as
what I learned at school. Indeed, my own idea has
always been that the one supplemented the other.
My work before and after school was being correlated
unconsciously with what I was learning
in books; which was true also of my contact with
the nearly four score children whom I met daily at
school.
The Vaughans were of the finest type of Southern
families - kind, thoughtful, and generous. They
were people of considerable wealth and at the top
of the social scale in that community; but at the
same time they were of all the white people the
most popular among the Negroes of the neighbourhood.
They visited Negro churches and prayer meetings,
and Negroes frequently visited the old
Page 29
Jamestown Presbyterian Church to which the
Vaughans belonged and of which Mr. Vaughan, I
think, was an elder, as was also his son in later
years. For many years they conducted Sunday
School in the afternoon at Jamestown Church for
coloured people. This school was taught by the
leading ladies of the community with the help of
some of the leading white men. In this connection
it is significant that the Vaughans never suffered
for want of adequate and faithful help on the
farm or in the household, and it is certain that their
influence on the coloured people on their place and
in that section was of the best. This was true
of them in that day. It is equally true today of
their three daughters and was true of their son and
his wife, both of whom have died within the last
few years. The Vaughans never lost any prestige
or social standing in the community by being kind
and helpful to coloured people.
The pastor of the Jamestown Presbyterian
Church, to which I have referred, was the Rev.
George H. Denney, a minister who lived in
Amelia County, some twenty miles away, and
usually came to the community on Saturday afternoons
Page 30
in a sulky. He generally made his home
with the Vaughans, remaining over from Saturday
until Monday. Occasionally he came earlier or
remained later for certain special services. I was
always glad to have him come, even though it
added to my duties somewhat, because of the extra
shoes to polish and the extra pail of water that I
had to bring from the spring some distance away.
At the same time he was very kind to me; it was
he who gave me the first Bible that I ever had and
took pains to interpret certain passages with which
I had become somewhat familiar but whose meaning
was as yet rather vague to me. But my joy
at his coming lay in the fact that frequently,
especially in the summer season, he brought
with him his son George. He was of about my
own age which accounted for our having many
good times together. Sometimes we were joined
by Ernest Morton, another white boy, and Lee
Brown, a coloured boy, but George and I were
especially friendly. Many a day he would sit at the
table with the family and I would be keeping the
flies off and waiting on the table, when we would
wink at each other and make plans as to what we
Page 31
would do when dinner was over and my other work
done. Often he would pitch in and help me through
and then off we went fishing on Sailor Creek,
famous for one of the skirmishes between Lee and
Grant, on the way to Appomattox after the evacuation
of Richmond.
We not only enjoyed our boyish play, but we
worked many examples in arithmetic together and
discussed history as well. I remember that we differed
frequently. One of the discussions we used to
have most often was about which was the greater
general, Grant or Lee. He was for Lee; I for Grant.
We often discussed the merits of the conflict betwen
the states, which culminated in the war. I could
never swerve him from his position on this question
and he never swerved me from mine. We never
found it profitable to discuss this issue. He would
sometimes lose his temper, and I frequently lost
mine. There came a time when we ceased to discuss
it at all and I think our relations were consequently
very much pleasanter. He had a most
excellent father and the son was of the same type
- very bright, always frank, always generous - and
he never swerved in his friendship for me.
Page 32
I sometimes feared that the Vaughan's and the
Reverend Mr. Denney, George's father, were a little
annoyed that he preferred apparently to be
out in the fields where I was with the cows and
sheep, or even to help me with my chores, to being
in the house among the guests - for the Vaughan
household was a very popular meeting place for
young people and old. It was a great social centre
and the scene of many parties.
Mr. Vaughan's death, which occurred about this
time, made everything different at "Pleasant Shade"
thereafter. The farm was divided among the children.
Most of the coloured people moved away.
My father went to live with a family of Mortons who
were by marriage connected with the Vaughan family.
Mr. J.X. Morton, who afterward became a professor
at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, had a son
Ernest, to whom I have referred. Our friendship
grew stronger; indeed he left parents and everything
else to be with my coloured chum Lee and
with me, and we, in the same spirit, neglected everything
that we could with impunity, in order that
the three of us could be together. We fished and
hunted together and engaged in many boyish sports
Page 33
and pranks. Nothing in his possession was too
good for us, and nothing in ours was too good for
him. As we grew older my father did not wholly
approve of this intimacy, and used often to say
that we were "too thick to thrive." In the course
of time there did come a parting. Ernest went off to
school and my chum Lee and I were left on his
father's farm. The weeks immediately following
his leaving for the Virginia Polytechnic Institute
were dull and dreary for us at home. This I think
was in October. I continued to work on the farm,
for I was now too big for chores, and went to school
when the weather did not permit working on the
farm. I was anxiously awaiting the Christmas
holidays when our friend Ernest would return
and we would again have some good times together.
He would tell us no doubt of his college
experiences and we had some experiences that we
could relate to him. At last the day came. Lee
and I were at the house when they brought him
in the carriage from Rice's Depot. His father and
one of his sisters had gone to meet him. He had
with him also his room mate, I think, who had come
to spend the holidays with him. They both wore
Page 34
gray uniforms with brass buttons. Lee and I, as
soon as Ernest alighted from the carriage, rushed up
to shake hands. He not only did not shake hands
with us but his manner was as cold and frigid as
the north wind that we were breathing. He did
bow, but it was quickly done. Lee went home. I
went into the kitchen with Aunt Viny, the cook.
I was feeling bad; so was Lee. I was thinking.
Sometimes I wonder if I ever thought quite as
seriously on life as I did that night. A few moments
later he came out into the kitchen in his
splendid spick and span uniform with brass buttons
and polished shoes. Aunt Viny, the old
cook of sixty or seventy years, rushed up to him
and threw her arms around him, exclaiming, "My
chil'! My chil'!" and he in turn threw his arms
around her. He was not more demonstrative toward
his mother; in fact, not even so much so, because
his mother was not so demonstrative as the
cook. I sat unhappy, puzzled, thinking. Finally,
through the darkness of the night, I stole down
through the ravine, across the brook, and up to our
cabin on the hill. I went to bed early that night.
My father, who always saw and realized much more
Page 35
than he ever expressed, asked me the one question
that I did not care to have him ask, and he made just
the one ejaculation which cut keen and deep. He
said, "Did you see Ernest?" "Yes, Sir," I said.
"What did he say to you?" "Nothing," said I. "I
told you to stay away from there," he said. I made
no answer. He said no more. He knew how I felt,
for he probably imagined what had happened. I
went immediately to bed, as I have said, earlier
than was my custom, and I think remained in bed
later next morning, but I slept less than usual. I
was thinking that night. I arose next morning more
weary than when I went to bed; but I was wiser
and more resolute than ever before in my life. I
went through my usual day's work on the farm and
looked after the hogs for the Mortons, and did what
I had to do with reference to the feeding, but did
not go to the house except as I was obliged to do.
I met Ernest and his chum face to face. I looked
the other way. I do not think they noticed where
I was looking. I am sure they did not care. I
was trying to snub them both. It had no effect,
so far as I could judge, on either. But before
going to bed the following night I had firmly resolved
Page 36
that getting an education was the best thing
toward which I could bend my efforts in the future.
The next morning I asked my father about the
school for coloured people, which was being projected
under the influence of General Mahone at
Petersburg, now a State Normal School. He told
me much about it. It was to open the following
fall. The Hon. John M. Langston, he said, a
coloured man who was as well educated as any white
person that he knew of, was to be the president.
He said I might go if I wished and that he would
do what he could to help me. It being a state
school, and he having certain strong friends in the
Republican Party (General Mahone among them),
Hon. B.S. Hooper, a member of Congress from the
Fourth Congressional District of Virginia, would
probably arrange for me to have a scholarship. He
also told me much about Hampton Institute but he
was not enthusiastic about my going to Hampton.
He said Hampton was a "work school" and that
he could teach me as much about work as Hampton
could; but as he thought I could go to Hampton
without any money, he would permit me to go
if I insisted, though it was against his inclinations.
Page 37
During the winter I did much thinking, and much
talking, too, with those people whose judgment
I
thought I could trust, about going to school, either
at Hampton or at Petersburg. Mention was also
made of some other schools. Captain Frank Southall,
whose brother, Dr. J.W. Southall, was later Superintendent
of Public Instruction of Virginia,
learned through some source that I contemplated
going to school. He had somehow been impressed
with my knowledge of the Bible and my interest
in the Sunday School by my attendance at the afternoon
Sunday School at the Jamestown Presbyterian
Church, to which I have referred, and of which
he was superintendent. He wanted me to go to a
school at Tuscaloosa, Alabama, to fit myself for
the ministry in the Presbyterian Church. He said
he would gladly arrange this and that the entire
expense would be provided. This did not appeal
to me very much, because I was unwilling to
sign an agreement that I would enter the ministry
or join the Presbyterian Church. All of my
people were Baptists and we were living in a
strongly Baptist community, that is, so far as
Negroes were concerned. The Negroes, at least
Page 38
in my community at that time, looked with more
or less suspicion upon the religion of white people
anyway, and the feeling between denominations
was strong; so, while I was determined to get an
education, I replied that I preferred to be an
ignorant Baptist rather than an educated Presbyterian.
In my youthful zeal I told others of the
offer I had had from Captain Southall and of my
determination to keep the faith, repeating the
expression that I preferred being an ignorant
Baptist rather than an educated Presbyterian, and
this expression never failed to bring forth much approval
and applause from the coloured people of the community.
Page 39
CHAPTER III
THROUGH RECONSTRUCTION
THE following spring I joined a party of young
men and secured work in Surry County in a lumber
camp near the James River. My hope was to
save sufficient money to pay my way through
school. I had talked very frankly with my friends
regarding schools, and had about decided that I
would enter the school at Petersburg. I worked in
this camp about two years, and succeeded in making
my way up successively from piling lumber,
through the grade of an experienced tree chopper -
which meant that I had a pretty thorough knowledge
of the quality of lumber in a tree before it
was cut down, knowing by certain definite signs
evident to a lumberman whether a tree was sound
or decayed - to the post of foreman of a squad,
having in charge the sorting and grading of lumber.
One is apt to think of seventy five or more lumbermen
as a rough, lawless, and undesirable group,
Page 40
fitted only for the heavy work connected with
lumbering. As a matter of fact, there were a few
rough men, who, in every sense, lived up to that
reputation, but in the Ferguson camp there was a
large number of honest, hard working, thrifty men
who came mostly from Prince Edward, Amelia,
and Dinwiddie counties in Virginia. Many of
them were ambitious for schooling. Some few had
had some experience in politics and therefore kept
posted on what was going on in Virginia.
The "Readjuster Movement" had just been introduced.
This had caused the fusion of many
Republicans and Democrats into what was known
as the Readjuster Party. We had little or nothing
to do with the people native to Surry County;
the truth of the matter was, they didn't permit us
to, because of our reputation. A few of us went
to Sunday School and attended church services
at Cypress Baptist Church, five miles away, and got
somewhat into the social life of the coloured community.
Beyond this a number of the men, in
order to spend their leisure time profitably, organized
a debating club, holding at intervals a mock
court or a mock assembly, copying as nearly as we
Page 41
could the Virginia Legislature. Almost every night
in the week there was something going on in connection
with some one of these organizations.
I remember one man from Dinwiddie County,
George Edwards, who had for many years served
as magistrate in his precinct. He was reasonably
well educated and had been a school teacher. He
was well versed in politics and everything else
that had to do with public affairs in Virginia. He
it was who guided us for the most part in these
activities. There were others almost as well
trained. I think I have never had any experience
I enjoyed any more than the winter nights in that
camp; and I got from this experience a certain
sort of training that I have since in many ways
found very useful. I got also a taste for politics
and other civic affairs that might have changed
my career but for certain conscientious scruples
of my mother's.
I recall also how shocked we were at the tidings
that President Garfield had been shot. When we
later learned of his death, we thought it proper to
suspend all public activities in the camp for a week
as a mark of respect to the President.
Page 42
Evening meetings, especially on Saturdays,
brought out sometimes large numbers of local people,
white and coloured; and the manager of the
camp became so well pleased with the effect that
he gave us Saturday afternoon once a month, and
invited many people from surrounding communities
as well as from other saw-mills - and there were
many saw-mills in the neighbourhood - to witness
these monthly public exercises.
During the two years that I spent in that camp
in Surry County, I saved comparatively little
money; but I got something from the work itself,
and the intimate contact with this group of men -
the debating societies, the glee club, the prayer
meetings, and other activities - which has had a
very strong influence upon my later life.
An attack of malaria fever made it necessary for
me to leave this marshy section on the James River.
At the doctor's suggestion I returned to my home in
Prince Edward County. My return home was in
the late summer of 1882 and I found the political
atmosphere very "thick and heavy." I was asked
frequently to speak at political mass meetings, and I
pitched in with vigour, taking up the cudgels
Page 43
for the "Readjuster Movement," about which,
however, I knew little. This was a movement on
the part of the Fusion Party for the readjustment
of the state debt. All Negroes had a vote in those
days. Negro Democrats were very few, only about
a half dozen or so being found in a county. I remember
the impression created on the mass of coloured
people - and white people, too, for that matter -
when I appeared at a picnic in the Vaughan woods
and made a surprisingly effective political speech.
I knew little about the subject, and was as much
surprised as any one at the impression made and
the enthusiasm over my speech displayed by the
large number of people present. But the impression
was so strong that when the meeting was over
I was taken aside by three or four white men and
as many coloured, who decided then and there that
I should have the nomination for the Lower House
of the State Legislature from my district. They
decided what the ticket should be; that there should
be certain white men and myself as the one coloured
man. I was especially urged to this step by
Walker Blanton, a shrewd, keen, coloured man, who
did not know one letter of the alphabet from the
Page 44
other, but who was nevertheless the political leader
of the district among the coloured people and
withal a very useful citizen. I was inclined to
accept the proposition, but there were one or two
strong obstacles in the way. One was that I had
planned to go to school, but the really serious one
was that I was not yet twenty one years of age.
The white people in the group said that they could
arrange the age situation, that nobody could
prove exactly when I was born, and that I was large
and mature in appearance, so that question would
hardly arise in any case; and one gentleman in the
group said that he knew my mother and father and
the whole family connection and, moreover, had the
family Bible record of all of them, so that he could
easily adjust them in a way that would stand any
test. The coloured men were equally zealous,
making their plea on the ground that I had more
education than any coloured man in the precinct,
which was enough; that I could at least read and
write and figure, and that was not true in Virginia
of all the legislators even. The temptation was
very great. I had just about decided to accept.
Everything was to be arranged by the leaders of the
Page 45
Readjuster Party in the county. The only thing
then left would be the formal notification a few
weeks afterward. But my mother when approached
said that she could not raise my age, and would
be unwilling to swear to anything but the truth;
that she knew exactly the day and year and hour
of my birth. My father was non committal. He
felt that my mother was too conscientious and that
there were lots of probabilities of her being mistaken,
and, too, that she would be perfectly safe
in saying she was not absolutely sure and leaving
it to the white people to settle the rest. But
my mother stood firm, so the committee, finding
that they could not get her to agree to sign the
affidavit, concluded that the matter was at an end.
Another coloured man was nominated and later
elected. I confess I was somewhat relieved and
not very sorry that my mother had taken such a
firm stand. To be sure there was some disappointment,
but I am confident that I slept better
as a result of my mother's decision.
About this time a young man by the name of
Edward D. Stewart, a graduate of Hampton Institute,
came to teach in the school in our district
Page 46
which I had attended at intervals for some
years. I was able to get from him first hand information
about Hampton. He gave me facts
regarding the inner working of the school: how a
student could enter, the kind of work he would do,
the studies he would have, and something of what
the men accomplished after graduating. He felt
sure that I would have no difficulty in entering and
in completing the course of studies. He thought
my greatest difficulty would be in overcoming
the popularity which I had achieved in my home
community. He suggested that I would have to
put all that behind me and assume that I did not
know so much as I thought I did or as others in my
community thought I did. He feared it would
be difficult for me to adapt myself to the discipline
of the school at Hampton. I was at this time
leader of the church choir, superintendent of the
Sunday School, and might have been a deacon,
but was considered too young for that particular
place. In some ways I was considered a very important
man in what was then a rather backward
community.
I wrote to General Armstrong, the principal of
Page 47
Hampton, my letter being endorsed by Mr. Stewart.
General Armstrong gave me an immediate reply
in his own handwriting, saying that I might
come to Hampton and work in the knitting room.
Mr. Stewart advised that I had better wait until
I could get work on the farm at Shellbanks or at
the saw-mill. He knew something of my knowledge
of lumber and experience in farming, stock raising,
and similar lines. He advised against my learning
to knit mittens or working in the house under any
circumstances. He had the feeling that knitting room
boys at Hampton did not succeed very well,
for some fell into bad ways, a good many were
disciplined severely, and a few suspended. So,
at his suggestion, I wrote asking that I might have
a place either on the farm or at the saw-mill, which
work, I considered, was better adapted to my size
and strength. Not long afterward I received a letter
to the effect that I might come and that they
would find satisfactory work for a boy who showed
such good sense in his choice of occupation.
I took my departure on Sunday morning from
the cabin where we were then living. The night
before I was given a "party." It would be called
Page 48
a "reception" now. To be sure, it was in a log
cabin and there were a great many people present.
The young folk indulged in games of various
kinds but the older ones, the church members
especially, took the whole matter more seriously.
I recall that just before we parted there were many
speeches. They were all crude, as I think of it
now, yet I have seldom witnessed a more sincere
and touching farewell reception. Our old pastor,
Armstead Berkely, who was perhaps seventy six
years of age, officiated as master of ceremonies.
He had a wonderfully fine voice, strong and melodious.
He was a great singer and had all the qualities
necessary to make him a fervid, emotional
speaker. I have known him at revival meetings
to offer prayer, and again and again I have seen
educated white people present who could scarcely
control their features for the tears which ran down
their cheeks. He made the final speech and closed
the affair with a very earnest and touching prayer;
and while there had been much levity among the
young folk the early part of the night, he left
them all in a very serious mood. I could not respond
when called upon, but the impression of the
Page 49
sincere affection and good will of those simple,
earnest people with whom I had lived from childhood
has always remained with me.
My old chum, Lee Brown, and a few friends took
my little trunk on a mule cart next morning, and we
drove about five miles to Rice's Depot where I took
the train for Norfolk, Virginia. Here I transferred
to the Baltimore steamer which ordinarily touched
at Old Point about seven o'clock at night. It so
happened that because of a very severe storm the
captain of the steamer decided that he would
not touch at Old Point, so I was carried on with
many other passengers to Baltimore. This was
entirely against my wishes and naturally I was
much annoyed. The ship's crew were very kind to
all of us and gave us our meals and made no additional
charge for the extra trip. This being my
first experience on a steamboat, I suffered the discomforts
that are common to the average passenger
sailing on a stormy night. I spent a most
interesting day in Baltimore strolling around, but
did not get very far from the wharf.
Page 50
CHAPTER IV
DOING AND LEARNING
THAT night I took the same steamer on which
I had arrived and landed at Old Point the following
morning, the 13th of October, 1885. I took a hack,
which carried me and my little trunk past Fortress
Monroe and up through the little town of Phoebus,
then Mill Creek, and on to the grounds of the
Hampton Institute. It was to me the most beautiful
place I had ever seen. We drove up through
the school farm past the old Butler School. This
was a school that had been built under the direction
of General Butler during the Civil War for
the children of the freedmen, out of the lumber
that had been used, much of it, in hospital barracks.
We passed on through many acres of vegetables
which Hampton had cultivated, and past the
National Soldiers' Home cemetery, where stood some
four thousand or more marble headstones, marking
the final resting place of men who gave their all
Page 51
to preserve the Union. It is interesting that in
that same cemetery, cared for by the Federal Government,
there are many hundreds of Confederate
soldiers also. Looking upon the well kept grounds
of the Institute, the water front, the neat and imposing
buildings and farm lands, I felt almost as if
I were in another world. A few mischievous boys
took occasion to have some fun at my expense. They
were already calling out "fresh fish," and two or
three of them yanked my small trunk out of the
carriage and balanced it on their fingers as waiters
balance their trays in hotels. Some suggested that
it weighed ten pounds; others, five. One little
fellow, by the name of Bates, as I remember, whom I
afterward found to be a fine baseball player, wanted
to bet it would weigh not over two and three fourths
pounds. I must confess that the small trunk was
entirely out of proportion to the size of its 175
pound, eighteen year old, and somewhat awkward,
owner. But I went through the ordeal good naturedly,
and finally one of the older boys was kind
enough to show me to the office where I presented
myself to the commandant, the Rev. George L.
Curtis, who later served for many years as a clergyman
Page 52
in Bloomfield, N. J. He sent me for examination
to Miss Anna G. Baldwin, the head teacher
in the night school. She seemed to me very cold
and unsympathetic, but I found afterward that I
had misjudged her. She was, in fact, kind and very
sympathetic; though her manner, like that of
many New Englanders, was cold, austere, and very
businesslike. The white women with whom I had
dealt before had in their manner and speech a
certain sympathetic quality that put one rather
at ease than otherwise. Anyhow, I failed utterly
to pass the entrance examination, though it seemed
even at that time to be easy. I think I was bewildered.
Everything was new and confusing.
Baltimore experiences, my sea sickness, so many
students, the battalion and band - all were so
strange that I found it difficult even to see the
print which was given me to read or the figures
with which I was working. I was very much upset
over my failure. I returned to the office and
handed Mr. Curtis the note which announced
it. He, too, seemed very much disappointed. He
was at the same time sympathetic and told me
frankly that he was very sorry that I had not
Page 53
passed. From what I had told him of the work I
had done in school he had thought I would have no
difficulty in passing, but would make a rather high
class. He passed the note to Mr. F. C. Briggs,
then the business agent of Hampton Institute,
who sat at a desk near him. The two whispered
some words, to which, at the time, I did not think
it improper for me to listen. Mr. Briggs remarked
- and, by the way, I thought all the time Mr. Briggs
was General Armstrong - in an undertone to Mr.
Curtis, "It is too bad. I like his face. He has a
very honest look," adding, "I think you had better
keep him if you can." Mr. Curtis then turned to
me with the words, "Well, young man, what are
you going to do? You have failed to pass your
examination to enter even the lowest class." I
told him that I had come to stay at any cost, and
that I thought my failure was due to my new surroundings;
that I had not been in school for about
two years, but had read an occasional newspaper
and an occasional book when I could get hold of
one, but had done no work in arithmetic except
of the simplest kind and had written only an occasional
letter, so that I thought I was "rusty." He
Page 54
wanted to know if I had any objection to hard
work. I assured him I was not afraid of hard
work, that I had worked hard all my life; so he
said he would give me a choice of work, asking
whether I would like to go to the kitchen or to the
farm or whether I would prefer the saw-mill. As I
had worked at a saw-mill and had some knowledge
of lumber, I preferred the saw-mill, and was so assigned.
I found this mill much larger and much
more complicated than any I had seen before.
I was put under the charge of a student, Edward
R. Jackson, whom the boys called "Big Jack."
He was to instruct me in Hampton's methods
of grading and piling lumber. I was also admitted
on trial to the lowest class in the night school.
On the second afternoon of my saw-mill work,
while piling lumber with Big Jack, the Rev. H.
B. Frissell, the school chaplain and vice principal,
came up and engaged us, or rather me, in conversation.
He knew Jackson, for Jackson was then in
what was known as the Pastor's Class, the School
for Bible Study at Hampton, where he was then
fitting himself for the ministry. He afterward
became a minister and had a large church
Page 55
in Alexandria, Virginia, where for many years
he did very effective work as a teacher and
preacher.
Mr. Frissell asked me many questions: if I was
happy at Hampton; whether I liked the place and
people. He inquired about my home and family.
His kindly expressed wish that I should have a
successful career at Hampton, and his assurance
that I was in the midst of friends made a deep
impression on me, and strengthened very much my
determination to remain at Hampton and to succeed,
for that afternoon I had been experiencing a
certain kind of longing for home that affected me
more than at any time during my entire stay at
the Institute. Later I was transferred from piling
lumber to a raft of logs in the creek to get off the
chains. I was shown how to perform this operation
by another Virginia boy by the name of
John H. Palmer. He went about his work very
quietly and always most faithfully and steadily,
and as he showed me how to remove the chains
I was impressed by his kindness and patience.
It is more than interesting that this same J.
H. Palmer is now registrar at Tuskegee Institute,
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where for many years he has been just as kind
and faithful as an officer as on that day thirty-four
years ago when he showed me how to take the
chains off of logs that were brought from North
Carolina, through the Dismal Swamp, across
Hampton Roads to the school saw-mill.
I remember so well my first Sunday night at
Hampton. Six hundred or more students - Negroes
and Indians - with a hundred or more white
people, assembled for evening prayers. A modest,
unassuming gentleman, with a soothing voice, conducted
the services. I do not remember the
passage he read, but there were two or three petitions
in his prayer that stirred my youthful emotions
and brought over me a feeling hard then and
hard now to describe. A few days before, amid
unattractive, meagre cabin surroundings, I had
bidden good-bye to an earnest, hard-working, devoted,
Christian mother. In this simple yet
inspiring prayer, Mr. Frissell, who had so kindly
spoken to me a few days before, asked God's
blessing upon the humble mothers and fathers
in all of the homes represented by the young
people before him, the poorest as well as the
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best; and he prayed that, amid the pleasant
surroundings of Hampton Institute, the young
people would always remember their parents
who did not live, all of them, in such an
environment as we had at Hampton. It seemed
most strange to me, amid new surroundings and
so many new faces, that everybody should turn
aside from work and study, and that this gentleman,
a stranger to me, should be thinking, as I
supposed, about my old mother, and that he should
put in such beautiful words the very thoughts and
feelings which were in my own mind. From that
night I made up my mind that Hampton was a
very good place for me to be, and from that night
also I knew Mr. Frissell was our friend, that he
was interested in all that concerned us, that he
was a man in whom I could confide.
The students sang plantation songs, the religious
folk songs of the Negro. I had been brought up
on this kind of music and was very familiar with
many of the songs that were sung, but somehow
there was something about this singing - led by a
tall, very handsome black man with a deep and
melodious baritone voice - with the four parts
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blending almost as if there were just one great
voice singing, that almost carried me into a new
world. I had never heard such singing, but somehow,
notwithstanding my thorough enjoyment
of the music, the dress, and manner of the pupils,
and my real appreciation of being in such a
wonderful institution, I was disappointed to
hear these songs sung by educated people and in
an educational institution. I had expected to
hear regular church music such as would be sung
by white people mostly, and such as was written
as I supposed by white people also. I had come
to school to learn to do things differently; to sing,
to speak, and to use the language, and of course,
the music, not of coloured people but of white
people.
One of my newly made friends, Thomas B. Patterson,
who sat next me in chapel, and with whom
I worked at the saw-mill, and who to this day is
noted for his frankness of expression, whispered to
me, saying, "What do you think of that music?"
My reply was, "The singing is all right but this
is no place for it." As the group of us walked
on toward our quarters I did not hesitate to
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express my opinion regarding this music and
most of the new boys agreed emphatically with
my attitude. One or two of the older students
argued that the songs were beautiful and people
enjoyed them so why should we not sing them.
The only reply I could give was that they were
Negro songs and that we had come to Hampton to
learn something better; and then, too, I objected
to exhibiting the religious and emotional side of
our people to white folks; for I supposed the
latter listened to these songs simply for entertainment
and perhaps amusement. I had frequently
seen white people at Negro gatherings in
my own community, and had the feeling that
many of them came merely to be entertained. I
remember how strongly I felt many years before
then when I attended Robinson's circus in our
little village of Farmville. I remember the animals,
of which I had only seen pictures before,
and also the ring performances - fancy riding,
antics of the clowns, and so forth. At the close of
the main performance a concert was announced
and my last ten cents was paid for it. Some
twenty or thirty men with faces blackened appeared
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in a semicircle with banjos, tambourines,
and the like. The stories they told and the performances
they gave were indeed most interesting
to me, but I remember how shocked I was when
they sang, "Wear dem Golden Slippers to Walk
dem Golden Streets," two men dancing to the tune
exactly as it was sung by the people in the Negro
churches of my community. This song was as
sacred to me as "Nearer, My God, to Thee" or
"Old Hundred." I felt that these white men were
making fun, not only of our colour and of our
songs, but also of our religion. It took three
years of training at Hampton Institute to bring
me to the point of being willing to sing Negro
songs in the presence of white people. White
minstrels with black faces have done more
than any other single agency to lower the tone
of Negro music and cause the Negro to despise his
own songs. Indeed, the feeling of the average
Negro today is that the average white man expects
him to "jump jim-crow" or do the buffoon
act, whether in music or in other things. It is a
source of gratification, therefore, to Negroes generally
that Fisk University, Hampton Institute,
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Tuskegee Institute, with many other Negro educational
institutions, have persistently preserved and
used the folk music of their people, in keeping
with the spirit of its origin, thus not only elevating
it in the estimation of coloured people, but
causing others also to appreciate its value and
beauty.
A few Sunday evenings later, when General
Armstrong had returned to the Institute, he spoke
in his own forceful manner to the students about
respecting themselves, their race, their history,
their traditions, their songs, and folk lore in general.
He referred then to the Negro songs as
"a priceless legacy," which he hoped every Negro
student would always cherish. I was impressed
with him and with his address, but I was not
entirely convinced. However, I was led to think
along a little different line regarding my race.
The truth is it was the first time I had ever given
any serious thought to anything distinctively
Negro. This also was the first time in my life that
I had begun to think that there was anything that
the Negro had that was deserving of particular
consideration. This meant a readjustment of
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values that was not particularly easy for a raw
country lad.
I think it was in December of 1885 or late in
November that a group of boys, of which I was
one, was returning from the Soldiers' home, which
is separated from Hampton Institute only by a
creek. We had noticed, before going over, a coloured
man going through the engine room and
boiler room and over the lumber yard looking at
the machinery, lumber, saw-mill, planing-mill, etc.,
And we met this same man on our return going
through the orchard, the farm, and the truck garden.
We wondered who this man could be who
seemed rather familiar with things at Hampton,
and at the same time appeared to be very much
interested in all the work of the place. When
we went to chapel that night this gentleman sat
next to General Armstrong on the platform in
the old Whitin chapel. There were many visitors
from the hotels and the town as well as the
regular audience, and there were more teachers
in chapel than usual. It was the first time I had
seen a coloured man on the speaker's platform.
We were glad, and took much pride, as the Negro
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students generally did, in any honour that came
to a coloured man at Hampton; that is, any special
recognition that came from General Armstrong.
After the usual devotional exercises General
Armstrong, in his characteristic way, introduced
this gentleman to the audience. He presented him
as Booker T. Washington of Tuskegee. I remember
now what a beautiful introduction General Armstrong
gave him. He spoke of the possibilities of
the work at Tuskegee and felt very sure that
Tuskegee would some day be as large as Hampton,
if not larger, and he predicted that Booker T.
Washington would eventually be recognized as
one of America's most distinguished citizens. He
made this statement, he said, because he was
thoroughly acquainted with the man of whom he
was speaking. Booker Washington, he said, had
been one of his boys; that he had served as his
private secretary, and that he had recommended
him for the work in Alabama. That during the past
five years he had had wonderful success in gaining
the good will of the white people and the coloured
people surrounding the Institute and that the North
had responded to his appeals for aid. Indeed General
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Armstrong had given no one so strong and, it
seemed to us, so flattering an introduction, though
many distinguished visitors had already appeared
on that platform since I had entered school. There
was not much known then of Booker T. Washington,
though General Armstrong and others had
frequently referred to him and the work which
he had started at Tuskegee in Alabama. Even at
this time General Armstrong had pointed him out
as a sample of what he hoped the Hampton students
would look forward to becoming after completing
their education. He hoped they would
start schools on the Hampton plan in rural communities.
While we were pleased at the introduction, we
were anxious that this coloured man should measure
up with his address to what General Armstrong
said in the presence of so many white people, to
say nothing of the coloured people. It made us
all the more anxious that the coloured man should
appear to good advantage, and I confess, as I
think of it now, the appearance of the speaker did
not impress us strongly. I remember some boys
whispered, "We're gone to-night."
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There is something pathetic sometimes, I think,
about the anxiety on the part of coloured people
that one of their number shall show up to good
advantage. The conditions under which we live,
the early predictions that the Negro would not
succeed, and the persistent comment that he is an
inferior individual, have created in the race an
anxiety and an earnest desire that every effort
the Negro puts forth shall be of the best. We
were especially anxious, therefore, that on that occasion
he should "hit the bull's-eye," as we used
to say. He had not spoken many minutes before
all of our anxiety had disappeared. He started
off by telling a story which I do not recall at this
time, but I know it was something about eating
partridges. He spoke of what he was trying to do
at Tuskegee Institute and said, modestly, that he
was trying to carry out, as any graduate should do,
the ideas of General Armstrong and Hampton.
He spoke clearly of the importance and value of
trade education and pointed out the fact that the
men who had learned their trades in slavery were
passing and that white men were taking their
places. He emphasized the importance of rural
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life, buying farms, good homes, and the degradation
of one-room-cabin life, and while he did not in any
way belittle college education, he did emphasize
the fundamental need of trade education, the buying
of land, the building of homes, bank accounts,
etc. These, he declared, were essential to the highest
development of any people.
As I think of it now, and as I thought of it then,
we considered it perhaps the most remarkable
address we had ever heard, and coming from a
coloured man, about whom we had felt so much
anxiety, it was all the more impressive. We were
not expected to applaud in chapel at Sunday
evening services, but there was a spontaneous
outburst of applause from the audience when he
sat down, and it was prolonged. General Armstrong
arose, remarking, "I am glad you had the good sense
to break the rule on such an occasion." He added,
"This is for me as well as for you a very happy
hour." It is unnecessary to remark that that
address was the talk of the year among the students
and teachers. We had some Indian friends
who used to come to our rooms after meetings
of this sort. I recall now that until "taps", some eight
Page 67
or ten of us, with our Indian friends, discussed that
speech. One of the latter, John Archambeau,
remarked to the group that the only fault he found
with Booker Washington was the fact that he was
not an Indian.
My twelve months' work at the saw-mill was
hard and difficult, but we got out of it a great deal
of pleasure and satisfaction. I, with my associates,
learned a great many things, especially about
lumber and machinery. I learned among other
things to fire a huge boiler, something of the quality
of coal, and how to get the most out of it. I
learned to run the big Corliss engine, much about
steam fitting, and a good deal about carpentry
work, though I had worked for awhile as a carpenter
before.
There were about twenty-two boys who worked at
the saw-mill with me during that year. The record
of those boys since leaving Hampton - what they
have done - would be interesting reading. Mr.
William T. Westwood, our foreman, an ex Confederate
soldier, had very high ideals and insisted, frequently
against our private protests, that we live
up to his standards of work and neatness
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in piling lumber, as well as in our personal
appearance in overalls. Even to this day, though
no longer connected with the school, he continues
to take a very personal interest in all of the young
men who come under his instruction.
I closed my year at the saw-mill in October, 1886,
when I entered the regular day school. During
the previous year I had worked in the day and
attended school at night. This was customary
among students who did not have the means to
enter the day school directly. I had the choice between
entering the highest class in the Junior Grade
or the lowest class in the Middle Year; for I had
been promoted from the lowest class in night school
after three months, and was already a Junior
in regular standing in the school. Inasmuch
as I would be entering the higher class with
two conditions and the lower class with no conditions,
I preferred the highest Junior Grade to the
lowest Middle, much to the satisfaction of the head
teacher, Miss Mary F. Mackie, to whom Doctor
Washington referred in "Up From Slavery" as
the one who gave him that now-famous entrance
examination. But I knew my weakness and I
Page 69
knew my deficiencies in English particularly, one
of the subjects in which I would have been conditioned;
and I knew further that if I missed the
Junior training, I would probably be handicapped
for the remainder of my course. It was also
true that my knowledge of geography was rather
limited - I would have been conditioned in that
also - so I made my choice advisedly.
Soon after this I was made an officer in the
battalion and was given charge of one of the boys'
buildings, being responsible to the commandant
for the physical care of the building as well as for
the conduct of its occupants. I recalled that my
father yielded under protest to my coming to
Hampton as a work student, urging me to wait
another year while he and I saved sufficient money
so that I could go to Petersburg and not be obliged
to do work in the school. He felt, and I shared his
feeling to some extent, that I knew all there was to
know about work, but somehow I discovered during
my year as a work student that I was constantly
running against new things and new ways
of doing old things: in the care of my own room,
in the drill, at the saw-mill, in the night school;
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and even in the dining room and on the playground
my vision grew continually wider and larger and
I became more skilled in many ways
with many and various things. That work
year was a sort of initiation into an entirely
new life, new surroundings, new people, different
races, new standards, new ideas and ideals; and I
have always been glad that, in spite of my father's
protest, I had come not because I wished to work,
but rather because I did not wish to delay another
year in getting an education - and had taken this
year of work at Hampton Institute. But the first
year in day school was different. I assimilated,
perhaps unconsciously, many of these
new ideals. While I learned many valuable lessons
from books during this first year, they were
insignificant as compared with the indescribable
something which I gathered outside of books, very
real at Hampton, and very real to me, too, which I
cannot accurately describe in writing, but which
was nevertheless very pronounced and very definite.
In my next year I came in daily contact with a
half dozen or more lady teachers of the sturdy, to
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austere, exacting, yet very kindly New England
type; and while many of the subjects which they
taught were not entirely new, the presentation
was so different and they brought in so many
practical, daily-life problems, not put down in
books, that I found myself for the first few months
in a realm almost as strange and different as my
first year. One of the most striking subjects, as I
think of it, was natural history or zoölogy, which
was taught by Miss Ford, who afterward became
the wife of General Armstrong. Our collection of
numerous specimens, the investigation and dissecting
of various insects and animals, the use of the microscope,
were all a constant revelation to me of my
dense ignorance concerning the common, every-day
things with which I had been dealing and about
which I had thought I knew so much. Mrs. Armstrong
was a wonderfully strong teacher, able to
arouse tremendous enthusiasm among her pupils,
not only to master what was in the text book, but
also to augment this by their own investigation
and research in order to test the accuracy of the
text book. I think also that my work in mathematics
under Miss J. E. Davis, a graduate of
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Vassar College; in geography, under Miss Mary
E. Coates; in grammar, under Miss M. J. Sherman,
a graduate of Wellesley College, together with my
work under others made for me a most interesting,
inspiring, and helpful year.
I recall, too, as I am sure every Hampton student
does who came under their instruction and care, the
helpfulness of Miss Helen W. Ludlow and her intimate
friend, Dr. Martha M. Waldron, the resident
physician of the Institute, in many other things besides
books and studies. Their loyalty to General
Armstrong, and their devotion to Hampton
through many years of service, had much to do with
making the life and work of Hampton possible.
I was not surprised at the end of the year, when the
announcement was made of my name with many
others for promotion to the Middle Class. I was
so much impressed with the life at Hampton, and
had enjoyed so much the use of the library, where
there were more books than I had ever seen before
in one place (to all of which I had free access, as
had all students) that I asked if I might remain
there for the summer vacation and be given work,
the money that had been placed to my credit during
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my work year having been considerably reduced.
I thought that perhaps by remaining I would not
only save more money through having less opportunity
to spend, but that I would also have the
use of the library and be in the atmosphere of
educated people, which was much to my liking.
I was accordingly assigned to work for the summer,
and was given more responsibility In connection
with the battalion as well as with the
young men generally. It proved a very pleasant
and very profitable summer. I went home for a
vacation of two weeks in August - my first trip
away from the school since I had entered nearly
two years before. I was very anxious to see my
parents and friends, and, of course, was equally
anxious, I think, to show my uniform with my
first lieutenant's shoulder straps. Everyone was
glad to see me, white as well as coloured, and
the older white people were especially cordial.
One thing I noticed which I could not at that time
explain was that many of the young white men
with whom I had grown up were much less cordial
than their parents, and frequently they avoided
me and only greeted me after I had greeted them.
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I attended the church and the Sunday School and I
think I never had a more cordial welcome anywhere,
with more consideration, or one giving me more real
pleasure, than that from these people at Macedonia
Baptist Church, with which I had been connected
in one way or another since its organization. And
certainly no mother ever had any more real pride
in her son and his appearance than mine at that
time. It was hard for me to get out of her sight.
She insisted on going with me almost everywhere I
went.
Returning from Macedonia Church with my
mother the first Sunday after my return, we were
pleasantly surprised to meet Mr. William L.
Vaughan and his wife as they were driving home
from the Jamestown Presbyterian Church. Seeing
me with my mother they stopped and greeted us
very cordially. I was very glad to see them and
apparently they were equally glad to see me.
Before parting they asked me to come over and
spend the day with them, which I did on the following
Tuesday, when they sent their carriage
and driver to my mother's home to take me
over. Mr. Vaughan devoted the entire day to me, taking
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me over the farm on horseback, looking at the
stock, acres of tobacco and corn, and showing me
other points of interest about the place. He also
asked many questions about Hampton Institute
and about my courses of study and progress there,
showing a deep interest in all that I was doing, as
well as in my future. He expressed much satisfaction
in the fact that I had gone to school rather
than into politics and possibly into the Legislature,
for he knew of the incident in my experience a
few years before, to which I have already referred.
Of course I was greatly interested in all that he
showed me on his splendid farm, but I was more
impressed with the attention and courtesy which
he accorded me during the day. And I did not
fail to notice that he gave me the same consideration
in many ways that he and his father had bestowed
upon their guests of former years when I
worked as a boy upon their plantation. While I
very much enjoyed the two weeks at home visiting
old scenes and old friends, there was nevertheless
an element of sadness in it all. The dwellings, barns,
and fences were unkempt; there was an air of disorder
and confusion about most things and most people
Page 76
also; our church and the choir, as well as the
sermon of our pastor, seemed so different and
disappointing and so unsatisfactory that I was
rather relieved to get away from it. Before leaving I
discussed this with my mother; but she felt that
things were not so very different, that many
things were actually better, that the difference
was with me. I had changed. I have no doubt
she was correct, as she usually was.
I returned to Hampton after an interesting and
pleasant, though in some ways disappointing, visit,
but I was never before so impressed with the needs
of my community along almost every line. I was
convinced that whatever else I might do, there was
nothing more worth while than helping just such
people in just that kind of a community.
Page 77
CHAPTER V
A TOUCH OF REAL LIFE
THE Middle Year at Hampton was not very different
from the Junior. The one subject which I
think had the greatest influence on me was the
theory and practice of teaching. They rarely called
it "pedagogy" in those days. I think that at
Hampton they were afraid to use such a "big" word.
As a part of Hampton's course in practice teaching
every student, before entering the Senior Class,
was required to teach at least one term or its equivalent
in the public schools. It was for this reason
that the course in pedagogics was taken up in
the Middle Year, and a certificate given by Hampton
to its Senior students to teach in the schools of
Virginia; but most superintendents required that
every applicant should pass his examination. I
enjoyed the work in practice teaching very much.
I do not know that it was the subject that impressed
me so much as did the teacher, Miss Elizabeth
Page 78
Hyde, who conducted the class, and who has
ever since been one of the strongest and most
helpful forces in the life and work of Hampton Institute.
We had at least a part of the time of nearly every
recitation taken up in a sort of conference on human
nature. We did not call it psychology then, but that
is what it was, and even to this day I am influenced
by many of the conclusions that we then reached.
At the close of the year, with seventy-eight other
students, I was passed on to the Senior Class and
was provided with a certificate to teach in the
schools of Virginia, provided, of course, that I could
pass the county examination satisfactorily. It occurred
to me that, before teaching, inasmuch as I
had never been outside of Virginia except on my
enforced visit to Baltimore, it would strengthen
my position in my school community, wherever
it might be, if I could at least say that I had lived
outside of Virginia; so I secured a position as
head waiter in a hotel in Pennsylvania. I had
what the boys would call in those days "a very
successful season." While my work was not very
hard from some points of view and my pay was very
generous, at least in gratuities - "tips" - there was
Page 79
something about the life that did not appeal to me,
because the conduct of some of the guests differed
greatly from what I had expected. So far as the
treatment received from the guests was concerned,
I had no cause for complaint, but many
things about them and their manner of living were
disappointing, not to say shocking, to one who
had set up a very high standard and rather high
ideals for people of means and education who
lived amidst such pleasant and apparently wholesome
surroundings.
At the close of the summer season I returned to
Virginia and was appointed to teach in the school
at Cottontown in Cumberland County. I had
taken the examination in Prince Edward County,
for this was the county in which I lived, but inasmuch
as all the places in the schools in that county
were filled I was recommended to the superintendent
of Cumberland County. I had no serious
difficulty in passing the examination, though I had
been told that it was very difficult and that under
no circumstances would I be granted a first-grade
certificate. This did not prove true, however,
for even though I had had no experience as a
Page 80
teacher I was given a first-grade certificate. This
was in early September, and my school did not
open till about the middle of October, so I immediately
secured work on the farm of Mr. L.
B. Walthall, a white neighbour, it being the harvesting
season. In this community, as in most
other country communities, everybody knew everybody's
else business, or thought he did. It was therefore
soon known throughout the community that I
had returned from school and secured a first-grade
certificate, and that the county superintendent,
Mr. Irving, a lawyer, had also spoken several
times to groups of people on the streets of the town
of Farmville and other places of the excellent
record I had made in my examination; indeed
that he had felt obliged to grant me a first-grade
certificate even though I had had no practical
experience as a teacher. I think I must have
shocked the whole district by working as a day
labourer on a farm after having been appointed
to teach. It thoroughly upset the residents, white
and coloured. No coloured teacher in that locality
had up to that time ever been known to do such a
thing. Many white friends, also neighbours, who
Page 81
had heard of it mostly through coloured people,
rode over to Mr. Walthall's place to see if the
rumour were really true. I was a sort of curiosity,
but deep down in the heart of the people I am sure
that there was a feeling of genuine satisfaction
that I was doing this. Mr. Walthall, who was one
of the leading farmers in that section, did not hesitate
to express his approval in no uncertain terms.
The following Sunday I appeared at Macedonia
Baptist Church where I previously had had charge of
the Sunday School, choir, and other activities. The
old minister, Brother Armstead Berkeley, while
he took a text, talked more about me than anything
else. He likened me to Paul, the tent
maker, and a great many more extravagant comparisons
were made, much to my own embarrassment.
I was pleased at the beginning of his discourse,
but would have been happier had he said
much less about me.
Mr. Walthall, after the first few days, increased
my pay to nearly twice what he was paying the
others, saying that he felt that I was worth more
than they. Furthermore, he did not hesitate to
tell all of his men about it, and after two weeks
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gave me entire charge of the squad of some twenty
people. The truth of the matter is I was earning
more on the farm than I did later when I began
teaching.
On the Sunday in October prior to the opening
of school on Monday I attended church services
at Midway Baptist Church, a short distance from
the school, where a large audience had gathered.
It had been announced, it seems, in the town on
Saturday - and almost everyone went to Farmville
on Saturday from the four counties, as they
do now - that the teacher would be present and
speak. I was introduced by the pastor, an old
friend and former night-school teacher, the Rev.
Anthony G. Green. He knew of my early boyhood,
and did not hesitate, in his kindly and well-meaning
way, to paint the most graphic picture of
me that his limited vocabulary could command.
I made a short talk, and among other things urged the
people to send their children to school the next day.
I was early at the schoolhouse the following morning,
swept up the building and cleaned the grounds.
The few neighbours, seeing what I was doing, insisted
upon my permitting them to do it. They
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thought the teacher had no business to be cleaning
up the school grounds and cutting down weeds
and such things. I permitted them to help me
until the time came to open school.
At nine o'clock we opened. Six pupils were
registered the first day. The number continued
to increase rapidly until shortly afterward there
were somewhere near one hundred and fifty. The
schoolhouse was a two-room building, so I made
application to the school board for an assistant
teacher, which application was granted. The
superintendent sent a young man by the name of
Eston Hembricks. Mr. Hembricks was a very excellent
man and not a bad teacher from the standpoint
of the conventional methods of that day. He
believed in whipping, and that vigorously. If a
student missed three words in spelling or read
poorly, or did not know his lessons, there was only
one thing to follow and that whipping. In
this we did not agree, and had many heated arguments
over the point. I felt that it might perhaps
be necessary to whip one or two, but the
general upsetting of the school by having a boy
take off his coat and vest, the screaming and the
Page 84
howling, with many of the girls also crying
while the boys were being whipped, all this to my
mind was generally demoralizing, and besides it
grated very much on my sensibilities. He was
persistent, however, in his idea that I could never
maintain control of one hundred and fifty children
by the method I was advocating.
The school was located in what was from many
points of view a very promising community. It
contained a large number of coloured people and
but few white families. Very many of the coloured
people owned their homes; at least they
owned the land, and many of them considerable
land. They had reached what is sometimes called
now "the land period" in their development. They
had not, however, reached "the home period."
Many men who owned a hundred or more acres of
land would be living in a cabin which could be
built in those days for twenty-five dollars; yet
these people had very high aspirations. They
wanted their children educated; they were strong in
their religious convictions and had fairly good
churches. They were generous toward their lodges
and toward religious and educational matters.
Page 85
Mr. Hembricks persistently continued in the
use of corporal punishment in his room in spite of
my advice to the contrary. Frequently he disturbed
the order in my room with the disorder
which he created by his vigorous method of discipline,
until, as principal teacher, I felt obliged
to insist that if there were any occasion for discipline,
it must be referred to me. Not being
in sympathy with my method of school management,
he said after a time that he would appeal the
matter to the school board, and if they did not sustain
him, he would resign. I was not sure how the
matter would impress the school board, so I
thought it wise to call together a deacon of the
church and a few older men in conference with
Hembricks and myself at my boarding place on a
certain night. My landlady's husband, though
he could neither read nor write, was a remarkably
clever man. He was the political boss of the
Randolph district and the leader in whatever
matters concerned Negroes. Whatever happened,
whether in school, in church, in politics, in secret
societies, or elsewhere, must have Charlie Palmer's
approval. He suggested, because of my youth and
Page 86
inexperience, that I leave the matter entirely in his
hands. I readily acquiesced in his suggestion and
he in his own way began making preparations
for a big supper. He made out the bill of fare. I
need not specify here the delicacies, but we had all
kinds of food common to a rural coloured community
of the day: opossum, raccoon, turkey, and all
the delectable parts of the hog. Indeed we had, as
we thought, everything that one could wish, both
to eat and to drink. Instead of about seven or
eight men, however, Charlie Palmer had about
fifty men with about half as many women, who
were not invited to the party but were present to
look after the preparation and serving of the food.
It was a rather warm and beautiful moonlight
night. They barbecued a pig over coals in the
yard, and there was a barrel of persimmon beer,
of which the people drank freely, and I think that
barrel had some ingredients in it other than persimmon
juice. Anyhow, after we had eaten and
drunk our fill and our friend Palmer had told us
many a marvellous story of his experiences, political
and otherwise, and had made a strong speech,
advising the people to use all the influence they
Page 87
possessed for Prof. John M. Langston, a coloured
man, who had bolted the regular Republican
ticket and was running for Congress on an independent
ticket in the 4th District, Judge Arnold
being the regular Republican candidate, he called
on me to give my ideas of Mr. Langston and why
the coloured people, though they lived in the 10th
Congressional District across the river from the
4th District, should use all the influence they could
muster for his election. Of course I have no idea
now what I said, but my words urging the importance
of having a Negro representative in Congress
and my criticism of many white Republicans
who had gotten into office on the Negro vote and
simply used us, created among the crowd a profound
sensation. They yelled and threw up their
hats. Some took me on their shoulders and carried
me around the premises and were withal so
demonstrative that I was confused and puzzled;
and I am not sure even yet whether it was not the
effect of the persimmon beer and other things
which were very freely dispensed rather than my
speech which caused this embarrassing demonstration.
Then Mr. Palmer called on Hembricks for a
Page 88
speech. Mr. Hembricks made a good speech, but
the enthusiasm had expended itself somewhat, so
that while he got some applause, it was very weak
by contrast. When he concluded Mr. Palmer
said that it had been a meeting in which we had
stressed the importance of Negroes working together
under coloured leadership, and he thought
it was a great mistake in any man who pretended
to be a leader among coloured people to take any
difficulty arising between them to white officials
to settle if it could possibly be avoided. He said
that the Cottontown school had had less disorder
that year under its new teachers than at any time
since the school was established. The children
were more enthusiastic about attending school, and
the homes of these children had already felt the
influence of promptness and order which the pupils
had been taught during the short time the school
had been in session. This speech was followed by
several others of the group in the same strain.
The meeting broke up and the people went home.
Nothing was said about the controversy between
the teachers. I went to bed and Mr. Hembricks
spent the night with the Palmers. He and Mr.
Page 89
Palmer talked late into the night. At breakfast
next morning Hembricks apologized for his attitude
and assured me there would be no further
trouble so far as he was concerned, and from that
time on I continued to handle the discipline of
the school, except in cases where I thought Mr.
Hembricks himself ought to handle it. No more
pupils were whipped and we had a very orderly set
of children. More than two hundred and fifty
were enrolled during the year till we had to select,
after securing the approval of the chairman of the
board, two of our more advanced pupils to help us
in the work.
In this locality there were four coloured churches -
Greencreek, Mount Nebo, Cornerstone, and
the Midway Baptist. Midway was nearest to
the school. Fortunately they held services not
oftener than twice a month, so that Mr. Hembricks
and I could attend each church at least monthly.
We were always expected to speak and to teach
a Sunday- School class, if not to review the lesson.
From this I am sure I got a great deal more than
the scholars. It was in many ways an easy matter
in this section for a Negro teacher to win the
Page 90
respect and confidence of the people. I have never
found any group of people more willing to be led
than were the people of this community. I am not
sure now as to the quality or character of my
teaching at the time. I doubt if it would pass
muster under the eye of a modern pedagogue. I was
somewhat original perhaps in some of my ideas and
methods, and I introduced many things which in
those days were entirely new. For instance, they
had never observed Thanksgiving Day prior to my
coming, so that year we had a great celebration.
The pastor permitted us to use the church and
people came from as far as twenty miles to be present.
Some of the men who were interested in
horses arranged a tournament, and at night we had
chorus singing. The school sang as a body and I
insisted that all the girls should appear in white
dresses with blue sashes and every boy have a white
sash. I suppose I did this because I wanted to be
sure that the pupils should look different from
the other people present. There must have been
two thousand persons on the grounds, perhaps
more, and all thoroughly enjoyed the occasion.
Then at Christmas we had something of the same
Page 91
sort of celebration, with a Christmas tree, which was
the first seen in that community. We had perhaps
a dozen preachers present at this Christmas
celebration. Each one had some part in the service.
This way of observing the day was in striking contrast
to what had been previously in vogue. Christmas
in that part of Virginia, as in many other
parts of the South, had been given over very
largely to dissipation of one kind or another; fireworks
and also "fire water" were much in evidence,
and many who did not have fireworks used guns
or anything that they could muster with which to
make a noise. Any form of disorder was permissible.
They used to sing, as I remember, a song
which went like this:
In
the Summer roasting ears,
In
the Fall, "punkin" -
Christmas
comes but once a year,
And
everyone must do somethin'.
The
"somethin'" meant something noisy and out of
the ordinary. I introduced the general singing of
plantation melodies among the people, and at three
o'clock each Friday afternoon we had public
Page 92
exercises. Often the schoolhouse could not accommodate
the crowds that attended - scores of
mothers and many fathers, as well as many of the
white neighbours who came from long distances to
hear the singing and to witness the other exercises
by the children. The Negro farmers as well as the
whites were much pleased with my talks once a
week on general farming, poultry raising, care of
cattle and hogs, the rotation of crops, and the
importance of gardens, especially winter gardens.
At these Friday exercises we also talked to the parents
and older children on habits and manners,
and many other simple, but, as we thought, needful
things regarding the home, backyards, outhouses,
and similar topics. We called in, too, on
several occasions, leading white men to talk to the
pupils on Friday evening, and each coloured preacher
had a turn before the year was out. I tried to
dignify the occasion by calling it the "Friday afternoon
lecture."
I somehow succeeded during that year in making
a very pleasant impression on the school officials:
the superintendent, Mr. Corson, and the
members of the precinct board. They took much
Page 93
pride in visiting the school, and the superintendent
urged many coloured teachers to come, and
brought with him, on one or two occasions, some
of his white teachers. He generally called up a
few classes and gave them certain examinations,
and after the first visit always asked that we sing
for him. We had rehearsed the pupils in singing,
and the girls we had taught certain very simple gymnastic
exercises and they usually went through these
for his benefit. We would then have the students
sing plantation melodies, which they did with a
will and which, by the way, the pupils enjoyed
as much as any one. As I think of it now, I
wonder why they ever came or why there was
any enthusiasm over these talks, and the other
things that we did, for in many ways I really
knew very little about what I was attempting
to do.
While I learned comparatively little about
scientific agriculture during my stay at Hampton,
I had absorbed something of the agricultural
atmosphere from Mr. Albert Howe, than whom
Hampton has never had a more faithful worker.
Mr. Howe gave us frequent talks on agriculture,
Page 94
the importance of gardens, poultry-raising, and
other subjects, so that I was able, it seems, in spite
of my lack of agricultural training, to help a community
that knew so much less than I did.
It was a very busy year but I managed to find
time for reading and study. I had had up to that
time a more or less vague desire to study law. I
had an idea that perhaps some day I might follow
that profession, so the superintendent of schools for
Prince Edward County, whose office was in Farmville
nine miles away, was kind enough to give me
lessons in law and lend me such of his books as I
needed. He declined to accept any pay but allowed
me to work in his office on Saturdays, copying deeds,
contracts, and similar work, which saved time for
him and was, of course, excellent training for me.
This enabled me to occupy my evenings in a more
or less definite, systematic way. On Saturdays
when I came to town he frequently catechized me
very minutely on various phases of the week's work
which he had given me to do.
The following spring, Mr. Irwin, the superintendent,
told me I had sufficient knowledge to pass
the bar examination. It was the law in Virginia
Page 95
then that a candidate for the bar could receive a
certificate to practice after examination by two
circuit judges. I never shall forget the time I appeared
before Judge Frank Irving, the father of Mr.
Irving under whom I had been reading law during
the winter. I had come to the court-room late one
afternoon. There must have been thirty people
there, many attorneys among them. The cases
had all been disposed of for the term. The judge
was swapping stories with some of the attorneys.
He finally turned to me and said, "By the way,
Moton, I understand that you want to take an examination
to practice law." I told him that I did,
and he said, "I might as well examine you now."
I told him I was not prepared to be examined then,
that I would prefer to be given another appointment.
He said, "No, I can refuse you a certificate
now as well as any time. I have had only one
Negro in my court and he did not belong there.
He was permitted to practice by courtesy, so I will
examine you now. Come up here." I was certainly
unprepared, but I thought I might as well
face the ordeal. His son who sat over within the
enclosure gave me some encouragement by saying,
Page 96
"You had better come over and try it anyhow.
Many men have failed and you will have company."
I remember that the judge asked me to tell
him first what a "demurrer" was. I undertook
to tell him. He differed with me. I argued with
him. In ten minutes I had forgotten that I was
arguing with "His Honour," so we argued the
"demurrer" in all its phases until dark. All the
attorneys remained and were intensely amused,
apparently. After we had spent perhaps two hours
and a half in arguing this, the only question that the
judge asked me, he said, "I will give you a certificate.
Call up at the office to- morrow morning."
And turning to the clerk of the court he said,
"Write him a certificate, Claxton, and I will sign
it to-morrow."
But I had to pass another examination, before
a judge who was reported to be much more gruff
than this one. A few days later I drove fifteen miles
to the home of this other circuit judge, who lived in
another county. I reached the house at breakfast
time, somewhere around seven o'clock, just as the
bell rang for him to come in to breakfast with the
Page 97
family. He saw me drive up, asked what my business
was, whether I had had breakfast, and other
questions. I assured him that I had had a very
early breakfast and told him what my errand was.
He gave me a seat on the front porch and went in
to breakfast. Presently the cook came out with a
tray on which was a very good breakfast, with steaming
hot biscuits and other appetizing dishes. I did
not send it back.
Later the judge came out and apparently in a
very indifferent manner, talked of many things and
asked many questions, not at all along the line of
the law, as I had expected. The fact is, I was all
prepared for this examination. I was prepared to
give the definition of law, something of the history
of law, the various divisions of the law, and to answer
the questions likely to be asked. I was prepared
to make up briefs, indictments, and everything else
that I had been able to find after much study in
law books; but the judge asked about President
Cleveland, who was then president; what I thought
of him, of Congress, the tariff, the Republican
Party, Mr. Lincoln, the Secession Movement. He
asked my opinion of General Lee, General Jackson,
Page 98
and General Grant. He asked questions about
Hampton Institute, General Armstrong, the relation
of the races, as well as many other subjects.
A famous case was then pending in an adjoining
county; he asked me about the merits and demerits
of both sides. It so happened that I was
familiar with the case. He had seen me in the courtroom
a few weeks before when he was the presiding
judge. He asked me what I thought of the arguments
of the opposing attorneys, and I did not
hesitate to pick flaws in them and commend what
I thought to be their good points. I also told him
I thought one of the attorneys had been very unwise
in one of the questions he had asked his client,
almost losing his case himself, in my judgment.
The judge expressed no opinion whatsoever.
Finally he excused himself a moment, went into
the house, and came back and handed me a certificate.
I came away with a sense of disappoint
that here I had been handed a license to
practice law and had never been properly examined.
I decided, therefore, to continue my
studies, but as I think of it now I can understand
that the examination, while technically deficient
Page 99
from my viewpoint, was in every sense adequate
from the standpoint of this experienced jurist.
The apparent success which came to me that year
brought many thoughts to my mind with reference
to what I should do when I had finished my course
at Hampton. Cumberland County and Cottontown -
the name by this time had been changed
to Adriance - seemed to me an ideal place for a
small industrial school on the Hampton plan.
Within a radius of perhaps ten or fifteen miles there
were concentrated something like three or four
thousand coloured people who could buy land, and
many of whom had already secured substantial
holdings. The white people were very kindly disposed
toward them and anxious to sell land to
coloured people. Also there were four churches.
In every way it was an ideal community for a little
school; so I got some of the more thoughtful coloured
men together and we went over a scheme for
such a school. I called on some of the leading
white people and they also approved the plan, offering
their support, and one gentleman offered to
give ten acres of land. The county superintendent,
Mr. Corson, assured us that the county would do at
Page 100
least as much as it had been doing, and he felt sure
that they would provide the salary for the teacher.
I wrote General Armstrong at Hampton and Miss
Mary F. Mackie and some others of my Hampton
teachers, setting forth my plans. They strongly advised
against it, and urged me to return to the Institute
and to complete my course. Some of them
wrote me frankly that I did not have sufficient
education to undertake such a work. One lady
teacher, Mrs. I. N. Tillinghast, who is at present
a warden at Vassar College, wrote me very frankly
that my education was exceedingly deficient; that
I did not know enough about any one thing to
succeed; that I had the ability to get up before a
crowd and to make a certain kind of show, but that
there was not nearly so much to what I was doing
as I thought. I shall always remember that letter,
for her argument, though hard to accept, was convincing.
I therefore decided for the present, at
least, to abandon the scheme.
The public-school term was five months, but with
the coöperation of the parents, Mr. Hembricks and
I were successful in lengthening it by two months.
I shall never forget the school closing "Exhibition"
Page 101
- the large audience of coloured people, the
wonderful dinner in the churchyard, or the committee
of coloured citizens that waited on me, saying
that the people had offered to double my salary
the next year if I would come back. There was
also a letter from the county superintendent endorsed
by the chairman of the County School Board,
Mr. Norton Flippin, in which they agreed that I
could have the school in Cumberland County as
long as they were in office. The parting there was
much like the one previously described on my leaving
home for Hampton.
The following summer I went to Philadelphia and
succeeded in securing work in John Wanamaker's
store, through the kindness of a friend who gave
me a letter of introduction to Mrs. Robert C.
Ogden. This, too, was a very interesting experience.
I worked in what was called the housekeeping
department for the first two months
with a gang of about fifty men. There were but
two coloured men, of whom I was one. The others
were mostly Irishmen and Italians, but there were
also two Dutchmen and two or three American
white men. We had all of the noon hour and
Page 102
other off-hours when we had a chance to discuss
many very interesting questions from different
points of view. I never knew before that white men
had so much fault to find with other white men.
These men complained of the trusts, were down on
both the Democratic Party and the Republican
Party, as well as on Mr. Wanamaker, who was then
the Postmaster General under President Harrison.
It was hard for me to understand how these
men could be working for a firm that gave what
seemed to me so much consideration to its employés,
and yet be so bitter against every person
in authority. Mr. Wanamaker had just called together
all of his employee who had been in the
service more than ten years and presented each of
them with a purse; and several of the men in our
group were among this number; yet these very men
were more bitter in their criticism afterward than
before. We saw Mr. Wanamaker occasionally on
Saturday and sometimes on Monday mornings.
Mr. Robert C. Ogden, the manager, we saw daily.
It was rather interesting to me to observe that the
Irish and the native Americans of the group were
generally the most outspoken in their denunciation
Page 103
of the rich and of all office holders. The Italians
said very little, and the Dutchmen said nothing unless
their opinion was asked. Later in the summer
I was transferred to the Bureau of Information,
where I remained until the middle of September,
when I left Philadelphia for Hampton.
Page 104
CHAPTER VI
ENDING STUDENT DAYS
HAVING had my year at teaching, as required
by the course at Hampton, I was now eligible for
membership in the Senior Class. I began my
work in October, 1889. Of the seventy-eight
students who had been promoted to the Senior
Class with me, only forty-eight returned to complete
the course. I had reached the rank of captain
in the Middle Year; but things had somewhat
changed during my fifteen months away from
the school. Mr. George L. Curtis, who as commandant
had been most kind and friendly to me,
had resigned his position and Mr. Charles W.
Freeland had succeeded him. I was not sure that
I would receive as much consideration from Mr.
Freeland as I had from Mr. Curtis. In fact, I was
reasonably sure that I would not, because the
boys had already prejudiced my mind against
him. He was an Episcopal minister and they said
Page 105
he came from Georgia, and was much worse, as
we understood it, than a real Georgian, because,
as they said, he was a "re-constructed Northerner."
The idea was prevalent then as now among
coloured people that when Northern people come
South and change from the Northern to the
Southern attitude on the race question they are
much more intolerant, from the Negro's point of
view, than native Southerners. My prejudice
against him therefore was very strong, and I had
about reached the conclusion that he and I could
never get along together. All of us had some resentment
against General Armstrong for having
brought such a person into the work. The young
men did not hesitate to express the opinion that if
General Armstrong meant to have a Southerner he
should have gotten a real Southerner, and if he were
going to have a Northerner he ought to have a real
Northerner. It so happened that several boys
from Savannah, Georgia, where Mr. Freeland had
had a parish, entered school that fall, and those
young men, I noticed, spoke very well of him and
of his mother. They said he had been very popular
with the coloured people in Savannah and with
Page 106
white people also. This report had to some extent
the effect of allaying what was growing to be
considerable bitterness on the part of the students
generally. I soon found, however, that, while Mr.
Freeland was very strict and very exacting, he was
most kind and generous and that students who lived
up to his rules had no difficulty in getting on with
him.
When I entered Hampton in 1885, except for a
slight inclination toward the legal profession, I did
not have any very definite plan or notion as to what I
wanted to do, but I was clear in the desire to return
home and continue in the same activities in the
school, church, and other local movements in which
I had engaged before going off to school. My
thought was to get sufficient education to do these
things better and to save myself the embarrassment
which I frequently underwent because I did not know
as much as many people in the community thought I
did. But when I entered the Senior Class my mind
was pretty definitely set on the legal profession, and
though I had passed the examination and been
licensed to practice in Virginia, and while the
teachers at Hampton did
Page 107
not oppose my plan exactly, they did raise the
question freely and frankly, and I might add
frequently also, as to whether I could thus render
my people the greatest service, and whether legal
advice at that time was the greatest need of an
uneducated, struggling people in the rural districts
of the South.
There was never any question, even from my
earliest youth, I think, as to my desire to be helpful
to my people, but exactly how it should be done was
not wholly clear. My heart was pretty definitely set
on going back to Prince Edward County, and the
little town of Farmville was to me an ideal place.
Something about the atmosphere of the locality
appealed very strongly to me. I had been in
Philadelphia, Washington, and Baltimore, and had
seen a little of Norfolk, Richmond, and Petersburg,
but somehow they did not compare in importance to
my mind with Farmville, nor seem nearly so
attractive as a place to live in as this little town on
the Appomattox River.
It was the custom of Mr. Frissell to study with the
Seniors the International Sunday-School Lessons.
His custom was to take up the lesson a
Page 108
Sunday ahead of the calendar because most of the
members of the Senior Class taught in the
neighbouring Sunday Schools, churches, jail,
poorhouse, and the two or three mission Sunday
Schools in the county which were under the direct
supervision of the Institute. The Seniors always
looked forward with a great deal of pleasant
anticipation to being in Mr. Frissell's class, because
his reputation as a teacher of the Bible was well
known among the student body as well as among the
teachers. During the last half of the year it was
General Armstrong's custom to take up with the
Senior Class Dr. Mark Hopkins's book, "The Outline
Study of Man." He never called it psychology until
usually about the last week of the school term and
then he would announce to the class that they had
been studying psychology. I can remember very
little now of any particular thing that I learned from
the text book during the four and a half months, but I
doubt if there is a single member of that class to-
day who does not feel even now the power and
influence of General Armstrong's earnest, strong,
forceful, inspiring personality and the simple
illustrations which he used to drive home
Page 109
the telling points he made. He brought out of the
lessons the importance of proper relations between
black people and white people, and the value of being
able to approach and deal with a person when you
knew he did not like you and was prejudiced against
you; how we ourselves, who were not without strong
prejudices, even race prejudices, could deal fairly
with people against whom we had prejudice, members
of our own race as well as of other races. He never
failed - as was also true of Mr. Frissell and the other
teachers - to emphasize the importance of engaging
in such work as would be of the largest benefit to the
coloured race, and he never expressed any doubt as to
the final triumph of right and justice and the ultimate
success of the two races in adjusting the difficult and
very-much-talked-of "race problem." Before the
close of the year a large majority of the members of
the class, Indians as well as Negroes, had pretty
definitely made up their minds that they would engage
in some work that would have a direct bearing on the
development of their races.
Being the ranking captain, besides filling other
places of responsibility in the school, somehow or
Page 110
other I was able to gain the confidence of most of
the student body. I was made president of the Young
People's Christian Association, an organization
nominally under the chaplain, Mr. Frissell, but it
took in all of the religious organizations of the
school, the officers being elected by the student
body. I was also made president of the Old
Dominion Debating Society, the Boys' Glee Club,
and the Senior Class, as well as president of the
Temperance Society. These honours carried with
them, of course, certain responsibilities which I
rather shrank from because I did not wish to have
anything hamper my studies. In former years my
class work had been somewhat along the lines of
previous reading, but the Senior work was almost
entirely new, except perhaps general history in
which I had had no systematic instruction. Owing to
this fact it was necessary for me to give closer
attention to my studies than ever before.
I recall that after my election as president of the
Temperance Society one of my very kind teachers,
Miss Davis, to whom I have previously referred,
met me as we came down from the assembly
Page 111
room, and calling me into her classroom said,
"Moton, I hope you won't accept any other office. It
would be very bad for you; a number of your friends
among the teachers are afraid that your head is
going to be turned; because you are receiving too
much attention." While this was somewhat of a
shock to me I received it with good grace, because,
as my Sunday-School teacher, I had learned to value
her opinions, though they were often expressed with
embarrassing frankness. I carried my new honours
as best I knew how, and had to face no serious
difficulties, for as a matter of fact most of the
details were looked after by the teachers, who were
on the administrative committees of many of these
organizations.
At Christmas time there was an occurrence that
tested the character of many of us to the utmost.
Two nights before Christmas the young men had
been permitted to escort the young women home
from a concert in the gymnasium. Everyone was
happy and prepared to enjoy the usual Hampton
Christmas. If anything, we had made more elaborate
preparations that year than usual. General
Armstrong had invited some very distinguished
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guests for the holidays, among them
General Morgan, Commissioner of Indian Affairs,
with Mrs. Morgan and a party of friends from
Washington. Dr. Washburn, the head of Robert
College in Constantinople, had brought down a party
of foreign missionaries and there were many other
distinguished guests. An unusual effort had been
made by the general committee on athletics, and it
had been planned that the social gatherings should be
of a high order. The programmes for the debating
societies and other organizations had been arranged
with much care. Each holiday night had been
carefully planned for. As we left the gymnasium
after the Christmas concert, each young man
escorting a young woman, we were stopped after we
got about half-way between the gymnasium and
Virginia Hall by one of the matron's assistants. I was
leading the line. We walked up to two ladies, one of
whom was the matron's assistant, and who stood in
the middle of the road, a narrow passageway between
one of the buildings and a laundry fence, as I
remember, so that it was not easy to pass without
brushing them aside. One lady remarked, "We did
not understand that you were to escort the
Page 113
young women home to-night." I replied that it was
the custom to do so and nothing had laden said to
the contrary. She said, "Well, we will escort them
the rest of the way." I thereupon promptly excused
myself to the young woman and left, and every other
man who passed along, and there must have been
about two hundred, separated from the young
woman whom he accompanied, except a few who
refused to leave.
The next morning some eight or ten men crowded
into my room before breakfast, demanding that I
take the initiative in getting suitable reparation for
the humiliation which we had suffered the night
before. Though I felt the humiliation as keenly as
any one, and did not hesitate so to express myself, I
saw at once that those young men were in no mood
to listen to reason from any one. I suggested that
after breakfast we get together about twenty-five
young men representing every class in the school
and also the Indian students and go over the matter.
They did not take kindly to that suggestion, but they
argued the case considerably, and finally the
majority decided against my proposal. At breakfast
time James R. Spurgeon,
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now a lawyer in Brooklyn, New York, and for a time
after his graduation Secretary to the United States
Legation in Liberia, read a notice in the dining room
calling a meeting of all of the young men
immediately after breakfast. I felt that the
indignation speeches which were likely to be made
in that meeting might stir the boys to do almost
anything, the resentment of the evening before being
very strong. There were quite a few, however,
especially the older fellows, who agreed with me. I
did not go to the meeting but a committee waited on
me a few moments after the students assembled and
demanded my presence; so I went.
Spurgeon was the temporary chairman, and called
the meeting to order with a fiery introductory
speech. He was then and is now an able orator. I was
nominated and unanimously elected chairman over
my very strong protest. I insisted that I would not
serve. In declining I had the chance to say some
things I could not otherwise have said. I told them I
would accept the chairmanship only on condition
that the decisions of the chair should be strictly
observed. I used the opportunity to make an appeal
to the cooler heads among them to
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do nothing for which they would afterward be
ashamed. They agreed and I accepted. Following
the perfecting of the permanent organization
many exciting speeches were made. The indignation
of the boys was tremendous. I realized
that I was facing four hundred very determined
young men, who did not quite know what to do
but were determined to do something. One resolution
which immediately met with popular favour
was to the effect that all cooks, milkers, stablemen,
and workers in every department, boys and girls,
would strike for the holiday period. In this the
girls, who felt as strongly in the matter as the
young men and were waiting on the other side of
the grounds for the decision, heartily concurred.
This motion was going through, but before putting
it I left the stand, asking my classmate, Spurgeon,
to occupy the chair, while I took the floor. I hoped
first to put Spurgeon in a position where he could
not argue against me. I raised the question as to
the wisdom of having the cooks and waitresses
and waiters and milkers stop during the week and
called attention to the fact that however angry
we might be we had to eat and though the boys
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might go to near-by restaurants, there were two or
three hundred girls who could not. I raised the
question as to the common sense of having the cattle
and other animals suffer, calling attention to the fact
that they had not committed any crime and that it
would be a shame not to feed them or care for them.
I suggested that a committee be appointed to wait on
General Armstrong. It was clear that that suggestion
would not be accepted. I then offered an amendment:
that we refuse to attend any socials during the week,
but that we would urge every student to perform all
official duties, such as attending prayers and
performing our work and school duties, pointing out
that to stay away from the social functions would be
just as effective, indeed much more so, and would
give no ground for any "come-back" at us as a student
body or individuals.
This suggestion appealed to the majority of the
boys very strongly. A Sioux Indian, John Bruyier,
offered an amendment to my amendment, as did also
another classmate, James H. Phillips - now a
successful business man in Montgomery, Alabama,
who was then as now a clear, forceful, and effective
Page 117
speaker - to the effect that no teacher or official of
the school should know of this decision, that notices
would be given and arrangements made for all social
and literary functions as usual. In their judgment the
two amendments combined would be sufficiently
effective in teaching the Faculty the lesson, which
we thought they needed to learn, about "insulting
ladies and gentlemen without cause." In the end
these amendments were carried and a solemn pledge
taken that no person should repeat our decision
outside of that meeting, except to the committee of
girls, and that if any man appeared at any one of
these functions he would be dealt with appropriately
and his life in the school made so miserable that it
would be impossible for him to remain.
This action was reported to the girls, who met and
quietly and quickly passed similar resolutions. At
evening prayers the week's programme was
announced. Everyone sat quietly. There was to be
an entertainment that evening and various class
gatherings. A committee was appointed to see that
no student entered any of these places, perchance
any one had not understood. To only
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one place did any students go - two boys who had
not heard of the action got in before the guard who
had been assigned to that place arrived at his station.
The next day it was clearly understood what the
feeling of the student body was, and for the rest of
the week the holiday programme was abandoned. It
was evident to all concerned that the students had
resented what was considered a very serious
infringement on their "rights." The teachers felt very
badly; and we, ourselves felt that the holidays had
been very dull and dreary, but we all found ample
compensation in the fact that we had "disciplined"
the officials of the Institute. To be sure we deprived
ourselves, of what we had looked forward to as an
unusually gay Christmas, even for Hampton, and I
rather think we lost more in this direction than the
teachers. I often think now that people who have to
do with student bodies sometimes forget the bitter
resentment that students feel for certain
"indignities," as they regard them; that they are too
often inclined to forget the feelings of students and
consider them as unimportant, forgetting what they
did and felt when they themselves were
Page 119
students. Out of such incidents, when properly
handled, students sometimes can get more real
education as to how to meet life's problems than
perhaps in a year of the ordinary conventional
schooling.
Page 120
CHAPTER VII
BLACK, WHITE, AND RED
ON A Saturday night just before the close of
school, General Armstrong invited the Senior boys
to spend an evening at his home. He told some
fascinating stories of his war experiences with
Negro soldiers, the Ninth U. S. Coloured Troops
which he recruited and commanded at the Battle of
Gettysburg. He showed us his uniform with a
colonel's shoulder straps, which his mother had just
sent on to him from California, together with his
sword. He told with frankness of the weaknesses
which he had observed in Negro soldiers and of their
strong points as well, but he showed clearly, though
apparently unconsciously, what wonderful growth
these men made under kind yet positive discipline.
We had a most interesting and instructive evening.
As the party was leaving, he asked me to remain for a
few moments, saying that he wished to speak with
me. I supposed, of course,
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that he wished me to do some errand for him, but
to my great surprise he began by asking what my
plans were for the future. I told him something
of what had been on my mind with regard to the
school plan for Cumberland County and my desire
to help those people who had been so responsive to
and appreciative of my year's work, and who were
very desirous of having me return, for throughout
the year I had been receiving letters from committees
as well as individuals urging me to come
back. He commended the scheme and pointed
out very clearly how it could be done, what a
good thing it would be, how we could work in
coöperation with Hampton and bring students to
a certain degree of academic as well as industrial
development, fitting them for entrance into the
Junior Class, at Hampton, he thought, without
examination. He also pointed out many essential
details which I had overlooked. While in a general
way he heartily approved of the plan, he nevertheless
strongly advised against my undertaking it
for at least a year. He did not hesitate to tell me
that I needed more experience, and suggested that I
could be very much more useful to my race and
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would conduct my school in a very much more
satisfactory way if I would remain at Hampton for
he present and help in the training of teachers for
the large number of public schools that were being
opened up throughout Virginia and the South. He
would accept no decision at that time; in fact, he did
not give me much chance to say anything. He simply
took for granted what I would do and how I should do
it. "You can think this over," he said, "and let me know
if there is any reason why you should not take up
your duties at the close of school as assistant to Mr.
Freeland, the commandant of the school cadets."
I took General Armstrong's suggestion and
accepted work at Hampton as assistant to the
commandant, but decided not to enter upon my
duties until the opening of school. I therefore again
secured work through Mr. Robert C. Ogden, then in
the John Wanamaker store at Philadelphia. In the
meantime, it seemed advisable that Mr. Freeland, the
commandant, should go out through the Indian
country and select Indian students for Hampton, this
custom having obtained ever since Captain (now
General) Robert H. Pratt brought
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on the first party of Indians in 1878 It was Captain
Pratt who, after serving for a short time at Hampton
with the Indians, founded the famous Carlisle
School over which he successfully presided for
many years.
Mr. Freeland's absence made it desirable for me
to begin work at Hampton in the summer as acting
commandant in charge of the three hundred or more
Negro and Indian boys. Mr. Ogden readily released
me from my engagement, saying that he always
doubted the wisdom of the Hampton graduates
coming North so soon after graduation, for fear the
fascination of Northern city life would incline them
to remain, and congratulated me that I had escaped
this temptation. I took up quarters in the "Wigwam,"
the building in which the Indian boys were housed.
General Armstrong used to call the person who lived
in the building the "House Father." It so happened
also that one of the teachers who had been engaged
to teach in the Indian school for the summer was
obliged to resign her position because of illness, so
I was asked to fill her place.
While I had, during my four years, been in more
Page 124
or less intimate contact with Indian students on
the parade ground, in classroom, dining room, and
elsewhere, and had some very intimate friends
among the young men, I had never before taught
Indian pupils, neither had I gotten a very clear
insight into the Indian's attitude and viewpoint
on matters in general. I learned for the first time
how different it was from my own. I was surprised
to find how hard it was for many Indians to adapt
themselves to the customs of the white man, for
they thought the old way, their way, better and
in many cases gave very good reasons to support
their view. Their opinion, for example, about the
white man's religion was that he preached one
thing and frequently practiced another; that he
preached human brotherhood, for instance, while
very few whites, so far as the Indians could observe,
actually practiced human brotherhood. This
thought was firmly fixed in the minds of many of
them. This was a new experience for a Negro, for
while many of us shared this view about the
inconsistencies of the white man and how far he was
from actually practicing his religion, we had nevertheless
adapted ourselves to the white man's ways,
Page 125
and had, consciously or unconsciously, and sometimes
anxiously, absorbed the white man's civilization.
The nearer we came to it, it seemed, the
happier we were. I learned for the first time that
other peoples than the Negro had problems and race
feelings and prejudices, and learned to sympathize
with another race, one, too, that was more nearly
on a plane with my own and whose difficulties and
handicaps seemed much greater than those of my
own race. Living in the building with the Indian
boys and being in their prayer meetings, and often
acting as pitcher on their baseball team, along
with contact in the Sunday School and in the
day school classes of boys and girls, all gave me
occasion to study more or less minutely the Indian
character, especially by way of contrast with the
Negro. I had taught Sunday School at intervals
during my entire school career in one of the neighbouring
coloured schools, and I remember with
what enthusiasm my immature Biblical interpretations
were received by the pupils and how
comparatively easy it was to drive home a Bible
lesson from every-day life. Not so with the Indians,
however. They agreed that the point was
Page 126
well taken, but frequently I would find some pupil
raising his hand - sometimes a girl who, I thought,
was paying no attention to what was going on - and
she would ask why Christian white people had
cheated the Indians. Such interruptions, of course,
frequently took all of the "wind out of my
untrimmed sails."
In this connection, I remember that General
Nelson A. Miles, then major-general of the United
States Army on an official inspection of Fortress
Monroe, sent up to say that he would inspect the
cadets at Hampton on Sunday morning. During this
inspection, as the adjutant read the orders for the
day, General Miles heard the name of "Paul Natchee"
and asked if Natchee came from Fort Sill and if he
had been at Mount Vernon barracks. He was told that
he had. The General then said, "This is the son of the
old Chief Natchee whom, I am sorry to relate, I was
obliged to kill because of his persistent treachery."
He asked how the boy was getting along and
expressed a desire to see him before he left the
grounds.
We then marched into the chapel and instead of
the usual Sunday morning sermon, General Miles
Page 127
delivered a most helpful address. I had given
orders to have Natchee remain after church and
speak to me, which he did. I brought him up to
General Miles with all of the deference due to the
General's position, accompanied as he was by a
large retinue of army officers and many prominent
civilians as well as several naval officers, there being
at that time some war vessels anchored in Hampton
Roads. I presented Paul to General Miles. Extending
his hand he greeted this boy of about
seventeen years of age very cordially, unusually
so for the ranking general of the United States
Army, and in the presence, too, of a number of his
subordinate officers. Paul looked him straight
in the eye, did not salute, and refused to shake
hands. I thought he had not observed the
General's extended hand, and in a whisper I said,
"The General wants to shake hands with you,"
but in typical Indian fashion he said, "Know it."
General Miles, who had won his fame as an Indian
fighter and who always observed every movement
about him, turned to me and said, "Never mind,
Major. He is an Indian. He will not shake
hands." The General lectured him in a very
Page 128
kindly way on his stubbornness, telling him that his
father might have been of great service to his race
but for his indomitable and unconquerable
stubbornness, which undoubtedly Paul had inherited.
I was very much humiliated. So was Doctor Frissell.
I think General Miles was the only person present
who was not. I made up my mind to punish this
young man very severely, and evidently General
Miles knew it, though I said nothing. After I had
dismissed Paul the General turned to me and said,
"Do not punish him. He inherits that spirit. It can
never be gotten out of him." As soon as I had an
opportunity I called Paul in. When he walked into
the office he said: "I ready go guard house. I stay
there thousand years, never shake hands wid him. He
killed my father." He broke down and wept, and
through tears he murmured, "He killed my father. I
never shake hands wid him. I never speak to him."
My duties included, among other things, clerical
work in the commandant's office, supervision of the
drills, and instruction of the battalion in military
tactics. Mr. Freeland, the commandant, was a man of
remarkable ability and very methodical.
Page 129
I admired the ease and dispatch with which he
could turn off the immense amount of work that
was his, and the way in which he never permitted
things to drag. I have always been grateful for my
experience under him. As a matter of fact, my plans
and methods of work during the twenty-five years
that I served as commandant and executive officer at
Hampton Institute were strongly influenced by the
experience which I received during this year's
contact with Mr. Freeland.
During that same year, when I was travelling with
the Hampton Quartette as a singer and speaker,
while en route between Albany and Boston, General
Armstrong took the opportunity to ask me many
rather interesting and searching questions. I had
been acting as assistant disciplinarian under Mr.
Freeland. I did not know whether my work had been
satisfactory or not. The General among other things
asked whether I thought, with the year's experience,
if left entirely alone with the discipline, I could
handle the situation at the school. He wanted to
know if I had the organization of the battalion
clearly in my mind and if I could handle it
successfully. He asked me many questions
Page 130
about the school in general: what my attitude was; if
I had noticed any differences between the races, the
white, the coloured, and the Indian; if I had noticed
any difference between the Northern white man and
the Southern white man. He finally ended more or
less abruptly by saying, "I want you to familiarize
yourself very thoroughly with all phases of the work
of the school, not only with reference to the
discipline of the young men, but everything else that
has to do with the work." I was very much disturbed
because from the tone of his remarks I was rather
inclined to feel that I had failed in my work.
We went on to Boston, where we spent many days
holding meetings in the interest of Hampton's work.
On my return to the school a few weeks later I went
directly to Mr. Frissell, the chaplain, and did what
everyone in the school usually did - teachers and
students alike when in trouble - I asked him what
General Armstrong had in his mind. I told him that I
had been much disturbed by the questions which the
General had asked me. He assured me that I had no
need to be disturbed, that my year had been
satisfactory, and that the
Page 131
General, as well as others, was very much pleased,
so much so that he had in mind asking me to assume
charge of the Department of Discipline and
Military Instruction of the Institute. Mr. Freeland
had resigned and General Armstrong had
made up his mind to place a coloured man for the
first time in this very responsible position. He
said that it was believed by many that Negro
students would not respond to authority from one
of their own number; but that Booker Washington's
success at Tuskegee Institute, and the very
satisfactory way in which I had handled some delicate
situations during the year between the teachers
and the students, as well as between Negroes
and Indians, had convinced the General, as well as
himself, that there would be much less trouble and
friction in the school if I were placed in charge of
the discipline. I confess this was a very great
surprise to me. Instead of appealing to my pride it
almost frightened me that I should for a minute
have been considered for such a position. On the
other hand, it was not my intention to remain at
Hampton for more than two years. My idea was to
get the larger experience which General Armstrong
Page 132
had suggested in the conversation at his house the
year before and then go into some pioneer work
among my people. The truth is I had never given up
the idea of starting the school in Cumberland
County, and was also interested still in the study of
law.
Mr. Frissell remarked to me in the same
conversation that I seemed to be disturbed by the
suggestion that had been made and at the idea of
remaining at Hampton, and I reminded him that, as
he knew, I had always had in mind going into some
work in the rural districts and that he and General
Armstrong had told me that I could be of larger
service by remaining at Hampton for a while and
helping General Armstrong and himself to fit
students for just the kind of work that I had in mind
to do.
One morning some days later I marched the boys
into school, and went to the office somewhat
troubled because it seemed to me the boys had
drilled worse that morning than usual. I had put them
through the setting-up exercises and the whole thing
was most ragged and unsatisfactory. I was just
making up my mind to take the whole group for what
was called "extra drill" in the afternoon
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after school, taking their play time to see if I
could not by some possibility lick them into better
shape. I noticed that morning that General
Armstrong and Mr. Frissell had been walking up and
down the road facing the parade ground, apparently
oblivious to what was going on. Nevertheless, I was
anxious that the boys should make a good showing,
or at least do ordinarily well. General Armstrong
walked over toward me and without any preliminary
remarks said, "I want you to take the responsibility
of the discipline next year." Mr. Freeland, he said,
had resigned, and would probably be made chaplain
in the United States Army. He went on in his
characteristic way telling what he wanted me to do,
what improvements he thought ought to be made,
and what results we ought to accomplish. I tried
several times to interject a question or two but
without success. He paid no attention whatever to
my questions. He simply assumed that I would do it.
Finally I got a word in, with Mr. Frissell's help, to
the effect that I had not planned to remain at
Hampton and about what I had looked forward to
doing. He asked me why I wanted to go into pioneer
work and I told him
Page 134
I thought I could best help my people that way.
He said, "You want to be of the largest service to
your race, do you not?" and I assured him that
I did. Then he said, "Hampton is the place.
Mr. Freeland be leaving in a few weeks. In
the meantime, I want you to get all matters thoroughly
in your own hands." I finally agreed to
take the work for two years. That was in May of
1891. I entered upon my duties with full responsibility
in June of the same year, and remained at
the Institute during the summer. I took up my
new responsibilities with considerable reluctance
mainly because of the many elements that entered
into it. There were many temperaments, races,
and conditions that had to be dealt with. There
were Northern white people and there were Southern
white people on the Hampton staff; there were also
coloured people, and in the student body there were
young people from the North and from the South,
the majority, of course, from the South. There
were one hundred and fifty members of the Indian
race, representing perhaps a score of different tribes,
and frequently the tribal differences were as great
and developed stronger feelings than racial differences
Page 135
There were other nationalities represented in
the student body besides the Negro and Indian:
Chinese, Japanese, Africans, Armenians, Hawaiians,
and others. So I entered upon the work with many
misgivings as to the chances of success. I knew
something of the difficulties that Mr. Curtis and Mr.
Freeland had had to face in adjusting these very
delicate relations, and consequently was surprised
to find later on that the work, while exacting, was
not so difficult as I had thought. I had from the
beginning, it would appear, the cordial good will and
hearty coöperation and help of almost everyone,
from General Armstrong to the humblest student.
In the following November General Armstrong,
while in the midst of an address near Boston, was
stricken with paralysis, from which he never wholly
recovered, remaining an invalid for about two years
thereafter, but entering more or less actively into
the school's affairs, though it was necessary for him
to be moved about in a wheel-chair. During this
period Mr. Frissell performed the more active
duties of principal. I learned during these years to
know General Armstrong very much better than ever before.
Page 136
I had previously been with him much in the
North, and had observed many things about him
that had struck me as unusual. It was difficult to
understand how a man who was always as busy as
he and who lived under such continuous pressure
could be always solicitous for the comfort of the
young men who were with him, Negroes and Indians,
for there was usually at least one Indian in
the party. He looked personally into our quarters
to see whether they were comfortable or not. He
did the same with respect to our meals, as well as
other matters affecting our welfare. Frequently it
happened at railroad stations, when it was necessary
to hire a hack for ourselves or wagon to carry luggage,
that he picked out the man who had the
poorest horse and the most dilapidated vehicle.
One day when Mr. Wm. H. Daggs, who generally
managed our party, questioned the wisdom of our
piling into a hack which looked as if it would break
down at any minute, the General remarked that he
always selected the poorest horse and hack because it
was evident that this man needed the money more
than the others. He added, jokingly, that this might
not always hold for the reason that sometimes the
Page 137
evidences of poverty on the part of the hackman
might be due to his own prodigality.
One day in May, 1893 when he was very ill, he
sent for me to come over to the Mansion House, but
this was against the doctor's orders; so Mrs.
Armstrong and I agreed that it was wiser for me not
to see him, but he insisted upon my coming and
finally she thought that perhaps it was better that I
should see him. He remarked that he wanted to see
me because he had noticed latterly that students, in
passing his home to and from their meals, had been
much quieter than previously. During his
confinement to the house he had enjoyed the hearty
laughter of the young men as they passed and their
singing of plantation melodies and other songs. He
asked me the very direct question if I had given
orders that they should be more quiet because of his
illness. There was no way to evade the question so I
had to admit that such an order had been given. With
some emphasis he said that he did not wish to have
his illness affect in any way the school's activities;
that he did not wish to have any change made even in
the event of his death. "I want," he said, "even at my
Page 138
funeral that everything should be as simple as
possible and that the school should be interrupted
for as little time as possible"; and then he further
suggested that I should arrange with Mr. Frissell's
approval to have some kind of concert or pleasant
entertainment or something, to relieve the
depression which he was afraid his illness was
causing.
This was in the early morning. In the middle of the
afternoon of the same day he sent for me again to
know what arrangements I had made. I understood
General Armstrong well enough to know that if he
suggested anything, even though he might say there
was no hurry about it, in a very few hours he would
either come into your office or call you into his and
ask if you had done it, so I never put off carrying out
any suggestion or request or order that he gave. So
when he called me over to the house to know what
had been done, I told him we had arranged for a
baseball game the following afternoon with the
dining-room men of the Hygeia Hotel. This game, as
it was played by the waiters, always brought up a
great many guests also from Old Point Comfort,
officers as well as soldiers. The General was very
much pleased with
Page 139
this arrangement and requested that it should be an
afternoon holiday for teachers as well as students
and that everything should be shut down. I could not
understand how a man who was desperately ill - and
of whom we were expecting every minute to hear
that the end had come - could be thinking about
such matters and going into the minutest details
about all the affairs of the Institute, especially as
they affected the life of the students. Also there
were certain exceptional boys whom he knew, some
who were not happy or satisfied about certain
matters affecting their course of study and who had
been in to see him. He wanted to know if these
matters had been satisfactorily adjusted.
The following day, the 11th of May, 1893 the ball
game was played. It was intensely interesting.
Throughout the afternoon the grounds resounded
with the tremendous shouts of the students. The
playing was good on both sides. The cheering was
equally loud from the visitors; for they, for the most
part, were in sympathy with the waiters rather than
with the students. In the midst of this tense
situation, about the seventh inning, with the score
standing "nothing to nothing," Mr. Frissell
Page 140
came down and called me aside and asked me what I
thought of stopping the game, for General
Armstrong had just died. He knew, he said, that the
General would not want it stopped. I told him I felt
sure the students would feel embarrassed to know
that they had been playing under such
circumstances, even though General Armstrong
wished it so, and he and I agreed also that we owed
something to the sentiment of the community and
therefore decided that the game should be stopped.
General Armstrong's death was without doubt the
most serious blow that the Institute had ever
received. It was difficult for us to see how the
school could exist without its founder. General
Armstrong was a man of great force. His personality
was so overwhelming that it seemed to me, as well
as to others wiser than myself no doubt, that no one
could carry on the work which he had founded and to
which he had given the best twenty-five years of his
life. Everybody at Hampton loved Mr. Frissell and
had the greatest respect for him. He was in the
confidence of teachers and students even more so
than General Armstrong, but we seriously doubted
whether he could carry
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forward the work of Hampton. In fact, many felt
quite sure that he could not fill General Armstrong's
place. And as I think of it to-day, after twenty-six
years, I am convinced that we were right in feeling
that neither Mr. Frissell nor any one else could be to
Hampton what General Armstrong had been. General
Armstrong had in a real sense completed his work,
and a remarkable work it was! He had given America
a new educational idea and developed a new ideal in
education. He left Hampton in such condition that it
could not go down, and the educational method
which he worked out at Hampton could not but take
a stronger hold on America and the civilized world.
In a striking way, Doctor Frissell, in the twenty-
four years in which he presided at Hampton, made
his work as perfect and complete as did General
Armstrong; but in doing so he filled his own place,
and that, too, in a way that would have met General
Armstrong's approval.
One would naturally expect it to be irksome and
disagreeable to ferret out irregularities, punish
misdemeanors, and settle disputes, and that it would
tend to create unpopularity with the student body,
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especially with those over whom it is necessary to
assert authority. Added to this, there was the
difficulty of having to deal with Indians as well as
with members of my own race. Many of my friends,
therefore, both white and black, told me frankly that
I might succeed with my own race but that it would
not be possible for me to succeed as a disciplinarian
with the Indians. They felt that when questions
should arise between the two races, as frequently
happened, it would be difficult for me to settle
them, for the Indians would naturally expect me to
be partial to the Negroes, while the Negroes, on the
other hand, would suspect that, to escape this
criticism, I would very likely be partial to the
Indians. As a consequence, they thought I would
constantly be in a dilemma and would be criticized
for what I did as well as for what I did not do.
I realized when I accepted the work that I would
have to face difficulties, yet I also felt that if a
person did his best and was honest and sympathetic
in his dealings with the boys, that both Negroes and
Indians would accept his decisions. During my
twenty-five years in the work at Hampton I never
had occasion to believe my
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assumption incorrect. To be sure I had to exercise
discretion, especially when disputes arose between
tribes or the two races; and I found that it was
frequently very much better, instead of giving boys
demerits for personal differences, to take the time
to lead them both, if possible, to see their mistakes;
and I usually found then, as I find now, that there are
always two sides to a controversy. I found that it was
usually worth while to take the time to bring them to
the point where they would be willing to apologize
each to the other. In consequence, I have always felt
that much of the friction between races, as well as
between nations and individuals, is due to
misunderstanding, that if people would take the time
to understand one another and get one another's
point of view, they would frequently find that things
are not so bad as they imagine.
I had from the beginning a very strong, loyal first
assistant in my work among the boys, a man who as
a boy worked with me at the saw-mill along with
Mr. Palmer, and who at the same time was my room-
mate. This was Captain Allen Washington, now
Major Allen Washington, who deserves the utmost
credit for his share in any success
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achieved in the disciplinary work at Hampton
Institute for the quarter of a century during which I
was responsible for it. People even now wonder and
frequently ask how the two races - the Negro and
the Indian - get along together at Hampton. The
truth of the matter is that at Hampton there has
never been any serious manifestation of unpleasant
relations between the two races. There are certain
racial characteristics that are unmistakable, and the
two races are in some particulars as different in
temperament as they are in colour.
Types more diverse could hardly have been
selected than the two thus brought together at
Hampton. The Negro, as we have long known,
is cheerful and buoyant, emotional and demonstrative,
keen of apprehension, ambitious, persistent,
responsive to authority, and deeply religious. In striking
contrast stands the Indian - reserved, self-contained,
self-controlled, deliberate in speech and action,
sensitive, distrustful, proud, and possessed
of a deep sense of personal worth and dignity.
But if the differing characteristics are evident,
the similarity of the two races in condition and
prospects is also striking. The Negro and the
Page 145
Indian have both been retarded in their development,
alike in economic and social progress. They
lack equally the helpful influence of heredity, that
tremendous moral momentum acquired only by
centuries of successive and cumulative effort. They
are both aspiring, the Negro with an earnestness
that often outstrips his development; the Indian with
a dawning realization of his needs. Both still need,
as do some other races, such moral and mental discipline
as will fix in them habits of obedience, order,
accuracy, application, and the many other private
virtues, the habitual practice of which makes the
man. The very diversities of the two races under
instruction at Hampton proved, in many respects,
to be helps rather than hindrances to their development.
Each served in many instances as a daily
lesson to the other in the problems and difficulties
of life. The Negro student learned that he did
not have a monopoly of the troubles incident to
the effort to rise; that his is not the only race that
faces a struggle in securing the rights and privileges
of an advanced civilization. The Indian student saw
the arts and practices of this civilization acquired and
adapted by a race whose development corresponded
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more nearly to his own. He caught the inspiration of
the manly endeavour and sturdy self-reliance that
have characterized the Indian graduates of Hampton
in all their subsequent endeavours among their own
people. Through all my contact of thirty-one years
as student and worker at Hampton it became
increasingly apparent that the ground of racial
adjustment lies, not in the emphasis of faults and of
differences between races, but rather in the
discovery of likenesses and of virtues which make
possible their mutual understanding and coöperation.
Soon after General Armstrong's death and Doctor
Frissell's election to the principalship, he told me
that he would like to have me make up my mind to
remain permanently at Hampton; that he thought the
position that I occupied, especially as affecting the
delicate relations which obtained at Hampton
between the three races as well as between the two
sections of the country, was of the utmost
importance and that he needed my help in carrying
out the wishes of the Founder regarding Hampton's
very important work for the Negro and Indian races.
Even up to this time I had not thoroughly made
Page 147
up my mind to remain at Hampton permanently. I
was much interested in the experience I was
receiving through my contact with teachers and
students. I continued my work along very much the
same lines as during General Armstrong's life,
giving more of my time, however, to the
administration of the school's affairs under Doctor
Frissell's direction. I also devoted more time toward
the raising of funds in the North, thereby relieving
Doctor Frissell and Dr. H. B. Turner, who had
succeeded Doctor Frissell as chaplain of the
Institute, in some degree of the burden of raising
money necessary to carry on the work of the school.
After graduating at Hampton, I felt, with many of
the other resident graduates, that our education was
not complete, so for several years we did
postgraduate work in certain advanced subjects
which had not come in our regular course. The first
few years we paid for this instruction ourselves, but
later the school officials felt that it was proper for
them to provide teachers for this work. I also
continued my law studies one evening a week under
the tutelage of Mr. F. S. Collier, a lawyer in the
town of Hampton, a Southern gentleman who not
Page 148
only gave me instruction without pay but allowed
me the free use of his law library.
Through the generosity of Prof. Francis G.
Peabody I had the opportunity of attending several
sessions of the Harvard Summer School, taking
courses in gymnastics, English, and composition.
For ten years I had continued my work practically
without any let up, except for Summer School and
Northern work and occasional visits among my own
people in the South.
By this time some of my friends, among them
Doctor Frissell, Mr. Robert C. Ogden, and Mr.
Arthur Curtiss James, the latter two trustees of
Hampton Institute, felt that I was very much in need
of rest. They said I showed signs of fatigue, mental
and physical, which I confess I had not observed.
Finally, in the summer of 1901 Doctor Frissell told
me that whether I wished to go or not, he and one of
the trustees had arranged for me to take a trip to
Europe and that this trustee would provide the
means, adding that he understood that I was looking
forward to a trip at some time. He gave me a few
days to map out the route I would like to cover.
Page 149
This whole conversation with Doctor Frissell
afterward seemed almost a dream. The idea of
actually going to Europe and going practically
anywhere I wished to go was almost overwhelming. I
mapped out what I would like to do and the countries
that I would like especially to see, putting particular
emphasis on southern Europe, because the Italian
emigration was very large at that time and I was
anxious to see another people who were more nearly
on the plane of the majority of my own race in
America; and then, too, I wanted to see Germany,
and, of course, France and England. Doctor Frissell
and the trustee referred to offered many suggestions
when they knew exactly what I wished to
accomplish.
Accompanied by a friend, I sailed from New York
in May of the same year. After a day at the Azores
we landed at Naples and came up through the
principal cities of Italy into Switzerland and
Germany, Belgium and France, England and Ireland.
Before this I had been inclined to feel discouraged
at times about my own race, and whatever people
might say with reference to the advantages of the
Negro in this country, I somehow
Page 150
felt that he was at the bottom of the scale
of development, and of opportunities as well; but
after seeing conditions in southern Europe, especially
among the peasant class, my ideas regarding
my race changed entirely and I realized for the
first time that the Negro in America, even the
most backward Negro farmer, notwithstanding the
unfairness and injustice which confront him, lives
amidst surroundings much more encouraging and
hopeful than is true of certain classes of the white
race in Europe. While there was a striking difference
in the physical surroundings and economic
opportunities between the southern European peasant
and the average Negro tenant farmer or renter,
and while I also found a very striking difference in
the wage scale which affects food, clothing, and home
life in general, much to the advantage of the Southern
coloured man, there was another difference even
more striking, and that was the fact that the average
European, to whom I have referred, was inclined to
be hopeless so far as any improvement in his present
condition was concerned. Few of them, moreover,
had much hope of improvement for their children.
They themselves were living much as their forefathers
Page 151
had lived, and in many cases they had lived
for generations in the same house and worked on the
same land with no other future before them save a
desire on the part of a few of the younger ones to go
either to North or South America. This was about
the only ray of hope they had.
On the contrary, the American Negro generally
expects that this year's crop will pay him out of debt
and that he will at some time, in all probability, own
his farm and house. More than that, he expects that
his children will live better than he lives. He looks
forward to their becoming educated and owning
homes and land and prospering generally. To me the
most striking difference, therefore, was a difference
in attitude of mind. The firm belief of the coloured
man in the ultimate triumph of right and justice
constitutes his largest and most valuable asset.
What I have said of conditions in Europe is true to
some extent also of the Negro in Jamaica. While
there is an absence there of the outward
manifestations of racial antagonisms such as
frequently obtain in this country, and while the
difficulties in Jamaica, according to my observations, are
Page 152
due more largely to differences in character
rather than in colour, nevertheless the situation so
far as it concerns the Negro is in some particulars
very much like that of the peasants of southern
Europe.
There is this difference, however, between these
countries and our own, and that is that the peasant in
Europe and Jamaica has no fear for his life; he need
not fear the aggressions of the lawless element of
his community. If a crime has been committed he
knows that the guilty will be tried by the usual legal
process and punished accordingly. He knows also
that there is no probability of unoffending persons
being oppressed and terrorized by any part of the
community because of the alleged misconduct of
some member of their social or racial group.
However, at the end of this trip I landed on
American shores with the feeling that whatever may
be the disadvantages and inconveniences of my race
in America I would rather be a Negro in the United
States than anybody else in any other country in the
world. My subsequent experiences abroad have
confirmed me in this conviction.
Page 153
CHAPTER VIII
WITH NORTH AND SOUTH
IT IS sometimes thought that schools like
Hampton, Fisk, Atlanta, Tuskegee, and others are at
a disadvantage because in many instances the heads
of these institutions have been obliged to spend a
considerable portion of their time in the North
raising the funds necessary for carrying forward
their work; and I myself have shared this feeling to
some extent. It has also seemed to me a matter of
deep regret that men like General Armstrong,
Doctor Frissell, President Ware, President
Bumstead, Doctor Cravath, Doctor Washington, and
others, should have been obliged to take a large part
of their time and frequently all of their vacations in
going from place to place, often with a group of
singers, delivering addresses, with a view to creating
interest in the work of their institutions. But
experience has taught me that, while there are great
disadvantages,
Page 154
there are, on the other hand, certain compensating
advantages.
I think no other movement has kept the North so
well informed on all phases of conditions in the
South between Negroes and whites. The kindly
attitude of an increasing number of each race toward
the other, and the growing desire on the part of the
South to see that the Negro is educated, go far
toward creating a greater interest on the part of the
North in the welfare of the Negro, and a broader
sympathy on the part of the people of that section
with the efforts which each race is making toward
coöperation in those things which make for the
development of the South. The heads of these
institutions deserve a great deal of credit for the
vision and courage displayed in thus interpreting the
attitude of the South and the needs of their own work.
General Armstrong used frequently to say, forty
years ago, that the North would change its attitude
toward the Negro if some strong effort were not put
forth to prevent it, and that it was the duty of
Hampton, as well as of all institutions interested in
the welfare of the country, to bring about a greater
Page 155
sympathy and more helpful understanding between
the sections.
It so happened that in almost every year from the
time of my graduation at Hampton and even before, I
spent some time with the Hampton party in the
North - frequently with General Armstrong, and later
with Doctor Frissell, usually accompanied by the
Hampton quartette - trying primarily to raise
money for carrying forward Hampton's work.
During that period we visited most of the cities and
appeared in many of the leading churches east of the
Mississippi River; and while I am not sure of the
good that I have been able to accomplish for
Hampton or the general cause in this way, I am very
sure that the contact with prominent clergymen and
laymen, as well as with thousands of less prominent
people of the various denominations, gave me a kind
of experience and training that is to be had in no
other way.
I still recall some experiences I had on one of my
early trips with General Armstrong as a member of
the quartette and also as one of the "campaign"
speakers, helping to raise funds for the Institute.
Page 156
I had gone the previous spring, while a student in
the Senior Class, on a short trip to Baltimore and
Washington, but this time we made quite a long
tour, going throughout New England and visiting
many places, including Boston, which I had always
wanted to see. I, with other students, used
to argue with Doctor Frissell, who conducted our
Current History recitation during my Middle and
Senior years, over the relative importance of Virginia
and New York, the South and the North, and
why the text books and the people generally spoke
so frequently of the greatness of New York.
While I believed what the text books said, still I
always had a feeling that Virginia was almost as
great and important as New York. I argued that
while New York was a very important seaport,
Norfolk was also a very important seaport; that
the Norfolk navy yard was about as great and
important as the Brooklyn navy yard. Doctor
Frissell never permitted himself to argue with
his pupils on this point, apparently lest it should
lessen their pride in their own section or state;
but I remember how on this trip, one Sunday
morning, as we were returning from Brooklyn
Page 157
over the famous Brooklyn Bridge, Doctor Frissell
pointed out the elevated railroads in New York, the
Post-Office, and many of the tall office buildings,
and asked if we had anything like that in Virginia.
The point was not lost.
As our meetings during the week were usually
held in the evenings, we had the days free, which
made it possible for us to spend much time in
sightseeing in and around New York. One evening,
riding in on the train from Orange, New Jersey, I
was telling Doctor Frissell what I had seen during
the day, mentioning Central Park, the Zoölogical
Gardens, the Metropolitan Museum, the wonderful
Palisades, the Egyptian mummies and the great
Obelisk, which had only recently been set up. He
and General Armstrong asked me many questions
about how I liked these things and what I thought of
them. The General expressed his great pleasure that
I had spent my time so profitably, as also did Doctor
Frissell. Doctor Frissell said, with a little twinkle
with which those of us who knew him well were
familiar, "How do these things compare with
Richmond and Norfolk?" I finally admitted that I
supposed New York was a greater state than
Page 158
Virginia, and any Virginian knows how hard it is to
make that admission; but I still believe Virginia to
be a great state, my only concession being that I
believe there are other states, North and South,
equally as great, with people equally as good.
There were for me many very interesting
incidents on this tour. At Troy, New York, General
Armstrong was given a banquet by some thirty or
forty men of the remaining members of the
company that he had recruited in that city when he
left Williams College at the outbreak of the Civil
War. Their enthusiasm for General Armstrong, who
had been their captain, was most impressive. The
quartette sang during the dinner and I delivered my
little address, after which there were many speeches
by these veterans. General Armstrong closed with
what was to me a most remarkable and touching
speech on the race question, setting forth the duty
of the North to the Negro and to the South; the
reasons why there should not be any bitterness
between the two sections and the races; and what he
had observed in the Negro as to his possibilities as a
useful American citizen. In fact, this was one
Page 159
of the most impressive addresses I ever heard him
deliver.
At Stamford, Connecticut, after our usual meeting
in one of the churches, we were all invited with
General Armstrong to the home of Dr. John Lord,
the historian, where the quartette sang many
numbers, and where General Armstrong was asked
to make a few remarks. When General Armstrong
beckoned for me to come over and I was introduced
to Doctor Lord, I became somewhat confused as a
lady whispered to me that this was John Lord, the
historian. I was familiar with the "Old Roman
World" and his "Beacon Lights of History," and I
was surprised to find this man, who had actually
written books, and such important and interesting
ones, to be so simple and unaffected in his ways. He
moved about during the entire evening telling
stories to one group after another, and spending
considerable time with the members of the
quartette. I recall that he had a pipe in his mouth. It
was sometimes lighted and sometimes not. It was
frequently right side up, but I think that it was more
frequently upside down. He appeared to be entirely
unconscious of
Page 160
himself and took great pleasure in seeing that the
Hampton students especially were in no sense
neglected. His pleasure and enthusiasm over the
singing were most evident. The truth of the matter is
that he was so simple and so much like other people
that I was almost disappointed.
Frequently, at very important meetings, Doctor
Washington spoke for Hampton with Doctor
Frissell and myself, and it was interesting that on
these occasions he rarely ever referred to his own
splendid work at Tuskegee Institute, except to speak
of it as a part of Hampton's work.
I have found that usually Northern audiences care
little or nothing for oratory or orators as such. A
simple, straightforward statement of the situation as
we saw it and faced it, and of what Hampton was
doing, not for the Negro as a race merely, but for
the Negro as a part of the citizenship of America,
was the thing that usually was most appealing. I
always felt that my own talks were unimportant and
ineffective, but Doctor Frissell always insisted upon
my going. I thought, and frankly said, in my short
talks, that I was there because Doctor Frissell
wanted to use me as a
Page 161
sort of sample of the finished product of
Hampton.
I remember, however, a large meeting at a
Congregational church in Montclair, New Jersey, at
which some very distinguished speakers were
present, and that I made my talk with considerable
nervousness, and was very much surprised,
therefore, to read afterward the comment of Dr.
Amory H. Bradford, then pastor of the church,
which I quote here:
It was my privilege recently at a meeting held in the
interest of Hampton Institute to listen to three very able
speakers. One was a distinguished doctor of divinity, who
has occupied a conspicuous place in the denomination of
which he is a member, and who is a genuine orator. He
knows how to present his subject as few men do, and that
night he was singularly persuasive and eloquent. Another
speaker was an eminent business man, who had his material
well in hand and who presented it with rare discrimination
and ability. When they had finished, one could hardly help the
feeling that the black and apparently commonplace coloured
man who sat upon the platform would hardly keep the
meeting on the high level that it had already attained. He
began by apologizing for his presence in the absence of his
chief, Doctor Frissell, who was ill, but he had not spoken for
many seconds before it was evident that he was a natural
master of assemblies. With ease and absolute command of
himself, with clearness and with entire absence of self-assertion,
Page 162
he presented his thought on the coloured problem.
There may have been abler and more convincing addresses on this
subject in other places, but I am ready to bear my testimony to the
fact that never here, nor elsewhere, have I heard a more perfect
address of its kind than fell from the lips of Major Moton, of
Hampton Institute, on that occasion. There was no playing to the
galleries, no twisting of facts for effect, no noise, but calmness,
moral earnestness, exquisite diction, and a poetical quality that
made the speech a gem of its kind. So much has been heard about
the impossibility of uplifting the coloured race that one can hardly
help asking whether Major Moton may not be an exception. He is
no exception. The same may be said of a large number of others.
Doctor Washington also of course saw and
appreciated the value and importance of this
Northern work. While it took a great deal of energy -
and Tuskegee, like other institutions, must have felt
the effects of the frequent absence of its principal -
yet he realized that the work done in this direction
was very much worth while, and believed that
"Extension Work in the North" is a "lateral
influence" of these Southern institutions for which
not only the Negro, but the South as a whole, should
be grateful.
Hampton Institute has always been the subject
Page 163
of a certain amount of criticism from some
people - not that they objected to Hampton as such -
but because they felt that Hampton's emphasis on
industrial, or vocational, education and the
popularity that Hampton enjoyed in the North and in
the South reacted to the disadvantage of institutions
that stood for higher education for Negroes.
General Armstrong was always conscious that he
was never wholly acceptable to the rank and file of
coloured people for that reason.
I remember that a very important convention of
coloured ministers was held in the town of Hampton
and many of the distinguished visitors to the
community drove through the grounds. Certain of
the more prominent members of the party refused
to get out of their carriages. They admired the
location and buildings and the general appearance of
the campus from the outside, but at a private banquet
one evening one distinguished man, in speaking of
the community, said that while the Institute
physically, from what he could observe, was all that
one could wish and that he was glad that the Negroes
had the privilege of working on such a campus, as a
matter of fact General Armstrong
Page 164
and his corps of workers were teaching the
Negroes to be hewers of wood and drawers of water,
and that at bottom he was training the Negro boys
and girls to be servants to the white race; that he
never saw a more beautiful campus but that it was in
his judgment a "literary penitentiary." It was to be
expected, therefore, that Doctor Frissell in
assuming the principalship of the Institute would
have to face, in some degree at least, the same sort
of attitude.
After observing this condition for three or four
years I finally came to the conclusion that this
opposition to Hampton was due largely to a lack of
knowledge of Hampton's methods of work and what
was being accomplished by those methods. I felt it
would be a good thing if Doctor Frissell and many of
our other teachers could see more of the coloured
people and if coloured people could become better
acquainted with them; that if there could be a clearer
understanding between Hampton's faculty and the
coloured men and women with college training,
from whom most of this kind of opposition came, it
would do much toward removing what seemed to me
unwarranted antagonism.
Page 165
Doctor Frissell readily concurred in the suggestion
that we have at Hampton each summer what
we hoped would be in a general way an
educational conference. This idea, I acknowledge,
grew out of the idea of the farmers' conference at
Tuskegee, which had been introduced some years
before by Doctor Washington, and which had been
so successful in helping the Negro farmer in the
rural South to do better farming as well as to
improve the general life of the community in which
he lived. The difference in our situation, however,
was that it seemed to us advisable to invite to our
conference the educated classes of Negroes,
especially teachers and other professional men,
along with editors, business men, and successful
farmers. At our first conference Doctor Washington
presided, after which time it seemed to me and to
Doctor Washington also that it would be better that
Doctor Frissell, the principal, should preside. To the
early conferences we invited no white people, either
Northerners or Southerners. The idea was that there
should be absolutely free and frank discussion and
criticism of Hampton, Tuskegee, Doctor
Washington, Doctor Frissell, and any one
Page 166
or anything else that might come up in the course
of discussions. Indeed we purposely arranged to
have papers on subjects that we knew were under
criticism and from men who, as we knew, opposed
Hampton methods.
I doubt if up to that time so many Negroes of
distinction had ever come together in one assembly
as came to some of these conferences. The numbers
ran from three and four hundred to a thousand,
including, of course, large numbers of school
teachers. These people spent from one to three days,
as guests of the Institute, seeing and studying the
work in trades, agriculture, and other lines at first
hand, and at the same time getting something of the
atmosphere of Hampton and its work. We had
present on these occasions such men as President
W. S. Scarborough of Wilberforce University, Dr.
Kelly Miller of Howard University, Mrs. Fannie
Jackson Coppin, Prof. Hugh M. Brown, President R.
R. Wright, Prof. N. B. Young, Prof. C. N. Gresham,
Dr. Inman Page, Mrs. Annie J. Cooper, Dr. W. E. B.
Du Bois, Dr. Francis G. Grimké, Mr. A. H. Grimké,
Paul Laurence Dunbar, T. Thomas Fortune, and
Page 167
other prominent educators and leaders of thought
among our people.
I do not think that anything that Hampton ever did
served more to change the attitude of coloured
people toward its work than this movement, which
gave them a more intimate knowledge of what
Hampton was doing, the type of student developed,
and something of what these students accomplished
after graduation. It may be said that this was the
beginning of Hampton's active extension work. As
time went on white people came from North and
South, and the discussions went into the various
social problems such as health, housing, business,
school facilities, and the frank discussion of race
relations. The coloured people told how they felt
regarding certain matters affecting their relations
with white people, and we were able in some ways
to get a clearer understanding of the Southern white
man's point of view. In all of these discussions,
which were always frank and frequently animated,
there was never any personal feeling displayed. It
had the effect not only of giving the visitors a better
knowledge of Hampton, but was equally effective in
Page 168
broadening the knowledge of our workers and
students as to the viewpoint of these very intelligent
men and women of the Negro race. As a result of
these conferences people came to know Doctor
Frissell, and while coloured newspapers frequently
criticized many of the white men who were heads of
Negro educational institutions, and while it is not
improbable that they did not always agree with all of
Doctor Frissell's statements regarding the Negro,
they rarely if ever criticized him, and for twenty
years there was comparatively little public criticism
of Hampton Institute.
It was in this period of my life at Hampton, 1905,
that I was married to Miss Elizabeth Hunt Harris of
Williamsburg, Virginia, who entered heartily into
the spirit and life of Hampton Institute. But our
happiness suddenly gave place to a great sadness on
account of her illness and death after little more
than a year.
The extension work of Hampton Institute among
coloured people in the South had by this time so
developed that it was in need of reorganization.
Much had been done by the field workers, under the
general direction of the chaplain, Dr.
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H. B. Turner. Doctor Turner had successively
associated with him in this capacity various
graduates of Hampton, among whom were Mr.
George Brandon, Mr. F. M. Fitch, and at various
times Mr. T. C. Walker, a very successful lawyer,
partner, and teacher of Gloucester County, Virginia.
While these men did very good work among
graduates and former students, especially in rural
communities - activities which Dr. Wallace
Buttrick, of the General Education Board, so aptly
called "the lateral influences of Hampton" - there
grew out of these summer conferences a more
definite organization for working, not only among
graduates and former students, but among coloured
people generally, especially in Virginia and
adjoining states.
At one of these conferences a committee was
appointed, of which I was made chairman, to effect a
permanent working organization. After several
meetings and much discussion we came to the
conclusion that Negroes were, along many lines,
sufficiently well organized already; if anything, they
were over-organized. There were business
organizations, divers farmers' organizations,
organizations of professional men, and many
religious
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and social organizations, besides various and sundry
secret societies and lodges. As a matter of fact,
there are very few coloured people who are not
members of some kind of organization, and the
secret society to many is almost as sacred as the
Church and the Sunday School.
Sometimes people who do not know are inclined
to ridicule coloured people because of the many and
varied organizations which they maintain, but in this
connection they should keep in mind that the Negro
is accorded but little share in our Government. But
few vote and almost none hold office. He is not even
permitted to sweep the streets in many cities,
because this is considered a political job, so he
organizes his secret societies, shrouded often in
mystery - the more mysterious the more popular -
and sometimes it is true that he will neglect
important duties to go to his lodge; as a
consequence of which many people are inclined to
become impatient with him. But the employers of
these people should keep in mind the fact that in
these lodges as well as other organizations they have
their officers, their president or "Grand Master," or
perhaps "Noble Grand," their
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secretary or "Worthy Scribe" and other officials; that
they have a regular order of procedure and each
member has the chance to vote and also to hold office.
Parliamentary usage is discussed and followed as far
as their knowledge goes. One not familiar with these
organizations would be surprised to find how accurate
often is the knowledge of Jefferson's and Cushing's
manuals and how closely the procedure of Congress is
followed in the proceedings of these sometimes very
primitive bodies. I dare say that frequently too much
time is spent on points of order and other
technicalities of procedure, but all of this, we must
remember, contributes to the race an important
training in the development of social habits and is in
effect an effort - crude perhaps and sometimes
amusing, but nevertheless earnest - on the part of a
cramped people to express themselves in terms of
democracy.
In view then of the existence of so many
organizations, it seemed an unwise undertaking to
start a new organization that had nothing concrete to
offer. It would not be a church or a business. It
would not "take care of the sick or bury the dead,"
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as was true of secret societies. The idea was to
organize Negroes for their own betterment, to
combine some of the energy that was going into
various things into one movement for the
development of the entire community. So it
occurred to some of us that it would not be an
unwise move to "organize the organizations," which
we proceeded to do, and called it "The Negro
Organization Society of Virginia." Our object was to
experiment in our own state and if it proved to be the
success we hoped, it would of its own momentum
spread into other states. The motto was: "Better
Schools, Better Health, Better Homes, Better
Farms." This seemed to be a platform broad enough
to take in all organizations of whatever kind or
character. A great many organizations as well as
individuals accepted the movement with enthusiasm.
We elected Prof. J. M. Gandy, of the Virginia
Normal and Industrial Institute at Petersburg,
executive secretary, with more than the usual quota
of vice-presidents and members of the Executive
Board. For the first year we proposed a "Clean-up
Week" for the entire state of Virginia, and with the
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endorsement of Governor Mann and the State Board
of Health, as well as the State Board of Charities,
we launched a health campaign.
I need not mention here that in many places the
white people, men and women, as well as the civic
authorities throughout the state, coöperated with the
coloured people in this movement, giving prizes for
the cleanest homes, stables, and backyards, and
putting carts and wagons at the disposal of the
coloured committees. It was said, when the
campaign was over, that Virginia was never so clean
in all of its history as on that Saturday night in April,
1913. We had asked every coloured minister in the
state to preach a special sermon on Health on the
Sabbath preceding, and sent out literature, including
circulars and statistics which we ourselves prepared
and the State Board of Health published; so that we
had not only a clean state, but a very much more
intelligent state, especially along lines of sanitation
and health.
The next year, as a feature of the same sort of
compaigns, we set out to raise three thousand
dollars to buy a farm upon which we were given to
understand
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understand the state would establish a sanitarium for
Negro consumptives. We had discovered in Virginia,
what was also true of other Southern states, that
while there were several sanitaria for the treatment
of white consumptives, the only two places in the
state where Negroes could be treated for
tuberculosis were the state prison at Richmond and
the insane asylum at Petersburg; so that a coloured
consumptive in order to receive treatment in any
institution in Virginia, public or private, had either to
be a convict or insane. We used this argument most
effectively in our campaign for funds among
coloured and white, particularly among whites.
The white people, led by such people as Dr. J. T.
Mastin, secretary of the State Board of Charities,
and Miss Agnes Randolph, a member of one of
Virginia's leading families and secretary of the Anti-
tuberculosis Society of the state, were aroused as
never before to the appalling need of attention to the
situation. It was pointed out that the ratio of
coloured to white consumptives was something like
three to one, and inasmuch as Negroes cooked the
food, washed the clothing, nursed the children, and
did the house cleaning for a great many of
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the white people of the state, the Negro
consumptives among them ought to have a chance
for treatment, if for no higher reason than to protect
the whites themselves. The white people, as well as
the coloured, learned their lesson and, led by Miss
Randolph and encouraged by Dr. E. G. Williams,
chairman of the State Board of Health, the matter
was brought before the State Legislature which
readily appropriated sufficient money to erect
suitable buildings on the farm which had been
secured by the Negro Organization Society.
At our first annual meeting in Richmond Doctor
Washington was invited to deliver the principal
address, which he did then and continued to do at all
subsequent meetings up to his death. He was very
much interested in this organization and thought it
would be a good thing to nationalize it; so at the last
meeting of the National Negro Business League,
over which he presided in Boston a few months
before his death, I spoke at his request on
nationalizing the Negro Organization Society. I was
never, however, enthusiastic about having a national
organization, for the reason that
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I was not sure it had in it all the possibilities that
many other people thought it contained.
To our annual meetings people frequently came
from other states without invitation, to study its
operations with a view to introducing it in their own
states. It was gratifying that there were few
organizations in Virginia that did not join the
movement. Some few ministers, Baptists, felt they
could not affiliate their churches with anything
except an ecclesiastical organization; but at the
same time they put themselves down as coöperating
or contributing members and instead of paying the
stipulated membership fee of five dollars, they took
up a yearly collection for the society, which
sometimes amounted to as much as fifty dollars.
Since then the Organization Society of Virginia has
grown and prospered most successfully with Major
Allen Washington, my successor as commandant at
Hampton Institute, as president. When I left the
state, I could not continue as president of the
organization, but have maintained my connection
with the movement as honorary president. During
the war it proved its usefulness as the organization
through which all of the
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various war movements in the state operated among
coloured people - Thrift Stamps, Food
Conservation, Liberty Bonds, and all the rest. While
this movement in Virginia has done much along the
lines of its motto, its most significant
accomplishment in my opinion has been the
bringing together, as no other movement up to this
time had done, of the various elements of the
coloured population of the state, such as
Methodists, Baptists, Masons, Oddfellows, and
scores of other social groups, into a combined
effort for the general good.
As Bishop L. J. Coppin of the African Methodist
Episcopal Church remarked in one of his
conferences regarding the Organization Society: "It
is a good thing for any one of my churches to share
in a movement that is working, not merely for
Methodists or Baptists, but for the highest
development of all humanity."
But aside from bringing the coloured people
together, what is of equal importance with this is the
fact that the Negro Organization Society succeeded
in establishing a platform upon which both the white
people and the coloured people could work together
for the good of all the people. Leading
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white citizens united with the leaders of our own
race, and met frequently to discuss the needs of the
situation, such as law enforcement, housing,
schools, health conditions, and other topics. White
and coloured women discussed the servant-girl
problem, the protection of girls in domestic service,
the importance of making adequate provision for
bathing and sleeping in order to secure reliable help,
and many other matters affecting the relations of the
two races. I am inclined to the belief that Virginia is
probably the best-organized state in the Union so far
as race relationships are concerned, and,
furthermore I do not think that I claim too much
when I say that it is largely due to the effective work
of this unique organization.
A short time before the beginning of the Negro
Organization Society some of the leading coloured
people in Oklahoma conceived the idea that it would
be very helpful if Doctor Washington would make a
tour of that state, talking to white and coloured
people, with reference primarily to race
relationships. At that time racial bitterness in
Oklahoma was strong, because the state was rapidly
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growing very prosperous, the coloured people as
well as the white accumulating considerable
valuable property, thus making competition in
business very keen, and creating more or less racial
antagonism. In view of these circumstances certain
coloured men of the state arranged this trip, and
Doctor Washington invited me among others to
accompany him. It happened, however, that I was
unfortunately unable to leave Hampton at that time.
When I saw Doctor Washington in New York a few
weeks after his return from Oklahoma, he was very
enthusiastic over the trip, not because of the crowds
so much as over the spirit in which they had
accepted his very plain advice to both coloured and
white citizens.
Because of the success of this trip, a number of
prominent coloured men of Mississippi - among
them Mr. Charles Banks and Mr. Isaiah T.
Montgomery of Mound Bayou, a unique Negro town
in Mississippi, Mr. E. P. Simmons, Mr. Perry
Howard, a leading lawyer of Jackson, and others -
arranged for Doctor Washington to make a similar
trip through their state. He again invited
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me and this time I was able to go. It was the
most wonderful experience of its kind I had up to
that time ever had. Crowds of people met Doctor
Washington at every place. We spent a week,
beginning at Holly Springs and going to most of the
important cities in the state. White and coloured
vied with each other to make the trip successful. We
had a private car, in which the fifteen or twenty men
of Doctor Washington's party rode. We frequently
slept in the car at night, especially if we had to make
an early morning start to fill some engagement.
There were whisperings to the effect that a certain
element of white people of Mississippi would not
permit Negroes to ride in Pullman cars in that state,
but no one took it very seriously. Mr. Banks, who
managed the tour, kept in touch everywhere with the
authorities, and the railroad officials were
continually on the alert. There was not, however, the
slightest semblance of trouble anywhere.
At Jackson, a rumour was afloat that our car
would be blown up that night after we had gone to
bed. Doctor Washington and the rest of us were
advised not to remain on the car, and to
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change our schedule, but some of the city and
railroad officials heard of these rumours and
without our knowledge saw to it that the car was
guarded by private detectives throughout the night.
Our first intimation of this came to us from a
railroad official the next morning as we were about
to leave Jackson for our next appointment. He also
told us, what we believed from the first, that there
was no foundation whatever for the rumour.
A reference to this trip which appeared in the
Southern Workman shortly thereafter reflects the
impression which was made upon me at that time:
What surprised me most in this experience was that I did
not find the coloured people in Mississippi nearly so badly
off as I expected. The newspapers give a great deal of
space to the bad things. They tell you of the mean things
that are sometimes said in Mississippi - that the whites
have no business to allow Booker Washington to hold
meetings in the state - that Washington is a menace, etc.,
etc. But you seldom hear from them how ex-governors and
mayors, ministers and bishops, professional and business
men, Southern white men and women lent their presence at
his meetings and expressed their approval of what he said
and did.
Mr. Washington stated some very striking truths.
Governor Vardaman, and anybody else, may talk, but the
white people are not fools and they know that the coloured
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man has the labour of the South in his own hands and that
he needs to be educated and developed, made physically and
morally clean for the good of all the country. Said Mr.
Washington: "It is often said that the destiny of the Negro is
in the hands of the Southern whites. I can tell you that the
reverse is also true - the destiny of the Southern white race
is largely dependent on the Negro. In every Southern white
home the food is prepared by Negro women. Your health,
your very life, depends on their knowing how to prepare it.
Far more than that - the white youth of the South are being
trained in their most tender years by Negro girls. It is of the
first importance - to you - that these should be women of
clean character." When he told them these plain truths the
white people accepted them with applause. He said: "You
can't have smallpox in the Negro's home and nowhere else.
You need to see that the cabin is clean or disease will invade
the mansion. Disease draws no colour line." The white
people saw the point when Mr. Washington said these
things. and when he told them that the education of the
Negro is needed for their sakes as well as for his own, it
was without doubt convincing. I have never felt more
hopeful and encouraged about my people than I have since
my trip through Mississippi.
From that time until his death Doctor Washington
continued to make similar trips in other states with
the same results. These tours covered Virginia,
North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Delaware,
Tennessee, Texas, and part of Arkansas.
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The last trip was made in Louisiana in April of
1915 and Doctor Washington looked forward also
to going through Maryland and Georgia. He was kind
enough to insist upon my accompanying him on all
of these trips. He, of course, was the principal
speaker, in fact the only speaker, except in so far as
some of us would say a few words at the beginning.
He was always pleased to have the large audiences
led in singing Negro melodies, which part I usually
undertook. I do not think I ever had such a sensation
as we experienced at Ocala, Florida, where he was
greeted by probably twenty thousand people at the
Fair Grounds. Just before Doctor Washington was
presented to the audience by Judge W. S. Bullock of
Ocala, he asked me to lead them in singing, "In
Bright Mansions Above"; and when we were all
singing, the white people unconsciously joining in, a
woman of an East Indian cast of features, but coal
black and wearing a shawl of oriental colours, rose
in the audience and with an exceedingly melodious
voice sang with great fervour above all the rest, at
the same time waving her red shawl with the rhythm
of the music. The entire audience, even to dignified
Page 184
judges, began swaying with the motion of this
wonderful singing - and everyone sang. As we say
in our more primitive churches, everybody was truly
"happy." Certainly I never heard such singing in all of
my experience. It seemed that everyone was swept
along with the emotional current of the moment. I
had to stop the singing for fear the swaying of
bodies and patting of feet by the thousands of people
on the grand stand would break it down, perhaps with
injury to many and great loss of life. When Doctor
Washington rose to speak it was plainly evident that
he was deeply affected. I had heard him deliver
hundreds of addresses and had listened to him a
score or more times on this trip, but for an hour and
a half he held the audience absolutely within his
grasp and he kept the same rapt attention that had
been inspired by the music from the beginning of his
address to the end. He told the coloured people in
his very effective way of the duty they owed to their
white neighbours as well as to their own race,
touching upon the importance of industry, thrift, and
morality, as was his custom; and then he turned to
the thousand or more
Page 185
white people and told of their duty toward the
coloured people, producing such an effect on the
audience as is altogether impossible to describe.
One white lady in describing his address for a
Southern paper said that he spoke with such force
and vigour that she thought he might be stricken
with apoplexy at any moment, and that his sincerity
and earnestness were irresistible, adding
that she had never experienced such sensations in
all her life. Then she said, "Suppose he had died?
What difference would it have made? For he
could never hope to deliver a better address, or do
it more effectively than he did this one, nor could
he ever create a stronger or deeper impression on
any audience." For the moment, indeed, he
seemed almost transfigured, and the audience with
him. I recall several times in Louisiana when his
physical strength had waned considerably and
when he was perceptibly losing his energy and
vigour that nevertheless the same impressions
and emotional sensations were created as those
experienced at Ocala; and, except for the absence
of the extraordinary excitement produced by the
woman leading the singing and waving her shawl,
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Doctor Washington spoke with as much vigour and
with as telling effect upon his audiences.
I am glad I had the rare chance, not only of seeing
at first hand the actual conditions among my own
race and the relationships existing between the races
in these various states in the South, but of being with
Doctor Washington for many days at a time in close,
intimate, personal contact. I am glad to have had the
chance of seeing how he handled delicate situations
and his wonderful poise throughout. I had been with
him in scores of places in the North where he spoke
to Northern audiences, and had been with him in his
own home and mine; for I had been married again -
this time to Miss Jennie D. Booth, a graduate of
Hampton who, for some years previous to our
marriage, had been a teacher in the Whittier Training
School at Hampton Institute. Often we talked late
into the night on Hampton and Tuskegee and the
general situation as affecting the Negro, but nothing
in all my contact with him impressed me so much as
these occasions when he courageously pleaded the
cause of human brotherhood in the section of his
country to which he had dedicated his life.
Page 187
One of the greatest privileges of my connection
with Hampton was the unusual opportunity that came
to me of touching many and varied phases of its
work. Having the direct responsibility for the
discipline and military instruction of the young men,
Negro and Indian; having a share in the admission of
students to the Institute, adjusting, as far as my
limited ability went, the relations between the
school and its coloured constituency; interpreting,
to the best of my knowledge; the South to the North
and the North to the South; substituting frequently
for Doctor Frissell in his absence from his Sunday-
School class, composed of Post-graduates and
Seniors; and leading and interpreting, as a layman in
music, the plantation melodies, or religious folk
songs of my people; as well as helping the Institute
in its Northern campaigns for funds and its Southern
extension work - all of this gave me a training and
experience the value of which it is impossible for
me to over-estimate.
Page 188
CHAPTER IX
FROM HAMPTON TO TUSKEGEE
IN 1915 the annual meeting of the Negro
Organization Society was held in Petersburg, and
Doctor Washington had as usual planned to attend
and had promised to deliver the annual address for
the occasion. It was a great disappointment to us all
to receive a telegram from him stating that his
health would not permit him to be present. Doctor
Frissell, who was with Doctor Washington in New
York, came on to Petersburg and explained how
serious his condition was. He was then in St. Luke's
Hospital, New York. Ex-Governor William H. Mann
of Virginia, with whom Doctor Washington was to
have spoken, delivered a strong address, in which he
paid high tribute to the distinguished leader of the
Negro race, whom, he said, he was glad to place in
the column of Virginia's most distinguished sons.
A few days later I received a telegram from
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Doctor Washington asking me to come to New York
on my way to Detroit and Chicago where I was to fill
some engagements in the interest of Hampton
Institute. I reached New York on Thursday, going
directly to the home of Dr. E. P. Roberts, one of our
leading physicians who, with his brother, Dr. Charles
H. Roberts, a dentist of the city, was a warm
personal friend of Doctor Washington as well as
myself. Doctor Roberts had accompanied Doctor
Washington to the hospital and was well acquainted
with his condition. He informed me that the
probabilities were that Doctor Washington would
not be with us much longer. I communicated with St.
Luke's Hospital and Mrs. Washington answered that
her husband was anxious to see me. Going
immediately to the hospital I found him in bed, but
to me he did not seem as ill as I had expected to find
him. His mind was as clear as ever and I somehow
felt that a few weeks of rest would put him in shape
for the performance of his usual duties. On many
previous occasions I had seen him in much worse
condition apparently than he appeared to be at this
time. I recalled, for instance, that at Tampa, Florida,
Dr.
Page 190
J. A. Kenney, the resident physician at Tuskegee, and
Dr. George C. Hall, one of our prominent surgeons
and another close friend of Doctor Washington,
spent the entire night with him and it seemed to me,
who occupied an adjoining room, that he could not
live through the night. The next day, however, we
visited the Robert Hungerford School, founded by
Mr. R. C. Calhoun, a Tuskegee graduate, in which
Doctor Washington and all Tuskegeeans had and still
have a pardonable pride; and here, as well as at
Lakeland, Florida, he spoke with as much vigour and
as effectively as I had ever known him to speak; and
that very morning, while waiting for the meeting at
Lakeland, we went fishing on a near-by lake, with
Doctor Washington the most enthusiastic angler. To
all appearances, he was in better condition than
those of us who had not been ill. I recall the frequent
surprise of Mr. Emmett J. Scott and the two
physicians as well as of the rest of us at the
apparently excellent condition in which we found
Doctor Washington on the days following these
sleepless nights.
In our conversation at St. Luke's Hospital, Doctor
Washington did not refer to himself, except incidentally
Page 191
He did discuss Tuskegee in many phases
and told me that Mr. Rosenwald was due at Tuskegee
that very day and how disappointed he was that he
could not be present to welcome him. I recall how
warmly he spoke of Mr. Rosenwald's personal
kindness to him, and of what he meant to the Negro
race, through the Y. M. C. A., and to the rural school
building programme which was just then beginning
to get under way at Tuskegee Institute.
At his request I called on Mr. William G.
Willcox, a member of the Board of Trustees of
Tuskegee, to discuss with him some matters
touching the affairs of the Institute, and while I
expressed my hopes for Doctor Washington's
ultimate recovery, Mr. Willcox, knowing of course
what the physicians had said, was not hopeful. He
discussed with me somewhat the future of the
Institute, asking who I thought would be the best
man to take up the work in case the worst should
happen to Doctor Washington. I mentioned two of
the workers at the Institute, of whom I spoke very
strongly. He made no reference to me personally.
He went into some detail as to what I thought ought
to be done
Page 192
in the Institute with its farm, trades, and courses of
study. I gave him, of course, an off-hand opinion. He
discussed various matters and was quite familiar
with the general workings of the Institute. In our
conversation Mr. Willcox made mention of no one
as a possible successor to Doctor Washington. As
for myself, I thought Doctor Washington, if he did
not wholly recover, would be sufficiently vigorous
to continue the work for many years to come by
giving up perhaps some of the more strenuous
phases of it. While still in conversation with Mr.
Willcox there was a telephone call from the
hospital. Mrs. Washington informed me that Doctor
Washington was very anxious to have me come back
to the hospital before going to the train that night. I
went back and spent the rest of the afternoon till
train time with him and Mrs. Washington. He was
very solicitous about Doctor Frissell, who at the
time was not very well, having already undergone a
second operation. Doctor Washington and I knew of
Doctor Frissell's condition and I recall Doctor
Washington's saying, "What will the race do without
Doctor Frissell?" He
Page 193
remarked that Hampton itself would be all right, but
he was thinking of the larger work of Hampton, the
various phases of life in our country touching the
races, which Doctor Frissell so effectively served. I
agreed with his suggestion that he should return to
Tuskegee as soon as possible. I thought that amid
familiar surroundings he would recuperate much
more rapidly, as had been true of Doctor Frissell a
few months before, when, against the advice of his
physician but in response to the wishes of friends,
he had gone back to Hampton, which proved to be
very wise on his part. Doctor Kenney and Doctor
Roberts, as well as the staff physicians of the
hospital, held out no hope, but I somehow could not
bring myself to believe that the end was so near.
This was on Thursday afternoon and I left that
evening for Detroit.
On the following Sunday I received a telegram to
the effect that Doctor Washington had passed away
at Tuskegee. The fact dawned upon me with a
peculiar sense of personal loss such as I had never
before experienced in the death of any man, not
even in the case of my own father. The coloured
people generally throughout the entire country
Page 194
had much the same feeling. Observing then as I rode
on the train the next day on my way to Tuskegee, I
was impressed by the air of depression which
pervaded every group. There was a noticeable
absence of the usual mirth and lightheartedness
generally so characteristic of them. I have never
known anything to impress the coloured people so
profoundly as did the passing of Doctor Washington.
I had often heard that when the word came that
President Lincoln had been shot the coloured people
went about as if they had lost the dearest member of
their immediate family, and that this feeling was
largely shared by white people as well, especially
the older ones. This same attitude seemed to prevail
among the coloured people at the passing of Doctor
Washington.
I found on reaching the Institute that it was Mrs.
Washington's wish, in keeping with the spirit of
Doctor Washington himself, that the funeral service
should be very simple, that there should be no
addresses or funeral orations, just a simple service,
with the singing of plantation melodies and some of
his favourite hymns.
As a part of this service, Doctor Frissell, who
had
Page 195
been one of Doctor Washington's early teachers,
offered prayer. The following passages taken from
it reveal its beautiful spirit and touching sympathy:
"Thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory."...
We thank Thee for thy servant whom thou hast called home
- for his life of faith; that he endured as seeing him who is
invisible; that like Thy servant of old he chose to share ill
treatment with the people of God rather than enjoy the pleasures of
sin for a season; that he counted the reproach of Christ greater
riches than the treasures of Egypt; that he looked unto the
recompense of the reward.
We thank Thee for the life of love that he lived; that no man,
white or black, North or South, could drag him down so low as to
make him hate him. And that he taught men everywhere to love
one another; that he preached the gospel of peace and good will.
We thank Thee for his life of meekness, that his life was one of
humility; that he did not think of himself more highly than he
ought to think. And we thank Thee for the inheritance that was his
because of his meekness. We thank Thee that he did inherit the
earth.
We thank Thee for his loving friends, for his devoted coworkers
and pupils, for this great school. We thank Thee for his life of
service; that he made blind eyes to see; that he, like his Master,
made lame men to walk; that he, too, brought liberty to the
captives. We thank Thee for the thousands of better homes and
farms that he made possible. We thank Thee for the better schools
and churches. We thank Thee for the thousands of purer and
better lives which he helped to create.
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And now we dedicate ourselves anew to the work to
which Thy servant gave his life. Help us to realize the high
and holy calling that was his and is ours. Help us that we
may carry on the work to which he gave his life.
Support us all the day long of this troublous life until the
shadows lengthen and the evening comes and the busy
world is hushed and the fever of life is over and our work is
done. Then in Thy mercy grant us a safe lodging and a holy
rest and peace at last with Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
Following this prayer, offered by a man whose
own days were numbered - as a few of us knew at
the time - about a man to whom he had given his
entire confidence and for whom he had the most
affectionate regard, a former pupil of his, all
depression was dispelled and the great audience
seemed to get a new vision of what Doctor
Washington's life had meant and to feel that its end
was indeed a victory.
After the funeral ceremonies the Hampton
graduates at Tuskegee, following their usual custom,
asked to have Doctor Frissell meet them informally
later at the home of one of their number. In the
course of the evening Doctor Frissell called me
aside and remarked: "It appears you will have to
leave Hampton and come to Tuskegee." Now
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it was in May of the same year that Doctor Frissell,
as he was leaving Hampton to go to New York for
his second operation, had called me into his office
the afternoon before his departure and asked me
if I would promise him that I would remain permanently
at Hampton Institute. I told him that
I would. He had spoken of his own condition,
saying that while his health was in better shape,
so the doctor said, and he felt better than when he
had been operated on two years before, yet he was
not sure what the outcome would be and that if I
would promise to remain at Hampton, whatever
happened, he would feel very happy. Of course,
it was not difficult to promise this because it was
wholly in keeping with what I had planned. After
twenty-six years as a worker I had rather settled
down to the life and work there. I was enjoying
my work and was especially interested in the development
of the extension department in connection
with the Negro Organization Society.
Doctor Frissell had permitted me to give as much
time as I wished to it, and I had taken on an
other assistant in my work in the Institute in
order that I might devote more of my time to
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extension activities in both North and South. I
reminded him of that promise made a few months
before. He said, "Yes, and I am loath to have you
break that promise, but it looks now as if you will
have to take this work. There will be a great protest
at Hampton about your leaving, but you and I will
have to face it. Hampton has never refused to give to
Tuskegee anything that it had, and if you are asked to
take this work, as I am afraid now that you will be,
there is nothing else for us to do but consent."
On the 14th of December, 1915 at the request of
Mr. Seth Low, chairman, I joined the Trustees' party
as they were returning from Tuskegee after their
meeting following the memorial exercises and rode
with them from Charlotteville
to Washington. In the
party were Mr. Seth Low, Colonel Roosevelt, Mr.
William G. Willcox, Mr. Frank Trumbull, Mr.
William M. Scott of Philadelphia, and Mr. Charles
E. Mason of Boston. They informed me that my
name was under consideration as Doctor
Washington's successor at Tuskegee Institute. I told
them of my general attitude toward the matter. I told
them of Doctor Frissell's condition and of my
obligation to
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him and Hampton. They did not comment on what I
had to say but asked a great many questions about
various matters affecting Tuskegee. This was
especially true of Colonel Roosevelt who the next
day sent to one of the Trustees who was not present
at the meeting on the train a letter containing the
following excerpt describing his own attitude in the
situation, a copy of which letter he later sent to me:
We all of us ardently wish you had been with us on the
train when we saw Major Moton. . . . I am more impressed
than I can well express with Major Moton. It is the greatest
relief to me to say that I believe that if he is appointed we
insure for ourselves every reasonable probability of success
in carrying on the great work of Booker T. Washington. I
believe that he can run the institution. I believe that he will
get on with the Southern people as well as any Negro now
living - I bar Booker T. Washington because he was a
genius such as does not arise in a generation. I believe that
he will get on with Northern white men and be able to help
us in getting the necessary funds. He has a very powerful
and at the same time an engaging and attractive personality.
I cannot speak too strongly about the favourable impression
he has made on me. Finally I believe that he will be able to
wisely interpret the feelings and desires of his own people to
the white people of both the North and the South.
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The vice-chairman of the Board of Trustees and
president of the Macon County Bank, Mr. W. W.
Campbell, who through his father had known and
been interested in the school from its beginning, and
two other of the local trustees, a prominent lawyer,
Mr. C. W. Hare, and a successful coloured merchant,
Mr. A. J. Wilborn, as well as others, were particularly
anxious that the man who should succeed Doctor
Washington should have the right attitude toward
both races. During the week of the 13th to the 20th of
December, Mr. Campbell, I afterward learned, being
a member of the committee of five appointed by the
board with power to select a principal, without the
knowledge of any one, so far as I know, made a trip
to Virginia to find out at first hand what the people of
that state thought of the man proposed for the
principalship. He visited Danville, Lynchburg, and
other places; talked with the president of the
University of Virginia and on the streets with many
men, white and black; and then proceeded to
Richmond and Hampton. He conversed much with
the people of Hampton, among them Judge C. W.
Robinson, judge of the circuit court, who afterward
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said that, while he was a truthful man, he was
tempted on this particular occasion to tell Mr.
Campbell that he did not think I would in any sense
do, owing to his reluctance to have me leave
Virginia. After he questioned many people in the
town of Hampton, Mr. Campbell came over to the
Institute to call on Doctor Frissell on Sunday
afternoon. He and Doctor Frissell had a conference
of perhaps an hour, into which they later invited me.
He announced frankly the purpose of his visit but
said very little regarding what he had discovered or
the impression that had been made upon him. I had
been asked to meet the committee the
following day in the office of Mr. Frank Trumbull at 71
Broadway. I met the committee, composed of Mr.
Seth Low, Mr. Frank Trumbull, Mr. Edgar A.
Bancroft, Mr. Campbell, and Mr. V. H. Tulane, the
last mentioned a prominent coloured business man
of Montgomery, Alabama. At the close of the
meeting Mr. Campbell assured me that all he had
heard in Virginia was satisfactory.
The outcome of it all was that I was asked to take
the work. I knew the difficulties that I would have to
face, not only at the Institute itself but in the
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country generally. I had lived a sort of independent
life at Hampton and I felt, of course, that I was
accomplishing some good, and while I was in no
sense lacking in appreciation of the honour and the
opportunity offered by the work of the Tuskegee
Institute, I had no particular enthusiasm about giving
up the life and work at Hampton. I knew, too, of
Doctor Frissell's condition. I knew, as very few
knew outside of his immediate family, the character
of his malady and that he probably would not live
much more than twelve months longer, and while he
had released me from my promise, nevertheless I
felt a deep obligation both to him and to Hampton.
Mrs. Moton - along with many of my intimate
friends North and South - shared this feeling very
strongly, but after canvassing the situation most
carefully, Mrs. Moton and I concluded that there
was nothing else for me to do but accept. To enter
upon the varied and delicate responsibilities growing
out of Doctor Washington's life work was not to be
lightly undertaken, and I confess that I would have
had many and even more serious misgivings about
many things, in spite of the assurances of Tuskegee's
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Trustees and of many of my own friends, had it not
been for the kind and generous encouragement of
Doctor Washington himself, given at a time when
neither of us contemplated even remotely any
possible significance and value that might attach to
his statements as he set them forth in his book, "My
Larger Education," from which I quote:
It has been my privilege to come into contact with many
different types of people, but I know few men who are so
lovable and at the same time so sensible in their nature as
Major Moton. He is chock-full of common sense. Further
than that, he is a man who, without obtruding himself and
without your knowing how he does it, makes you believe in
him from the very first time you see him and from your first
contact with him, and at the same time makes you love him.
He is the kind of man in whose company I always feel like
being, never tire of, always want to be around him, or
always want to be near him. Although he has little schooling
outside of what he was able to get at Hampton Institute,
Major Moton is one of the best-read men and one of the
most interesting men to talk with I have ever met. Education
has not "spoiled" him, as it seems to have done in the case of
some other educated Negroes. It has not embittered or
narrowed him in his affections. He has not learned to hate
or distrust any class of people, and he is just as ready to
assist and show kindness to a white man as to a black man,
to a Southerner as to a Northerner.
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My acquaintance with Major Moton began, as I remember,
after he had graduated at Hampton Institute and while he was
employed there as a teacher. He had at that time the position that I
once occupied in charge of the Indian students. Later he was given
the very responsible position of Commandant of Cadets, in which
he has charge of the discipline of all the students. In this position
he has an opportunity to exert a very direct and personal influence
upon the members of the student body and, what is especially
important, to prepare them to meet the peculiar difficulties that
await them when they go out in the world to begin life for
themselves.
It has always seemed to me very fortunate that Hampton
Institute should have had in the position which Major Moton
occupies a man of such kindly good humour, thorough self control,
and sympathetic disposition.
Major Moton knows by intuition Northern white people and
Southern white people. I have often heard the remark made that
the Southern white man knows more about the Negro in the South
than anybody else. I will not stop here to debate that question, but
I will add that coloured men like Major Moton know more about
the Southern white men than anybody else.
At Hampton Institute, for example, they have white teachers and
coloured teachers; they have Southern white people and Northern
white people; besides, they have coloured students and Indian
students. Major Moton knows how to keep his hands on all these
different elements, to see to it that friction is kept down, and that
each works in harmony with
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the other. It is a difficult job, but Major Moton knows how
to negotiate it.
This thorough understanding of both races which Major Moton
possesses has enabled him to give his students just the sort of
practical and helpful advice and counsel that no white man who
has not himself faced the peculiar conditions of the Negro could
be able to give.
I think it would do anyone good to attend one of Major
Moton's Sunday-School classes when he is explaining to his
students, in the very practical way which he knows how to use, the
mistake of students allowing themselves to be embittered by
injustice or degraded by calumny and abuse with which every
coloured man must expect to meet at one time or another. Very likely
he will follow up what he has to say on this subject by some very apt
illustration from his own experience or from that of some of his
acquaintances, which will show how much easier and simpler it is to
meet prejudice with sympathy and understanding than with hatred;
to remember that the man who abuses you because of your race
probably hasn't the slightest knowledge of you personally, and, nine
times out of ten, if you simply refuse to feel injured by what he says,
will feel ashamed of himself later.
I have seen Major Moton in a good many trying situations in
which an ordinary man would have lost his head, but I have never
seen him when he seemed to feel the least degraded or humiliated.
I have learned from Major Moton that one need not belong to a
superior race to be a gentleman.
It has been through contact with men like Major Moton -
clean, wholesome, high-souled gentlemen under black skins -
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that I have received a kind of education no books could impart.
Whatever disadvantages one may suffer from being a part of what
is called an "inferior race," a member of such a race has the
advantage of not feeling compelled to go through the world, as
some members of others races do, proclaiming their superiority
from the housetops. There are some people in this world who
would feel lonesome, and they are not all of them white people
either, if they did not have someone to whom they could claim
superiority.
Immediately after my election I was asked by the
Trustees of Tuskegee Institute to devote the next
few months to helping them raise a fund of $2,000,000
which they were asking of the public as a memorial
to Doctor Washington. I could not undertake the
work immediately, because of a number of speaking
engagements with Hampton which were to last until
the early part of February, at which time I entered
actively into the effort of raising the Memorial
Fund.
In the meantime, I went down to Tuskegee during
the Christmas holidays and remained over New
Year's Day looking into things and getting
acquainted as far as I could with the situation; for,
while I had visited Tuskegee once or twice a year
for many years, and had looked into the work many
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times, it had never occurred to me that I would ever
work at Tuskegee, to say nothing of having the
responsibility for all its activities. I met the heads
of the various departments in an unofficial way,
talked over their work and plans, and met and talked
with many of the other workers as well as students,
trying to get also some knowledge of the character
of the work that was being done in the trades and
industries as well as in the academic department.
In the interval between then and the 25th of May,
the time set for my inauguration, I had frequent
conferences with Mr. Seth Low, the chairman of the
Board, and could not but observe that he was not
very well and that each time I met him he seemed
weaker than on my previous visit. On a particular
day in April when I dropped in on my way to Boston
to see him, he turned to me with some emotion and
said he was very sorry that he would not be able to
be at Tuskegee for Commencement and the
inauguration. "I had looked forward," he said, "with a
great deal of pleasure and satisfaction to inducting
you into the principalship of Tuskegee Institute." No
one was more interested in the
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work at Tuskegee Institute or more anxious for its
future than Mr. Low. I recall how with some feeling
he advised me as to many phases of the work and
workers. I was surprised that he knew so much about
the individual workers, even as to their
temperaments. He was leaving that afternoon for
Broad Brook Farm, where he thought to spend the
summer and regain his health. I never saw him again,
though I kept in touch with him by correspondence
and through Mrs. Low and Mr. Trumbull more or
less regularly during the summer.
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CHAPTER X
AT TUSKEGEE
MANY friends, and newspapers, too, urged me to
make a statement with regard to my future work at
Tuskegee Institute. The people generally, especially
the Southern people, were anxious to know whether
there would be any change in the policies of the
Institute. Accordingly, I thought that the
inauguration at Tuskegee Institute would be an
appropriate occasion to set forth my attitude and
views concerning those phases of the work in which
the public was most interested. Of course I realized
that the hundreds of interested people who
assembled here for the Commencement and
inauguration came largely because of their interest
in Tuskegee Institute, and because they wanted to
see and hear the man who was to succeed Doctor
Washington. Mr. Low, the chairman, and Mr.
Campbell, the vice-president, were both away
because of illness, and Mr. William G. Willcox, a
member
Page 210
of the Board, presided in their stead. Among the
speakers for the occasion were His Excellency,
Governor Charles Henderson of Alabama, Doctor
Frissell of Hampton Institute, and President H. T.
Kealing of Western University, Quindaro, Kansas,
representing the South, the North, and the Negro,
and reflecting in their words the kindly interest of
the three elements upon whose coöperation the
Tuskegee Institute has been built up. My own
address, which follows, sets forth what had been
frequently and urgently requested of me from many
parts of the country:
COÖPERATION AND CONSECRATION
At a time when racial
misunderstandings and sectional strife,
resulting from the Civil War and subsequent reconstruction, had
reached an acute stage, when well-meaning men were trying to find
an adequate method of racial readjustment, a Southern white man,
and one who had strong Southern feelings, who saw the great
need of the Negro here in Alabama and the South, and who was
filled with an earnest desire to help him, wrote to a Northern white
man with equally as strong Northern feelings, inquiring if a
coloured man could be sent to Tuskegee to begin a work similar in
plan and purpose to that which had been started at Hampton - a
type of education which was at that time not only
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woefully misunderstood, but bitterly opposed by many of the
leading men of the Negro race.
On that day in July, 1881 when the modest, quiet, unassuming
young man, Booker T. Washington, reported with a letter from
General Armstrong, his former teacher, and was cordially received
and welcomed to this community by Mr. George W. Campbell,
then it was that a form of coöperation began, the scope and
effectiveness of which were destined to command the respect and
admiration, not only of this country, but also of the entire civilized
world. Here met the three elements - the North, the South, and the
Negro - the three elements that must be taken into account in any
genuinely satisfactory adjustment of race relations. It was natural
for white men to be considered as important factors in any and all
adjustments and problems, whether civic, business, educational,
or otherwise. Up to this time the Negro had usually been the
problem and not regarded as an element worthy of serious
consideration, so far as any first-hand contribution was concerned
that he could make toward the solution of any large social
question.
These two men, representing the two extremes of sectional
sentiment - Mr. Campbell, a former slave owner, the South; and
General Armstrong, a former officer in the Federal Army, the
North - both broad in sympathy and wise in judgment, and
entirely void of any selfish motives, both actuated by a sincere
desire to reunite the nation in spirit and purpose, as well as in law
and lineage, both patriotic American citizens - these two
gentlemen united their forces for the primary object of lifting the
burden of ignorance, and all the consequences
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resulting therefrom, in the South. Mr. Campbell wanted a
Negro to undertake the work, and General Armstrong knew of at
least one Negro, Booker Washington, who could do the work.
These three men, in a united purpose for the common good of
humanity, began a coöperation which has been strikingly
characteristic of Tuskegee Institute, and a coöperation vitally
necessary in the promotion of any successful work for the
permanent betterment of the Negro race in our country.
The Tuskegee School, from the very beginning, has had a moral
and material support and backing from Mr. Campbell and other
white people in this community, without which this institution
would have been impossible. No one knew and appreciated this
fact more than did Doctor Washington, and no one could have
been more grateful than he was for it. There were also coloured
men who stood by the founder of Tuskegee Institute in those
early days. In his autobiography, "Up From Slavery," Doctor
Washington fittingly says:
"In the midst of all the difficulties which I encountered in
getting the little school started, and since then through a period of
nineteen years, there are two men among all the many friends of
the school in Tuskegee upon whom I have depended constantly
for advice and guidance; and the success of the undertaking is
largely due to these men, from whom I have never sought
anything in vain. I mention them simply as types. One is a white
man and an ex-slaveholder, Mr. George W. Campbell; the other is a
black man and an ex-slave, Mr. Lewis Adams. I do not know two
men whose
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advice and judgment I would feel more like following in anything
that concerns the life and development of the school than that of
these two men."
Needless to say, Mr. Wright W. Campbell has stood by Doctor
Washington and the school with the same devotion and sacrifice
as did his noble father. I might mention also such men as Mr. Hare
and scores of the other white and coloured people in this county
and state who were also very kind, sympathetic, and generous in
those early days of the school, and I am glad to state that they are
equally as sympathetic to-day.
The experimental seed of this new coöperation which was
planted in 1881 by Mr. Campbell, and which during thirty-four
years was so wisely, patiently, and devotedly nurtured by Doctor
Washington, has grown into a substantial reality in successful
racial coöperation and helpfulness here at Tuskegee. It has far
exceeded the most sanguine expectations of our most hopeful
friends of fifty years ago.
This unselfish working together of the white and coloured races
was truly of very great importance, but it was of equal importance
to prove what was at that time very seriously doubted - whether
there could be developed within the Negro race any forceful,
unemotional, business-like, harmonious working together. This
was a mooted question, and one about which there was much real,
though often kindly and sympathetic, skepticism even among our
own people. Doctor Washington, believing as he always did, in
the possibilities of this race, set out to prove that Negroes could
work together and under Negro leadership, too, in educational as
well
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as in business organizations. The success which those who
compose the membership of the National Negro Business League,
as well as many others outside the League, have had, was to him a
reward of genuine satisfaction for his unfaltering faith in his
people.
While he always sought the advice, criticism, and help of the
white race, he drew the "colour line" when it came to the actual
work of the institution. How well he succeeded is too evident for
comment. These grounds and buildings, the consecrated lives and
work of the men and women whom he gathered about him, are
eloquent and convincing evidence of the wisdom of his course. I
think now of such workers as Mr. Lewis Adams, Mr. R. H.
Hamilton, and Mrs. Adela H. Logan, who, like our great leader,
"have conquered in the fight." We have with us still such faithful
workers as Mr. Warren Logan, Mr. John H. Washington, and Mr.
C. W. Greene, who were willing with Doctor Washington to bear
the "burden and heat" of those early days - these, with many
others of the pioneer, as well as the present-day workers, because
of their services and sacrifice, have made possible the Tuskegee
Institute of to-day, not merely the grounds and buildings, not
even this splendid body of students, but transcendingly more
significant and beautiful, they gave us the "Tuskegee
Spirit" - the spirit of coöperation and consecration.
That spirit was not and it could not be confined to this campus.
It is equally manifest in the lives and work of the thousands of
graduates and former students of the Institute such as Mr. William
J. Edwards, Mr. W. H. Holtzclaw, Mr. Edgar A.
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Long, and Miss Cornelia Bowen, who are but types of hundreds
of others. They, like our great teacher, are working earnestly to
bring about a clearer and better understanding between the races,
"hastening that far-off divine event toward which the whole
creation moves."
Doctor Washington's ideas of education appeared so simple, so
unconventional, and even so unacademic, so vastly different from
what had previously been expected of an educational institution,
that he was often misunderstood. His methods and motives were
candidly questioned in some quarters by some honest people,
especially by members of his own race. This feeling took such
form as would have discouraged and hampered an ordinary man,
but with Doctor Washington, who was truly a prophet and a seer,
such opposition served only as a spur to greater and more
persistent efforts.
When it was said that he did not approve of higher education
for the Negro, he was at that time giving employment here to more
Negroes with college training than any other single institution in
the land. The fact that he was a trustee of both Howard and Fisk
Universities shows that he was in accord with such work.
Education was to him the means only, and not the end. The end
was life - the life of the ignorant, poverty-stricken Negro who was
earnestly longing for a chance. Doctor Washington cared little
about the kind of education the Negro received, but he was
exceedingly anxious that it should be thorough and well-suited to
his reasonably immediate needs. The truth is, the need of industry
and skill, of honesty and efficiency, the lack of land and decent
homes, the imperative necessity for better methods
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of farming, together with a woeful lack of morality, which was
prevalent among many of the untrained millions of Negroes - all this
made such a strong appeal that any system of education which did
not offer immediate relief for these masses made comparatively little
impression on him.
Doctor Washington worked out a plan of education which showed that
the training of the hand should strengthen and supplement the mental
and moral activities, especially of those who were fitting
themselves for leadership. This system of all-round education for
larger service, which was so effectively carried on under his
direction, has been so productive of good results that it has
attracted the attention and respect of educators the world over.
He worked out here a system of correlation of work and study, of
industrial and academic instruction, as complete and as
satisfactory as could probably be found anywhere. Important and
satisfactory as this system was, however, the spirit back of it
was of infinitely greater importance. It was the spirit of
coöperation between the coloured workers in the school and
the white citizens outside of the school, and a consecration
for the relief of mankind everywhere, whether in Macon County,
the State of Alabama, or in the Nation.
No greater or more serious responsibility was ever placed upon
the Negro than is left us here at Tuskeegee. The importance of
the work and the gravity of the duty that has been assigned the
principal, the officers, and the teachers in forwarding this
work cannot be overestimated. But along with the responsibility
and difficulties we have a rare opportunity, one almost to be
envied-an opportunity to help in
Page 217
the solution of a great problem, the human problem of race,
not merely changing the mode of life and the ideals of a
race but of almost equal importance, changing the ideas of
other races regarding that race. Let us keep in mind the
fact that while the outlook was never more hopeful, the
Negro problem is not yet solved. True, there are many
people who thoroughly believe in Negro education, but we
must remember that there are also many honest, sincere
white people who are still doubtful as to the wisdom of
educating the coloured man. We can and we must convince
that class of people that Negro education from every point
of view is worth while. While there is great encouragement
in the fact that 70 per cent. of the Negro population can read
and write, it is not safe to assume that 70 per cent. of the
Negro race are really and truly educated. Our progress in
this country has been wonderful, and we have every reason
for rejoicing; but ignorance, shiftlessness, disease,
inefficiency, and crime are still prevalent among our people.
Colour and conduct still count in this question, but let us
remember, friends, that conduct counts a great deal more
than colour.
General Armstrong, Doctor Washington, and Doctor
Frissell, with the support and influence of such Southern
men as Mr. Campbell, have shown us the way out, have
shown us how these perplexing questions may be met and
solved. If we follow the course mapped out here, we shall
have the hearty coöperation and support of as distinguished,
as wise, as unselfish, and as devoted a body of men as is to
be found anywhere in this land. I refer to the Board of
Trustees of this institution. Not only so, but we will have
also the cordial
Page 218
help and sympathy of the white and coloured people of
this state, from His Excellency, Governor Henderson, and
Superintendent Feagin, both of whom honour this occasion
by their presence, down to the humblest citizen. This whole
country, too, will stand by us, if we are wise, sincere, and
unselfish. I repeat, our responsibility is tremendous, and our
opportunity is great. We should measure up to our
responsibilities and our opportunities, and we can do it. Not
by arrogant self-seeking; not by bluff, sham, or bombast; not
by flippant fault-finding; not by shrinking at difficulty, or
shirking duty; not by the cherishing of prejudice against white
men or black men can the Tuskegee Institute live and
prosper and serve.
In order that this institution shall continue to carry forward
the ideals of its great founder, in order that it shall not cease
to render large service to humankind, in order that we shall
keep the respect and confidence of the people of this land,
we must, first, every one of us - principal, officers, teachers,
graduates, and students - use every opportunity and strive in
every reasonable way to develop and strengthen between
white and black people, North and South, that unselfish
coöperation which has characterized the Tuskegee Institute
from its beginning. Second, we must patiently and
persistently and in the spirit of unselfish devotion, follow the
methods of education which in this school have been so
distinctive, so unique, and so helpful. Third, we must
consecrate and reconsecrate our lives to this work as
instruments in God's hands for the training of black men and
women for service, in whatever capacity, or in whatever
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locality they may find a human need. Fourth, there must be
no cantankerousness here - we must all work absolutely
together.
In his last talk from this platform, Doctor Washington
spoke on the value and importance of team-work. He urged
that officers, teachers, and students, in every department
and in every phase of the work, should cultivate, more than
ever before, team-work, emphasizing the necessity of this
vital essential of the school's success. If team-work, my
friends, was necessary in this school under the leadership of
Doctor Washington, how much more imperative the
necessity is now, inasmuch as we have not the help and
inspiration of his strong words and visible presence.
If we are to be true to this great and sacred trust; if we
are to carry out the aims and purposes of Booker T.
Washington, the founder of this institution, we must each
cherish and maintain the spirit which has always permeated
the life and work of this place - the spirit of self-
forgetfulness - the spirit of service and sacrifice - the
"Tuskegee Spirit" - the spirit of
coöperation and of consecration.
It is only in this spirit that the Tuskegee Normal and
Industrial Institute can continue to render service to our
people, to our state, to our country.
I cannot more fittingly or forcibly close these remarks
than with the use of the following words from Doctor
Washington's last Sunday evening talk:
"We want to have team-work," he said, "not only in the
direction to which I have referred, but most of all, highest of
all, we want to have team-work in our spiritual life, in our
religious life, in the prayer meetings, in the preaching
service,
Page 220
in every devotional exercise. We can get it by each one
forgetting his own personal ambitions, forgetting selfishness,
forgetting all that stands in the way of perfect team-work."
I was very pleasantly impressed on this occasion
by the deep and sympathetic interest of the alumni
of the Institute, which was indicated by the presence
of groups representing various classes which came
from many sections of the country. I recall among
others a special party from Chicago headed by Mr.
Claude A. Barnett of the class of 1906 which
brought, besides many alumni from that city, a large
number of distinguished coloured people from the
Northwest. It was also gratifying to have present on
this occasion a large party from Virginia, composed
largely of men and women with whom I had been
associated for many years in various movements
affecting the life and interests of the coloured
people of that state. I was very much surprised when,
in the midst of the exercises, President John M.
Gandy of Petersburg, in behalf of the group,
presented me with a loving cup in token of their
good wishes and esteem.
It was reassuring to receive in connection with
this event various letters and telegrams from men
Page 221
and women in the South, both white and coloured,
who gave me assurance of good will toward the work
of Tuskegee and cordial coöperation and support of
my own efforts in connection therewith. His
Excellency, Governor Charles Henderson, was
especially cordial in his welcome to the State of
Alabama and pledged his support and the continued
interest of the white and coloured people of the
state in the work being carried on at Tuskegee
Institute.
We have followed closely the policies of Doctor
Washington. There have of necessity been some
changes and some reorganization. This was to be
expected, but there have been fewer changes than
might have been expected under the circumstances.
Doctor Washington was a man unique in method as
well as personality. I had supposed that any one
succeeding him would find it necessary to devise
plans and methods better adapted to his own
capacities and temperament. The fact is, I soon
found that he had constructed a working
organization that was remarkably simple and equally
effective in its operations, an organization that
sometimes seemed to function as well in the absence
Page 222
of the principal as when he was present. It was
this, in fact, that enabled Doctor Washington and
enables the present principal to spend a
considerable part of his time away from the Institute
in securing the funds necessary to carry on the
work.
Among the first to greet me at the Institute was
Mr. J. H. Washington, the brother of Doctor
Washington and for many years General
Superintendent of Industries, who has had a great
deal to do with the physical development of the
Institute in all of its phases. He joined his brother a
few years after the work began and has ever since
given himself unreservedly to the interests of the
Institute. The confidence and devotion of the two
brothers was touchingly beautiful. He has recently
been obliged to give up active responsibility, but is
nevertheless just as much interested in every aspect
of the Institute's work. It is a pleasure and
benediction for teachers and students to see him
about the grounds, and his advice and counsel are
still found very valuable on many matters touching
the interests of the Institute.
During the interval between Doctor Washington's
Page 223
death and the inauguration of the new principal
the responsibilities of this post devolved
upon the vice-principal and treasurer, Mr. Warren
Logan. Mr. Logan came to the Institute at Mr.
Washington's invitation two years after Mr. Washington
himself came. He, like Mr. J. H. Washington,
was a graduate of Hampton Institute. Mr. Logan
had been teaching school in Maryland. He had
not been at the Institute long before the acute
financial needs which Mr. Washington continually
faced in the early years of the school led him to ask
Mr. Logan if he had any money. Mr. Logan
answered that he had seventy-five dollars, and
seventy-five dollars was a great deal in those days
in the hands of a coloured school teacher. It
represented, I think, Mr. Logan's savings for two
years. Doctor Washington forthwith borrowed
it and put it into the work of the Institute. Mr.
Logan through all these years has stood by the
school with the same spirit of self-sacrifice and, as
treasurer, has husbanded its finances in every
possible way. Doctor Washington once mentioned to
Doctor Frissell and myself that Tuskegee would
not have been possible had he not had the help
Page 224
of Mr. Logan. He has held about every position in
the school: treasurer, business manager, director of
the Academic Department, and almost from the
beginning has acted as principal in Doctor
Washington's absence. During the interim when he
served as acting principal the school went on with
its accustomed smoothness. The casual observer
would scarcely have known that Doctor Washington
himself was not living and present.
Long before the death of Doctor Washington I had
known of the great service of Mrs. Washington to
the Institute as Dean of Women, which began many
years before she became Mrs. Washington. She has
been a tremendous force in the development of the
school, sharing without reserve the many and
increasing burdens which the rapid growth of the
school made necessary. While her special work has
been the direction of girls' industries at Dorothy
Hall, she has been no less active and helpful in all of
the other workings of the organization. She has
stood by the work since her husband's death as she
had done before, with a loyalty and devotion to the
best interests of Tuskegee that have known no
abatement.
Page 225
In assuming the duties of principal, I very
naturally came into close and intimate contact with
Mr. Emmett J. Scott, who for many years served as
private secretary to Doctor Washington and later as
secretary of the institution. I found him to be a
rarely competent and painstaking executive. No one
at the Institute knew more about the varied and
peculiar activities which Tuskegee fostered outside
of the school proper, or sensed more clearly what
Tuskegee's attitude should be touching public
questions generally. It was with the help of Mr.
Scott that Doctor Washington was able to build up
the very effective executive machinery of the
Institute and to develop his wide field of public
activity.
In the various other departments of the Institute I
found that Doctor Washington had gathered about
him men each of whom had a clear and firm grasp on
his own particular branch of the work. In the
department of Mechanical Industries Mr. Robert R.
Taylor was carrying forward his work with admirable
efficiency. Prof. George W. Carver in agricultural
research and experimental work was accomplishing
results that were attracting
Page 226
attention throughout the South and in other parts
of the world. The Institute hospital, in charge of Dr.
John A. Kenney, I found to be one of the most
useful and efficient departments of the work. The
department of Accounting in charge of Mr. Charles
H. Gibson, and the Boys' Department with Major
Julius B. Ramsey as commandant, were, along with
others, under the direction of very capable men, all
of whom were most loyal to Doctor Washington
and coöperated very heartily with the incoming
principal.
I know of no educational institution whose Board
of Trustees takes a more active and personal interest
in its work than is true of the Trustees of Tuskegee
Institute. An institution is truly fortunate when men
of the type of Mr. William G. Willcox - formerly
chairman of the Board of Education of New York
City and representing large business interests
there - are willing to give so much of their time and
thought to the internal affairs of a school like
Tuskegee. It was soon after my own coming to
Tuskegee that Mr. Willcox consented to accept the
chairmanship of the Board of Trustees, following
the death of Mr. Seth Low.
Page 227
Among those associated with Mr. Willcox on the
Board of Trustees are such men as Mr. Frank
Trumbull, chairman of the Board of Directors of the
Chesapeake and Ohio as well as several other
railroads; Mr. Julius Rosenwald, president of Sears,
Roebuck & Company, Chicago; Dr. William Jay
Schieffelin of New York; Mr. Charles E. Mason of
Boston; and Mr. William M. Scott of Philadelphia.
These gentlemen have been untiring in their efforts
to sustain the work of the Institute and have
responded to every call upon their time and energy
which the principal has made upon them. Not only
these men but the wives of many of them have been
equally interested and responsive to the needs of
Tuskegee. We owe the John A. Andrew Memorial
Hospital to Mrs. Charles E. Mason; and much of the
equipment for the girls' industries, as well as for
their dormitories, to the thoughtful interest of Mrs.
William G. Willcox and Mrs. Julius Rosenwald. In
many ways these ladies have manifested a keen and
discriminating interest in all the activities for girls
at the Institute that has been most helpful to their
proper development. This is true also of Mrs. Seth
Low, who, during
Page 228
the time when her husband was chairman of the
Board of Trustees, accompanied him on his visits to
the Institute and concerned herself personally about
the health and comfort of the girls.
Of course it was not easy to give up a life and
environment in which one had spent more than
twenty-five years under very pleasant
circumstances. It meant the severance of very close
and intimate ties and the giving up of a work not
only within but also without Hampton Institute that
had taken a very strong hold upon my sympathies
and to which I was giving my best thought and
endeavour.
Mrs. Moton felt the change quite as keenly as I
did and in some ways was more reluctant about
severing our connection with the work of Hampton
Institute than I was. It was a source of satisfaction to
both of us at Hampton to be near our parents, who
are well advanced in years. Between my own mother
and myself there has always been a real
companionship such as has not developed between
her and the other children, which was due in all
probability to the fact that for some years, both
prior to and after my father's
Page 229
death and until she married again, many of the
responsibilities of the household, notwithstanding
my youth, I was obliged to share. There are seven of
us - four boys and three girls. Three besides myself
attended school at Hampton and all are married and
succeeding in a way that is very pleasing to my
mother. One of them, Joshua E. Blanton, is in
educational work at Penn School in South Carolina,
where he holds a responsible position in a unique
institution. My mother even now exerts a very
strong influence over all of her children, and any
one of them would hesitate to follow a course of
which she had expressed disapproval.
Following the inauguration Mrs. Moton and I took
up life at Tuskegee in very much the same way that
we had lived at Hampton. We established our home
amid very pleasant surroundings where Mrs. Moton
and our four children - two girls and two
boys - have grown to be just as happy and contented
as they were at Hampton. While the two institutions
are very much alike, there are some aspects in
which they are quite unlike. At Tuskegee we have
the unique situation of a large
Page 230
institution - really a community - of about three
thousand coloured people conducting and directing
all of the activities incident to their daily life. While
there have always been the pleasantest relations with
the white people of the town of Tuskegee and the
county as well, the school community is as separate
and distinct in its daily activities as if they were
many miles apart. Visitors to the Institute, white as
well as coloured, generally find it a matter of
interest and pride to observe here a well-ordered
institution entirely and successfully directed by
Negroes.
It was just after the close of this first year's work
that Tuskegee sustained one of its greatest losses in
the death of Doctor Frissell, the one man, excepting
Doctor Washington himself, who in the last thirty
years has been most active and helpful in Negro
education. There was scarcely a man in the country
more genuinely loved and respected by people of
both sections and races than Doctor Frissell. For
thirty-seven years he was a worker at Hampton, first
as chaplain and vice principal, and after General
Armstrong's death, in 1893, as principal. Under his
quiet, unassuming
Page 231
leadership, Hampton Institute grew, not only
physically, but in influence and power among blacks
and whites throughout the land. He stood shoulder
to shoulder with Doctor Washington in all
movements touching the best interests of the South.
There was never between the two any semblance of
misunderstanding or rivalry. Doctor Washington
was always glad, by word or deed, to serve Hampton;
and Doctor' Frissell gladly used every opportunity
to do the same for Tuskegee. But it is better to let
these two friends, one white, one black, each
express in his own words his affectionate regard for
the other:
His was a wonderful life of faith. I believe that no man without a
belief in an overruling Providence could ever have stood what
Booker T. Washington stood; could ever have endured what he
endured. He believed that down underneath what sometimes
seemed like prejudice there was a heart of love, and he found that
heart.
- H. B. FRISSELL.
Doctor Frissell is one
of the rarest human souls that any one
can know. He gives himself - body, mind, and soul - to the service
of others. I have never met a man of such rare unselfishness and
such rare modesty.
- B. T. WASHINGTON.
Page 232
Almost the last words of Doctor Washington to
me in a New York hospital, three days before his
death, were about Doctor Frissell's health, when he
expressed the hope that Doctor Frissell might be
spared for many years to our race and country. It is
hard for one not intimately associated with the two
men to appreciate the real love and genuine
affection existing between them. They both worked
and sacrificed with one unselfish purpose, and for
one absorbing and inspiring cause, the bringing to
pass of the Kingdom of God on earth.
Mr. Frank Trumbull, in an address at Tuskegee
Institute, referred to Mr. Ogden, Mr. Low, Doctor
Washington, and Doctor Frissell as "a very
remarkable quartette." It was truly a remarkable
group; courageous, unselfish soldiers they were;
simply, patiently, wisely, unselfishly fighting for
broader sympathy and more thorough understanding
between men of all races.
After careful and painstaking search Dr. James E.
Gregg, of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, was called to be
the principal of Hampton Institute; and the Trustees
have been most fortunate in finding a man who with
great vigour and wisdom has assumed the
Page 233
responsibility of carrying forward that work. Doctor
Gregg has manifested at Hampton the spirit so
characteristic of his predecessors, which is so much
needed in the social and economic readjustments of
the nation just now.
Tuskegee and Hampton have always worked in
closest sympathy. They cannot do otherwise in the
future. The placing of such a man as Doctor Gregg
at the head of Hampton and the election of the
principal of Tuskegee Institute as a trustee of
Hampton will insure equally as great and helpful
coöperation between the two schools as in the past,
and will also, I hope, help in bringing about greater
sympathy and coöperation in all efforts for Negro
education.
Page 234
CHAPTER XI
WAR ACTIVITIES
THE important position which Tuskegee had
already acquired through its Founder in matters
affecting the interests of coloured people led many
persons, officials and others, to turn naturally in this
direction for counsel concerning the attitude the
Negro would probably assume regarding the war and
the best methods to be employed in securing his
largest and best service to the nation in the conflict.
The question was early raised as to how he would
be affected by German propaganda and whether or
not he would fall an easy prey to the schemes of
secret enemies of the Government, and allow
himself to become an accomplice of spies, plotters,
and even bomb-throwers. I promptly assured all
questioners that the Negro's loyalty could be
depended upon absolutely at this time as in the past.
My questioners in many instances
Page 235
pointed out the fact that the Negro had suffered a
great many injustices in this country and had long
been deprived of many of the rights and privileges
enjoyed by other American citizens, in view of
which they were very apprehensive lest he should
take advantage of this situation and join the enemies
of the country in order to avenge his wrongs and
secure the rights and opportunities due him as a man
and an American. I reminded these anxious people
that the Negro in America had always been loyal to
his country, even when its acts were sometimes
apparently to his disadvantage, and that in this
conflict he saw and appreciated the issues at stake as
clearly as any other elements in our population.
It has sometimes surprised and even amused me
to find white people worrying about the Negro's
Americanism, assuming, as they probably do, that
because he is black he must have some
subconscious and subtle attachment for some other
country. They forget that the Negro knows no more
about Africa or any other country than these very
same white people know about England or some
other country from which their
Page 236
came to America. As a matter of fact, Negroes have
been in America practically as long as white people.
The Jamestown colonists arrived only thirteen years
ahead of them and the Plymouth colony was founded
about a year after the Negro arrived. It is not
surprising, therefore, that the Negro should be as
intense in his Americanism as any other part of our
population; and in truth the nation has much less to
fear from the approximately twelve millions of her
Negro population than from many other groups
whose advantages and opportunities would appear to
be very much greater, because of a more just attitude
which our Government has manifested toward them.
It was in this connection that I wrote President
Wilson as follows:
I have not acknowledged your very kind letter of some
weeks ago. A number of people of prominence have
approached me with reference to the attitude the Negroes
would assume in case the country should go to war. I
understand also that certain high officials of the Government
have raised similar questions.
Notwithstanding the difficulties which my race faces in
many parts of this country, some of which I called to your
attention in my previous letter, I am writing to assure you
that you and the nation can count absolutely on the loyalty
Page 237
of the mass of Negroes of our country; and its people, North
and South, as in previous wars, will find the Negro people
rallying almost to a man to our flag.
Whatever influence I may have personally, or whatever
service I can render in or outside of the Tuskegee Institute, I
shall be glad to put at your disposal for the service of our
country.
The President replied:
MY DEAR PRINCIPAL MOTON:
Accept my warm thanks for your kind letter of the
fifteenth of March and allow me to tell you how deeply I
appreciate your generous assurances.
Tuskegee of necessity had to be very active in
every line of war work. I felt that there was no better
way to show the Tuskegee spirit or to perpetuate the
ideals of Doctor Washington than to turn the full
force of Tuskegee's resources and influence to the
service of our country. The calls came in increasing
volume, but no matter what the demands were,
whether to give up some worker, to set aside our
regular routine, to conduct some sort of campaign,
to journey a long distance to address an audience on
an urgent war need, or to leave the school on short
notice to meet with
Page 238
some committee - we gave freely and gladly of our
time and efforts.
When it became apparent that in the application of
the draft the Negro would be expected to contribute
his full quota of men to the National Army, the
question arose as to the desirability and advisability
of establishing a camp for the training of Negro
officers to command the Negro soldiers, similar to
the one that had been previously established at
Plattsburg, New York, to which coloured men were
not being admitted. The weight of Tuskegee's
influence was thrown into this proposal which was
being strongly urged from many quarters, with the
result that such a camp was authorized by the War
Department and was established at Fort Des Moines,
Iowa, with Col. C. C. Ballou in command. There was
a fear, however, on the part of coloured people that
Negro soldiers would be called upon to serve only in
what was designated as "service" and "pioneer"
regiments - commonly known as labour units - with
the possible exception of the comparatively few
Negroes who were in the National Guard regiments
of several Northern states, and the four
Page 239
regiments of Negro soldiers in the Regular Army.
Accordingly, it was urged upon the War Department
that in justice to the Negro it was desirable to have
at least one complete Negro division for combat
service, officered throughout by coloured men, the
hope being that Col. Charles Young would command
it. He is at present the only Negro graduate of West
Point in the service of the Regular Army and his
record for efficiency is among the best in his grade.
In this connection I was requested to come to
Washington for an interview with the Secretary of
War. Arriving there I was joined by Mr. George
Foster Peabody and together we urged upon the
Secretary of War the wholesome effect which such
a measure would have in strengthening the
confidence of the coloured people throughout the
country in the purpose of the Government to be
impartial in its attitude toward Negro soldiers. The
Secretary was interviewed also by Dr. George W.
Cabaniss, and Mr. F. E. de Frantz, and many other
coloured and white men of influence. Shortly
thereafter the order was issued for the organization
of the 92nd Division of the National
Page 240
Army to be composed entirely of Negro soldiers
with Negro officers in the line.
It was a great disappointment to coloured people
generally, however, that Colonel Young was not
given the command of this division, but the War
Department, on the advice of the Surgeon General's
office, took the position that Colonel Young was
physically disqualified for the service.
Consequently, the command of this division was
given to General Ballou who had been strongly in
favour of such a unit.
It was my privilege to visit the various units of
Negro soldiers at many of the training camps during
the progress of the war. I recall with some
satisfaction the two days which I spent with the 1,200
men of the Officers' Training Camp at Fort Des
Moines, who for the most part were students from
educational institutions and professional men, along
with about two hundred men who had been selected
from the four Negro regiments of the Regular Army.
Tuskegee, like other institutions, furnished its full
quota of the men who volunteered for this training
camp. Altogether more than forty of our men,
teachers, graduates, and students, received commissions
Page 241
at the end of the course and most of them
saw service in France. I never saw a finer body of
men, and was particularly interested to learn from
General Ballou that his surgeon had reported that of
the 1,200 men in the group only five had been found
on examination to show any signs of social diseases.
I doubt if any other camp anywhere could show a
better record in this respect than this camp of black
men.
Growing out of these and similar experiences it
occurred to some of us that, in view of the frequent
occasions for conference with governmental
officials concerning matters pertaining to coloured
people and their part in the successful prosecution
of the war, it was highly important to have in
Washington, and preferably in the War Department,
a wise and capable coloured man who could advise
the Secretary in such matters as concerned the
relation of Negroes to the various measures set in
operation for the winning of the war. It was felt that
in this way the Government would secure the fullest
coöperation of the coloured people with the least
amount of misunderstanding and friction.
In a conference to which I had been invited by
Page 242
Secretary Baker, I made this proposal to him. The
Secretary had impressed me as always desirous of
being absolutely fair in all his decisions touching the
interests of coloured people, and on this occasion it
was evident that he was anxious to do anything that
would effectively aid in winning the war. After he
had gone over the matter quite thoroughly with me,
he arranged that I should have an interview with
President Wilson. In this interview the President
expressed his unqualified approval of the suggestion,
and asked who, in my judgment, might acceptably fill
such a place, at the same time requesting me to take
up the matter in detail with the Secretary of War.
On taking up the matter with Secretary Baker, I
proposed Mr. Emmett J. Scott as the man in my
opinion who, by his long years of contact and
experience with Doctor Washington in the handling
of many delicate matters of public interest, was best
fitted to advise regarding the many and varied
matters which were constantly arising.
Accordingly, Mr. Scott took up the duties of
Special Assistant to the Secretary of War, with
Page 243
offices at Washington, the Trustees of the Institute
heartily concurring in the arrangement. Thereafter
he rendered most valuable service to the
Government throughout the war, and while his
absence from the Institute hampered considerably
the working of his office in the school, we were
nevertheless glad to make a sacrifice which
contributed so much to the effective service of the
coloured people in the war. The school would have
suffered very much more, however, but for the very
capable way in which the work of the secretary's
office was carried forward by Mr. Albon L. Holsey,
who, as secretary to the principal, rendered very
effective service, not only in the Institute, but in
avenues beyond the Institute in connection with
various lines of war activity.
While the matter of a representative of the
coloured people was under consideration,
Government officials were in a quandary over two
very important questions; viz., whether Negro
draftees should be trained in the South, and whether
white and coloured soldiers should be quartered in
the same cantonments. It so happened that Dr. P. P.
Claxton, U. S. Commissioner of Education, had
Page 244
called a conference of coloured and white men
interested in Negro education to meet in
Washington and consider various aspects of Negro
educational institutions as brought out by the report
of the Phelps-Stokes Fund on Negro Schools,
prepared by Dr. Thomas Jesse Jones and which at
that time had been but recently published by the U.S.
Bureau of Education.
It occurred to some of us that it would be wise for
Secretary Baker to take advantage of this gathering to
get the opinion and judgment of certain of these
gentlemen as to the advisable course to pursue with
respect to the question of the disposition of
coloured draftees in the cantonments. Accordingly,
he asked a group of these gentlemen to confer with
him regarding the entire situation. Among those
present were: Bishop George W. Clinton, Mr.
Oswald Garrison Villard, Dr. James H. Dillard,
President John Hope, Major Allen Washington,
Commissioner T. H. Harris of Louisiana, Mr. George
Foster Peabody, and Dr. J. E. Moorland. It was a very
illuminating conference. The Secretary asked for a
frank expression from almost every individual
present, and after some discussion
Page 245
the sentiment of the body was happily expressed bit
Mr. Harris, of Louisiana, who told the Secretary of
War that he thought the best thing to do was to treat
the Negro soldier just as he would treat any other
soldier in the United States Army. Put him anywhere,
he said, and exact of him the same service, and mete
out to him the same penalties for misbehaviour that
would be given to any other soldiers. This, in his
opinion, was the way to get the best results from
black and white soldiers alike and to keep the morale
of the country at the highest point of efficiency.
While the Secretary did not commit himself,
subsequent events showed clearly that this policy
was adopted by the War Department and with very
satisfactory results.
As the War progressed, the problems of labour
throughout the country grew more acute. Here, too,
It seemed that the interests of Negroes as well as of
the entire country could be best served by having in
the Department of Labour an assistant to the
Secretary who could serve the department in very
much the same way that Mr. Scott was serving the
War Department. The National League on Urban
Conditions Among Negroes, with which I was
Page 246
connected as an officer, took up the matter, with the
result that Dr. George E. Haynes of Fisk University
was asked to take up the work with the designation of
Director of Negro Economics. This service of the
Urban League was only one of the many increasingly
helpful measures set in operation by this
organization in the interests of Negro advancement.
Doctor Haynes himself rendered very valuably
service to the Department, as was to be expected;
and it was the purpose of Secretary Wilson to
continue him in the Department after the war was
over, but this was not possible because of the failure
of Congress to renew the appropriation for this
branch of the service.
At Tuskegee Institute the demands of the war
made serious inroads upon our staff of workers,
especially in lines of activity calling for efficient
workers in other than military service. In all such
cases, we were willing, in spite of inconvenience, to
release members of our own force for such work
whenever it was apparent that they could be of larger
service in connection with war movements outside
the Institute.
Page 247
In the production and conservation of food I felt
that Tuskegee should use every possible means to
stimulate the coloured people, especially in the
South, to their utmost in helping the Government,
not only by intensive and extensive methods of
farming, but also by putting in a full week's work
instead of taking the usual Saturday holiday so
common in the rural districts of the South. We were
glad, therefore, to release Mr. E. T. Attwell, our
business agent, for service with the U. S. Food
Administration to direct this campaign among
coloured people in the Southern states.
In the same way the Institute later released Mr.
Joseph L. Whiting, head of the Division of
Education, for educational work overseas with the
Y. M. C. A.; Miss M. E. Saurez, librarian, for service
with the same organization in France; the Rev. G.
Lake Imes, dean of the Bible Training School, for
service with the General War Time Commission of
the Churches; and Major J. B. Ramsey, commandant,
for War Camp Community Service in Washington.
The very excellent service rendered by Mr. Scott,
Doctor Haynes, Mr. Attwell, and others appointed
Page 248
by the Government, including Dr. C. V. Roman in the
Surgeon General's Department, strongly suggests
how short-sighted has been the policy of the
Government hitherto in not making use of coloured
men as a part of governmental machinery, especially
in such matters as have to do with coloured people.
It is also true, in my opinion, that local government
has lost much in efficiency by failing to make use of
the service of strong, intelligent coloured men in the
local community who could wisely and helpfully
assist in the affairs of government among their own
people. I have no doubt whatever that crime among
Negroes would be reduced at least 50 per cent. by
the use of Negroes as policemen and deputies where
Negroes reside in any considerable numbers.
The Negro press was also found by the
Government to be a very helpful factor in the
prosecution of the war. It stood almost solidly back
of such men as were appointed by the Government in
all of their efforts for the country's good. And
whatever happened they were most loyal to the
Government, even when, as was sometimes true,
they might have criticized with justification
many of the
Page 249
things which took place. The attitude of these
publications, numbering some three hundred or
more newspapers and magazines, was a very
important factor in determining the attitude of
Negroes on many questions growing out of the war;
and their influence upon public sentiment among
their own people is of growing importance. It is very
apparent that white people in the country are taking
this fact more largely into account in business
affairs as well as in matters of general community
welfare.
Very early in the war the Government selected
Tuskegee Institute as one of the institutions to give
training along technical lines to certain groups of
drafted men who, in contingents of 308 men each,
were to be sent here for two months' training. The
first contingent arrived on May 15 1918 and the
training of these men continued until October 1
when the last contingent was absorbed into the
Student Army Training Corps. In all we trained and
issued certificates under Government direction to
1,229 of these men. Most of them were sent
overseas where they were able to apply the technical
knowledge received
Page 250
at Tuskegee Institute. We received many letters
from these men after they went overseas, telling
how the training had helped them.
Along with these direct contributions of men and
equipment went the enthusiastic coöperation of the
entire Institute community in the work of the Red
Cross and the various Liberty Loan and Thrift Stamp
drives, as well as loyal adherence to the wishes of
the Food Administration.
On the 2nd of December, 1918 at the request of
President Wilson and Secretary of War Newton D.
Baker, I went to France to look into conditions
affecting Negro soldiers, many of whom were
undergoing hardships of one kind and another.
Secretary Baker said that he and President Wilson
felt that my going to France would be encouraging
to the men, and that the presence and words of a
member of their own race would be particularly
helpful, in view of all the circumstances under which
they were serving the nation, at the same time
inviting me to make any suggestions that might in
my judgment help the situation. In spite of pressing
matters in connection with the Institute, I felt that it
was the school's duty to do
Page 251
anything possible to help our Negro soldiers, and
decided to make the trip.
While in France, I visited nearly every point where
Negro soldiers were stationed. At most of them I
spoke to the men, and at each place I was most
cordially welcomed by the officers and men. I also
had the privilege of conferring with Col. E. M.
House; Bishop Brent, senior chaplain of the
American Expeditionary Forces; General Pershing,
and many other high officials of the American and
French governments, all of whom I consulted with
reference to the record which had been made by
Negro troops, and received only words of very
highest praise and commendation on their character
and conduct in all branches of the service.
During the late summer and early fall of 1918
there were a great many rumours, in and outside of
official circles in this country, to the effect that,
morally, the Negro soldier in France had failed and
that the statement sometimes made that "the Negro
is controlled by brutal instincts" was justified. The
report was current in France that the
"unmentionable crime" was very common; and
according to the rumours, Negro officers, as
Page 252
well as privates, in all branches and grades of the
service, were guilty of this crime.
A letter I saw that had been written by a lady
overseas to another lady in the United States stated
that the writer had been told by the colonel of a
certain unit, whose guest she was, that he would not
feel it safe for her to walk, even with him, through
his camp of Negro soldiers. Another letter from a
high official in a very important position with the
Negro troops overseas, written unofficially to a
prominent official on this side, stated that in the
And Division alone there had recently been at least
thirty cases of the "unmentionable crime."
Another rumour, equally prevalent and damaging,
was to the effect that the fighting units which were
commanded by Negro officers had been a failure. In
other words, "the whispering gallery," which was
very active in France on most phases of life
overseas, said that the 92nd Division, in which the
Negroes of America took special pride, had failed
utterly; that, wherever they had been engaged, the
Negro officers had gone to pieces; that in some
cases the men had to pull themselves
Page 253
together after their officers had shown "the white
feather"; and other statements of similar import.
I went to France with authority to go anywhere and
get any information from any source, so far as the
American Expeditionary Force was concerned. It so
happened that I went on the steamer assigned to the
newspaper correspondents, a steamer which was one
of the convoy ships for the President's party, on
which Dr. W. E. B. DuBois, editor of the Crisis, was
also a passenger. Mr. Lester A. Walton, of the
New
York Age; Mr. Nathan Hunt, of Tuskegee,
Together with Doctor DuBois and myself, occupied
the same very comfortable stateroom. We had many
frank and pleasant talks, both on the ship and in
Paris, where we occupied opposite rooms in the
same hotel. The subject that we discussed most
often was, of course, some phase of the Negro
question, always with a view to helping the situation.
I was accompanied on the trips out from Paris, as
well as at many interviews in Paris, by two coloured
and two white men - one white newspaper man, Mr.
Clyde R. Miller, of the Cleveland
Plain-dealer, and
Mr. Lester A. Walton, of the
New York
Page 254
Age. I also asked to go with me,
Dr. Thomas Jesse
Jones, of the United States Bureau of Education and
the Phelps-Stokes Foundation, and Mr. Nathan Hunt,
of Tuskegee Institute.
I realized that the mission was a delicate one, and
that questions which I might ask and the things which
I would say might probably be misunderstood or
misinterpreted. My purpose, however, was to get at
the facts and to stop untruthful rumours. In order to
ascertain the facts, I made extended inquiries of all
those with whom I came in contact. I asked many
questions with relation to the conduct and character
of the coloured soldiers as compared with other
soldiers.
When I reached General Headquarters of the
American Expeditionary Force I found that, a few
days before my arrival, a young white soldier had
been sentenced to be hanged for the "unmentionable
crime," but because of his previous good record
in every other way the sentence was finally
commuted to life imprisonment. The opinion at
General Headquarters was that the crime to which I
have referred was no more prevalent among
coloured than among white, or any other soldiers.
Page 255
From Chaumont we went immediately to
Marbache, the Headquarters of the 92nd Division. I
asked the general then in command of this division
about the prevalence of the crime in question. He
said that it was very prevalent, and that there had been
a great many cases over which he was very much
disturbed. This statement was corroborated by conversation
with two of his white staff officers, who were present. I
courteously asked if he would mind having one of his aides
get the records. I said that I thought general statements
were often very damaging, and that, inasmuch as the
reputation of a race was at stake, I was very anxious
to get the facts in order to make an accurate report,
and, if possible, to stop the damaging rumours which
were becoming more and more prevalent in America
and were already prevalent in France, especially
among Americans, including military circles, the
Young Men's Christian Association, the Red Cross,
and other organizations.
When the records were brought in and examined,
seven cases where this crime had been charged were
found in the entire division of more than twelve
thousand. Of these charged, only two had been
Page 256
found guilty and convicted, and one of the two
convictions had been "turned down" at General
Headquarters.
In other fighting units, as well as the units of the
Service of Supply at Bordeaux, Saint Nazaire, and
Brest, and other places, I made the same
investigations. I interviewed American and French
commanding officers; I talked, as well, with scores
of American and French officials of lower rank.
When the records were taken, as with the 92nd
Division, the number of cases charged was very few
and the number of convictions fewer still. I likewise
took much time with certain members of the Peace
Conference, and with Americans engaged in various
branches of war activity, in an effort to disprove and
set at rest this awful slander upon the Negro race. I
spared no pains or effort to do this, and it would
appear, from subsequent investigations on this side
of the water and from reports which have come to
me from overseas, that the momentum of these
damaging rumours perceptibly lessened.
There was apparently no doubt in anybody's mind
in France, so far as I was able to find out
Page 257
among the French or the Americans, as to the
excellent qualities of the American Negro as a
soldier, when led by white officers. There was also
little question about the fighting record of four
Negro regiments - the 369th, 370th, 371st and
372nd which had been brigaded with French
divisions; but when it came to the 92nd Division,
there was a subtle and persistent rumour in Paris and
in other places in France, apparently substantiating
the rumour which was prevalent in America - only
in France it was much more generally accepted as
true; namely, that Negro officers "had been
practically a failure," and that it was a mistake ever
to have attempted to form a division with Negroes
as officers.
I took a great deal of pains and care, as did also
the gentlemen with me, to run down every rumour.
We spent much time in and out of Paris ferreting
out every statement that came from the "whispering
gallery." We finally found that, so far as the 92nd
Division was concerned, only a very small
detachment of a single battalion of one regiment had
failed.
Later, in talking with General Pershing in
Page 258
France, regarding this story of the failure of
Negro officers, he said that the probabilities were
that any officers, white or black, under the same
adverse circumstances that these men faced, would
have failed. A few officers of the battalion were sent
before a court martial for trial for having shown
cowardice. Not all of them, however, were found
guilty. And since then, these cases have been
reviewed by the War Department, and the President,
on the recommendation of the Secretary of War, has
disapproved the proceedings involving the four
officers of the 368th Infantry convicted by court
martial abroad. After thorough investigation the War
Department issued the following statement with
regard to this one battalion of the 368th Regiment:
The 368th Regiment had not had battle experience prior to its
assignment to the French brigade. It was expected to operate as a
liaison organization, maintaining contact with combat forces on
either side, but not itself as an attacking force. In the development
of the battle it became necessary to use the regiment in attack.
The ground over which the 368th Regiment advanced was
extremely difficult. It had been fought over and fortified for four
years, and consisted of a dense belt of intricate barbed
Page 259
wire, through which in four years underbrush had grown,
concealing the wire and making any advance most difficult. The
section in which the regiment was engaged developed at times
intense shell, machine-gun, and rifle fire and subjected those
troops to a severe test.
The regiment was not fully supplied with wire cutters, maps,
and signalling devices. This was in part due to the fact that the
troops were serving at the time with the French, from whom the
supply was finally received, the delay being caused doubtless by
the hurried movement of the regiment and the assumption on the
part of the French that it would be supplied from American depots,
and on the part of the Americans that it would be supplied by the
French, with whom it was serving - a misunderstanding explained
only by the confusion and emergencies of battle.
It was gratifying even then to find that the
commanding general, who knew all phases of the
affair, did not take this failure nearly so seriously as
the rumour about it seemed to suggest. The facts in
the case in no sense justified the common report.
In talking with the commanding general at Le
Mans, I referred to the fact that something like
fifteen Negro officers had been sent back as
"inefficient." He said to me: "If it is of any comfort
to you, I will tell you this: we sent back through
Blois to America, in six months, an average of one
Page 260
thousand white officers a month, who failed in one
way or another in this awful struggle. I hope, Doctor
Moton," he added, "that you won't lose your faith in
my race because of this, and certainly I am not
going to lose my faith in your race because of the
record of a few coloured officers who failed."
We talked with Colonel House, Mr. Ray Stannard
Baker, Captain Walter Lippman, leading
Y. M. C. A. workers, and many others. All
assured me that they were glad to get the facts, and
that, so far as they were able, they would stop the
slanderous rumours concerning our Negro soldiers.
I spoke to white officers in a number of places - at
one place to two hundred of them - and candidly
stated the facts in the case. I raised the question, if
they did not think it was a good and fair thing to stop
this rumour of the "whispering gallery," which was
defaming a race, which threatened to cut down the
efficiency of Negro troops, and was, of course,
putting America in a bad light before the world.
Many of the difficulties and troubles among the
officers and men of the 92nd Division, as well as
other colored units, could have been avoided if we
Page 261
had had at General Headquarters in France a
coloured man to render the same wise, dignified,
and efficient help as Mr. Emmett J. Scott, secretary
of Tuskegee Institute, so splendidly rendered in the
War Department at Washington to both the race and
the nation. President John Hope, of Morehouse
College, Atlanta, Georgia, who under many and
trying conditions had done excellent work overseas
in connection with the Y. M. C. A., felt this need
very much. General Pershing would gladly have had
such a man if it had previously occurred to any of us
to suggest it.
In almost every instance I found the commanding
officers open to suggestions with a view to relieving
the needless embarrassment of the coloured
soldiers. I found in the Service of Supply that
coloured stevedores were working twelve and
sixteen hours a day, and sometimes more, which
made it impossible for the Y. M. C. A. to do any
effective work along educational lines with the
thousands of coloured soldiers in this branch of the
service. I took this matter up with the commanding
general, and within three days orders had been given
to reduce the time of work to eight hours. At
Page 262
several places the quarters of the coloured men
seemed unfavourably located. In various instances
changes were soon made.
I took up with care also, going to the source of
the trouble, the matter of excluding coloured
women from France. Here, again, I found that there
seemed to be no justification for the general
exclusion of women of our race from overseas
service. This I took up with the proper authorities,
military and otherwise, and before I left
arrangements had been made to send for more of
our coloured women, and men also. The best Y. M. C. A.
hut I saw, from every point of view, was the
one where Mrs. W. A. Hunton, Mrs. J. L. Curtis, and
Miss Katharine Johnson were located. There was
here a very fine spirit of coöperation between the
white and coloured workers. Mr. Wallace, the
manager of the district, whom I later met in Paris,
was warm in his praise of Secretary Nichols,
Secretary Whiting, Chaplain Oveltrea, and other
coloured workers.
I took the opportunity wherever it presented itself
to speak to our men about the splendid record which
they were making and of the danger that
Page 263
would attend any failure on their part to maintain
their record untarnished. I said:
The record you have made in this war, of faithfulness,
bravery, and loyalty, has deepened my faith in you as men
and as soldiers, as well as in my race and country. You have
been tremendously tested. You have suffered hardships and
many privations. You have been called upon to make many
sacrifices. Your record has sent a thrill of joy and
satisfaction to the hearts of millions of black and white
Americans, rich and poor, high and low. Black mothers and
wives, sweethearts, fathers, and friends have rejoiced with
you and with our country in your record.
You will go back to America heroes, as you really are.
You will go back as you have carried yourselves over
here - in a straightforward, manly, and modest way. If I
were you, I would find a job as soon as possible and get to
work. To those who have not already done so, I would
suggest that you get hold of a piece of land and a home as
soon as possible, and marry and settle down. . . . Save your
money, and put it into something tangible. I hope no one will
do anything in peace to spoil the magnificent record you
have made in war.
In the same way I took advantage of many
opportunities to speak to white soldiers, officers
and men, about their duty to their coloured
comrades who were sharing with them the hardships
of the war. I said in my talk:
Page 264
These black soldiers, officers and men, have with you
willingly and gladly placed their lives at the disposal of their
country, not only "to make the world safe for democracy,"
but, of equal importance, "to make democracy safe for
mankind, black and white. You and they go back to America
as heroes, brave and modest, of course, but there is a
difference; you go back without let or hindrance with every
opportunity our beloved country offers open to you. You are
heirs of all the ages. God has never given any race more
than he has given to you. The men of my race who return
will have many unnecessary hardships and limitations along
many lines. What a wonderful opportunity you have,
therefore, and what a great responsibility for you, to go back
to America resolved that so far as in your power lies you are
going to see that these black men and the twelve millions of
people whom they represent in our great country, who have
stood so loyally by you and America in peace and in war,
shall have a fair and absolutely equal chance with every
other American citizen, along every line. This is your sacred
obligation and duty. They ask only fair play and, as loyal
American citizens, they should have it.
I cannot conclude without again mentioning the
heroic record of all of our men in France, especially
the Negro officers, who, in spite of hard ships and
discrimination from sources which should have
accorded them much encouragement, went into
battle with dash, courage, and an absolutely
unshaken and undisturbed morale. I do
Page 265
not believe that men of any other race, under
similarly trying circumstances, could have retained
more self-possession and made a more glorious
record than did our Negro soldiers, officers and
men. I am glad that most of those from Tuskegee
Institute have returned and taken up their work as
before. We cherish, however, the memory of Lieut.
Henry H. Boger, one of our teachers, who, with
many other brave Americans, sleeps beneath the
sacred soil of France.
Before leaving France for London, President
Wilson sent me the following letter:
Paris, January 1, 1919.
DEAR PRINCIPAL MOTON:
I wish to express my
appreciation for the service you have rendered during the
past few weeks in connection with our coloured soldiers
here in France. I have heard, not only of the wholesome
advice you have given them regarding their conduct during
the time they will remain in France but also of your advice
as to how they should conduct themselves when they return
to our own shores. I very much hope, as you have advised,
that no one of them may do anything to spoil the splendid
record that they, with the rest of our American forces, have
made.
Cordially and sincerely yours,
WOODROW WILSON.
Page 266
CHAPTER XII
FORWARD MOVEMENTS IN THE SOUTH
THE years since the Civil War have seen the race
problem come to the point where it may be
discussed without the passion and prejudice which
for so many years were characteristic of many who
essayed to deal with it. I recall an experience of
mine of some twenty years ago when a prominent
Southern clergyman dropped into my office at
Hampton Institute one evening and we fell into a
rather frank and somewhat heated discussion of
certain phases of the race question. At the end of
something like an hour and a half of earnest
conversation, it was apparent, as was to be expected,
that we did not wholly agree upon some aspects of
the question; but as we parted he turned to me and
said, "Major Moton, our conversation may have
struck you as rather unpleasant in some of its
features, but for fear that it may discourage you in
your efforts to promote harmony between
Page 267
your race and mine, I want to say that I think we are
both to be congratulated on the fact that I have
reached the point where it is possible for me to
discuss this question with you, or with any other
coloured man." There are a great many such people
in the South to-day, and this attitude has become
much more general than most people who do not
come in touch with the situation realize.
Many forces have been operating more or less
quietly, but none the less effectively, to bring about
this change of attitude toward this one-time delicate
and embarrassing problem. For there was a time
when most Southern white men felt that there was
nothing about the question of the Negro to discuss
with anybody, and especially with persons, white or
black, whose opinions were likely to differ from
their own.
For a great many years I entertained the idea that
while the Southern man thought logically and
clearly on economic, political, religious, and other
questions affecting the welfare and progress of the
country, here was one question upon which he did
not think at all, but rather felt - that on this matter he
had definite, fixed opinions about which argument
Page 268
was unnecessary and upon which nothing further
could be said. But no one can justly entertain that
idea about Southern white men as a whole to-day.
While they still feel strongly on many points
concerning the relations of the two races, there are
increasingly large numbers in all parts of the South
who are thinking, both logically and seriously, on
all points touching race relationships, with a sincere
desire to bring about such a happy and wholesome
adjustment as will be fair and just to both races.
On the other hand, it was true at one time that the
great majority of coloured people had very little
confidence in the ability or even the desire of the
average Southern white man to approach this
question without bias, and in consequence looked
with suspicion upon any profession of friendliness
or good will toward the black man that came from
that source. Doctor Washington in his early career
was frequently criticized by members of his
own race for his freely expressed confidence in
the genuineness of the Southern white man's
friendship for the Negro. But in late years the
Negro's confidence in his white neighbour here in
the South
Page 269
has grown to the point where he is turning more
naturally to the Southern white man in the confident
hope that together they will work out without
prejudice or suspicion the great human problems that
confront them. Throughout the South the coloured
people are bringing directly and officially to the
attention of the public the palpably inadequate
provisions for the education of their children, and are
meeting with an increasingly sympathetic and
encouraging response both from the state and from
private citizens.
This change in attitude on the part of both races
has come about not through indifference and neglect
and the proverbial working of time, but as a result of
certain carefully thought-out and deliberately
planned movements in which Northern white men,
Southern white men, and Negroes have wisely and
bravely coöperated - movements which I have
sometimes felt have been very much misunderstood
and the value of whose service to the South and to
the nation has been greatly underestimated.
Among the first of these was the Conference for
Education in the South, inaugurated by a few men,
Page 270
Northerners and Southerners, who met in a little
hotel in the mountains of West Virginia, which
conference was presided over by the Hon. William L.
Wilson of tariff fame and at one time president of
Washington and Lee University. This conference
emphasized the necessity of educating all the
children of the South. In the years that followed, this
movement brought together such men as Mr. Robert
C. Ogden, who became one of America's great
educational statesmen; Mr. William H. Baldwin, Jr.,
who here received the inspiration for the General
Education Board, of which he was the first chairman;
Mr. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who, with his father,
liberally supported the movement in its development;
Mr. Edgar Gardner Murphy of Alabama, secretary of
the conference until his death; President Edwin
Alderman of the University of Virginia; Mr. George
Foster Peabody of New York; Dr. J. D. Eggleston,
now president of Hampden Sydney College of
Virginia; Dr. H. B. Frissell of Hampton Institute;
Mrs. B. B. Munford, one of Virginia's most
distinguished women; Dr. Walter H. Page, late
ambassador of America to Great Britain, a genuine
and unaffected American; and Dr. Wallace Buttrick,
for many
Page 271
years secretary and now president of the General
Education Board.
I doubt if any movement in America has
accomplished more in creating sentiment or has so
strongly affected public appropriations for
education. As a result of this movement one state
alone erected in the neighbourhood of seventy high
schools in a single year, while in a few years
appropriations for education in Southern states were
increased by more than sixteen million dollars.
There is also a close and intimate connection
between this conference and the establishment of
the General Education Board, which, in supporting
the farm-demonstration movement, introduced by
Dr. Seaman A. Knapp, and in its present programme
of providing supervisors for rural schools in
coöperation with state and county boards of
education in the South, and making direct
appropriations to selected educational institutions,
is sowing the seed of educational and economic
advancement in the field which was prepared by the
labours of this group of distinguished and public-
spirited men and women who constituted the
Conference for Education in the South, The very
substantial service
Page 272
which the General Education Board is rendering
will become increasingly apparent with the years.
Another force that has been very effective in
bringing about a better understanding and a greater
measure of confidence between the races is the
Negro Rural School Fund: Anna T. Jeanes
Foundation. This organization is unique in the fact
that on its official Board Negroes, Northern white
men, and Southern white men are mutually sharing
the responsibilities of a constructive programme of
education in the South which makes possible an
active coöperation of the races in educational
matters, which by many was not previously thought
possible. The unique personnel of this Board, I have
no doubt, was made possible as a result of the
sentiment created by the Conference for Education
in the South and the activities of the General
Education Board.
It was through Doctor Frissell and Doctor
Washington that this fund was established, and to
them Miss Jeanes entrusted the responsibility for
the organization of its Board. These gentlemen
united in the selection of Dr. James H. Dillard, dean
of Tulane University, New Orleans, as president,
Page 273
and associated with him were, of course, Doctor
Washington and Doctor Frissell and such men as Mr.
Andrew Carnegie, Bishop Abraham Grant of the A.
M. E. Church; Chancellor David C. Barrow of the
University of Georgia; Mr. Robert L. Smith, a Negro
banker of Texas; Dr. Talcott Williams of the Pulitzer
School of Journalism; Dr. Samuel C. Mitchell, then
of the University of South Carolina and now
president of Delaware College; Mr. George
McAneny of New York; and Mr. J. Napier, lawyer
and banker of Nashville, Tennessee. The Hon.
William H. Taft, at that time Secretary of War, was
also a member of the Board, and later, on becoming
President of the United States, invited the Board to
hold its annual sessions in the Cabinet room of the
White House.
As secretary of the Board from the beginning, it
was to me a source of continual encouragement to
witness the fine spirit with which these men
approached, not only the problems of education, but
also the problems affecting the whole life of the
Negro and the South. Following the death of Doctor
Washington and Doctor Frissell, successively
chairmen of the Executive Committee, it has fallen
to my lot to discharge the duties of chairman.
Page 274
When Doctor Dillard was asked to become
president and general agent of the Foundation, there
was considerable skepticism as to the wisdom of
such a course, Doctor Dillard being a Southerner,
born in Virginia, and for many years professor in a
prominent educational institution in Louisiana.
There was considerable doubt on the part of many
whether the best interests of the coloured people
would be served by the selection of such a man to
become the executive officer of a movement
designed especially to help in the educational
development of the Negro. The history of the
movement since that time has abundantly justified
the wisdom of the choice. It would be hard to find a
man anywhere in America who has displayed more
tact, thoughtfulness, patience, and courage in dealing
with the intricate and delicate problems that one
must meet in striving to adjust race relations in the
South than has Dr. James Hardy Dillard. Growing
out of his activities with the Jeanes Fund, he was
later asked to administer the John F. Slater Fund, a
similar foundation established earlier for the
promotion of education among Negroes. The
handling of these two funds has
Page 275
enabled him to touch large numbers of Negro
school teachers in every part of the South, who are
helped, encouraged, and inspired by his kindly
and sympathetic, yet sober and efficient, approach to
the problems of educating a race generally eager to
learn, but often, like others, mistaken in its ideas of
what education really means. He has had associated
with him two men, one coloured and one white: Mr.
W. T. B. Williams and Mr. B. C. Caldwell, both of
whom have much the same spirit as Doctor Dillard
himself. These three men have set an example for
the entire country of the way in which it is possible
for black and white men in the South to work
together with entire self-respect and to win the
respect, confidence, and appreciation of the people
of both races.
Doctor Dillard from the beginning saw, what is
becoming more and more evident to thoughtful
workers among coloured people, that there can be
no substantial and permanent improvement in the
condition of the Negro in the South without a
serious and sympathetic effort to create among
Southern white people an intelligent interest in the
condition and needs of the coloured people by
Page 276
whom they are surrounded and who form so
important and indeed an indispensable part of the
life of the South. The University Race Commission,
composed of certain professors in each Southern
State University, represents the practical application
of these ideas in the most important educational
circles of this section. These gentlemen for several
years have conducted a serious and painstaking study
of actual conditions existing among Negroes in their
several localities, and have used the results of their
study in connection with the university courses in
sociology. Each year the Commission has issued a
statement, setting forth the results and conclusions
of the year's study, which is widely circulated in
Southern publications, as well as in other parts of
the country, and has had a strong influence in
shaping the thought and opinion of educated men and
women in the South toward the Negro.
Along with the movements already referred to the
Young Men's Christian Association has fostered a
plan under the direction of Dr. W. D. Weatherford
whereby large classes in most Southern
educational institutions have been organized;
Page 277
for the study of the race question, using text books
prepared by Doctor Weatherford himself, and other
literature issued by other organizations pertaining to
this same subject. In support of this project the
Phelps-Stokes Fund has established fellowships in
certain of these institutions for the extended study
of this question by young white men of university
training, who are looking forward to a field of
service in the larger development of the South. In
many of these communities there has grown out of
this movement a group of young college men who
are dealing with the question, not only from a
conventional, academic viewpoint, but by direct and
immediate contact with welfare activities among
Negroes in much the same way that led Dr. John
Little of Louisville, Kentucky, and others of like
spirit, to devote their lives to work among coloured
people.
There have been among women also strong
movements to bring about a larger sympathy and
coöperation between the women of the two races in
the South. It is not infrequent that coloured women
are asked to address audiences of white women on
this subject under the auspices of such organizations
Page 278
as the Young Women's Christian Association,
state federations of women's clubs, and the women's
auxiliaries of the various denominations. Few people
know of the great service that Mrs. L. H. Hammond,
as executive secretary of the Southern Publicity
Committee, is rendering the general movement for
inter-racial coöperation by putting before the public,
through the Southern press, the hopeful, constructive
things that white people and black people are doing
together, thereby doing much to offset the wide
publicity that is often given to instances of friction
between individuals of the two races, which are by
no means so common as the instances in which they
coöperate.
I have not been officially connected with all of
these movements, but it has nevertheless been my
privilege and a source of much personal satisfaction
frequently to be called into counsel concerning their
plans and policies, and to interpret to the best of my
knowledge not only the feelings of my own people,
but also, what is sometimes more difficult, their
desires and aspirations.
Most conspicuous perhaps among this type of
activities is the Southern Sociological Congress,
Page 279
whose operations were made possible for a number
of years through the interest and generosity of Mrs.
Anna Russell Cole of Augusta, Georgia. This
organization usually meets once each year, at which
time an opportunity is given to representative white
and coloured people for the free and candid
discussion of any phase of the race question which
the events of the year have brought into prominence.
I have had the privilege of appearing before this
Congress on more than one occasion and have been
deeply impressed with the sincerity and sanity of its
deliberations. Among its presiding officers have
been men of the type of ex-Governor W. H. Mann of
Virginia, Bishop Theodore D. Bratton of
Mississippi, and ex-Governor B. W. Hooper of
Tennessee. Its secretary from the beginning has
been Dr. J. E. McCulloch, formerly of Nashville,
who has been untiring in his efforts to make it a
constructive force in furthering unselfish
coöperation between the races.
More recent than any of these is a movement
fraught with great possibilities for removing racial
friction, organized in the city of Atlanta just before
the close of the war by representative white men
Page 280
from all the Southern states under the leadership of
a group of men among whom were Mr. John J.
Eagan, a prominent banker of Atlanta; Dr. M. Ashby
Jones, a Baptist minister of the same city; Dr. Wm.
Louis Poteat, president of Wake Forest College in
North Carolina; Dr. Robert H. McCaslin, a
Presbyterian minister of Montgomery, Alabama; and
Dr. Charles W. Crisler, of Mississippi.
In this movement a group of white men is working
with a similar group of coloured men who together
are quietly and effectively organizing like groups of
both races in every state and county and city in the
South. This movement is made possible by the
financial assistance and coöperation of the War
Work Council of the Y. M. C. A. The coöperation of
such coloured men as President John Hope of
Morehouse College, Atlanta; Prof. R. B. Hudson,
secretary-treasurer of the National Baptist
Convention; Mr. Harry H. Pace, secretary-treasurer
of the Standard Life Insurance Company; Mr. Isaac
Fisher, editor of the Fisk University News, and Dr.
H. H. Proctor of the First Congregational Church,
Atlanta: with such white men as I have mentioned
above insures the vital character of the interest
Page 281
which these men have in the progress and
development of the South. This group of substantial
Southern men, in a way that is not true of any other
of these movements, has organized with the avowed
intention of securing for the Negro, in every
community, fair and just treatment under the law as
well as an equitable share in all those privileges and
benefits for which he is taxed as a citizen. Though
the movement is still in the early stage of
development, definite results are already
manifesting themselves.
In quite another way there is a tendency toward
greater consideration, especially on the part of
many large manufacturing establishments, for the
welfare of their coloured employes. In these plants
may be found what are known as "efficiency men,"
whose business it is to look after the morale of the
coloured workers. The efficiency man has access at
any time to the highest official of the plant, to
whom he is directly responsible and to whom he is
privileged to bring any matter pertaining to the
welfare of these employes
that in his judgment
might increase their efficiency and thereby
contribute to the advancement of the
Page 282
company's interests. I think now of the Tennessee
Coal and Iron Company, with headquarters at
Birmingham, Alabama, and establishments in other
parts of the South, which has for some time
employed Mr. Melvin J. Chisum at a comfortable
salary, to render this kind of service for the
company. He has the confidence of both the
employee and the management, and this company
has found that it is good business to have a strong,
level-headed, and conscientious coloured man to
deal directly with its coloured workers. I was told by
the president of one esablishment
that such an
official had reduced the friction by more than 50 per
cent.; that the men were working much more
regularly; and that the labour turnover or shifting had
been similarly lessened.
Out of these organized movements there has
grown up in almost every community a group of
white and coloured men who coöperate in an
unorganized way in the prevention of much
misunderstanding and friction and the protection of
the interests of the entire community. Coloured
men coming from the North into these communities
have often been surprised by the cordial way
Page 283
in which they have been received by prominent
Southern men who have talked freely with them on
many phases of this human problem.
I remember that Mr. Fred R. Moore, editor of the
New York Age, not long ago visited many parts of
the South and interviewed men of both races in many
walks of life; among these was an ex-governor to
whom Negroes outside of the local community
would hardly have turned in their difficulties. He
went into the interview prepared for almost
anything, and was greatly surprised at the apparent
cordiality with which he was received and the
perfect candour with which they talked of the
difficulties facing the races. Many other men are
having similar experiences, all of which show the
hopefulness of present-day events in the South.
Twenty-five years ago such experiences would have
been very rare, but to-day they are the rule rather
than the exception.
But in many ways the most significant and
substantial of these forward movements in the
South, and one that is touching more people and
vitalizing more interests than any other movement
of its character, is the Rosenwald School-Building
Project.
Page 284
This movement began when Mr. Julius
Rosenwald - one of America's most distinguished
citizens and philanthropists, already referred to as
one of our Tuskegee Trustees - put into the hands
of Doctor Washington a sum of money sufficient to
make an experiment in school building in six rural
communities of Alabama. Doctor Washington
felt that, with a few hundred dollars from outside
sources, he could encourage the coloured people and
induce the white people by private contributions
and official appropriations to add to Mr. Rosenwald's
gift a sum sufficient to erect and equip a
modern one-teacher school building for Negroes
in each of these communities. Mr. Rosenwald
was so well pleased with the success of this experiment
that at the present time he is providing a
budget of something like $140,000 a year for the
building of rural schools for Negroes in eleven
Southern states. In four years 720 schools have
been built under the supervision of Mr. C. J. Calloway,
director of the Extension Department of
Tuskegee Institute, at a cost of $1,133,083, of which
sum $337,192 represents public appropriations;
$88,445, private contributions from white people;
Page 285
$430,381, the gifts of coloured people; and $227,065,
the gift of Mr. Rosenwald. It will thus be seen that
the beneficence of Mr. Rosenwald has produced an
additional sum of $906,018, all of which has gone
directly into the providing of improved facilities for
Negro education in the South.
Another result of the Rosenwald movement,
larger and more important, is the awakened sense of
greater responsibility for Negro education, not only
on the part of public school authorities, but on the
part of the Southern people in general for more
adequate educational provision for Negroes. An
indirect but no less significant result of the
movement has been the added stimulus given to
education in general in the South, which is bringing
increased appropriations for this purpose in almost
every community.
These Rosenwald schools are not merely school
houses in the ordinary sense, but they are
community centres from which influences radiate
into all the avenues of Negro life, and where not
infrequently both white and coloured people meet
for the consideration of matters affecting the
general welfare of the community. It was my
privilege
Page 286
recently to share in such a gathering in north
Alabama, where the principal of the white high
school suspended the regular school work and
brought his faculty and entire student body to the
dedication of one of these Rosenwald schools,
which had been recently completed through the
united efforts of citizens of both races. It was one
of the most interesting and helpful meetings in
which it has been my pleasure to participate. The
multiplying of such centres throughout the South, as
Mr. Rosenwald is doing, is setting in motion a
sentiment for inter-racial good will and
coöperation, out of which there must ultimately
come the larger freedom and greater justice for
which all true Americans are striving.
I have taken some pains thus to recount certain
forward-looking movements that are outstanding in
their effect on our Southern life. In doing so I have
not been unmindful of the injustice, discrimination,
and unfair treatment which my people are all too
often obliged to face to a greater or less extent in
all parts of the country, but I am here trying to fix
attention upon those strong and ever widening
currents of constructive endeavour which
Page 287
move forward with a swiftness that accentuates the
eddies of passion and prejudice which appear along
their course.
In all the years of my experience I have found that
a great deal more is accomplished when one does
not permit himself to dwell overmuch upon the
difficulties and discouragements which he
encounters, but keeps constantly before his mind
those forces and influences which make for the
removal of the very obstacles which often hamper
his progress. Knowing as I do the inner workings of
these movements which I have described, and the
character and spirit of the men behind them, I am
satisfied that we have in them a force and an
influence making for righteousness that cannot be
defeated.
We all realize that the patient loyalty and self
denying devotion of the black man in America
should have brought him more of the blessings and
privileges of the civilization which his labour has
helped to construct and his valour has helped to
preserve. Nevertheless, in the forty years that have
passed since I envied Sam Reed his place in the "big
house" at "Pleasant Shade" and was
Page 288
unwittingly stung into reflection by my erstwhile friend,
Ernest Morton, I have seen changes in the situation and
condition of my own race, as well as in my own life, such as
the most sanguine of that day - would hardly have
predicted. Little did I think as I played with George Denny,
the son of a Presbyterian minister on the red hills of
Piedmont, Virginia, that forty years later I would be
working in coöperation with Dr. George H. Denny, the
president of the University of Alabama - he, among his
people, training the youth of his race to a clearer
understanding of and a broader sympathy with all humanity,
and I, among my people, training, as best I may, the youth
of my race to greater fortitude and a larger faith in
themselves and in other selves.
And to-day I do not know of any work that offers larger
returns or more satisfactory results to conscientious
endeavour than the privilege that is granted to some of us
to work with the people of our own race in coöperation
with men and women of other races in the solution of these
very human problems which all men have faced in one form
or another in all ages of the world's history. And nowhere
would I rather be found working
Page 289
than right here in Alabama, where the standards of such
work have been set so high by a great soul of my own
people, whose spirit still inspires the labours of both races
in their efforts to bring men to that good will which is the
highest hope of humanity.
THE END
Page 291
INDEX
- Activities, Personal, at Hampton,187
- Adams, Lewis, 212
- Alderman, President Edwin, 270
- Alexander, Dr., 6
- Amelia County, 4, 6, 13, 29, 40
- Ancestry, 1-13
- Anna T. Jeanes Foundation, 272
- Armstrong, General, accepts
application for admission, 47; first
Sunday evening talk, 61;
introduces Dr. Washington, 63; his
class in psychology, 108; suggests
work at Hampton, 122; decides on
coloured Commandant, 131-4;
stricken with paralysis, 136;
solicitude for quartette, 136; last
days, 138-142; idea of Northern
activities, 154; with comrades at
Troy, N. Y., 158; attitude of
coloured people, 163
- Assistant Commandant, appointed
as, 122
- Atlanta University, 153
- Attwell, E. T., 247
- Baldwin, Wm. H., Jr., 270
- Baldwin, Annie G., 52
- Ballou, Gen. C. C., 238-241
- Baker, Sec'y Newton D., 242, 244, 250
- Baker, Ray Stannard 260
- Bancroft, Edgar A., 201
- Banks, Charles, 179
- Barnett, Claude A., 220
- Barrow, Chancellor David C., 272
- Berkeley, Rev. Armstead, 48, 81
- Bible, 30, 44, 54
- Birth, 17
- Blanton, J. E., 222
- Boger, Lieut. Henry H., 265
- Booth, Jennie D., 186
- Bowen, Cornelia, 215
- Bradford, Dr. Amory H., comment, 161
- Brandon, George, 169
- Bratton, Bishop Theodore B., 279
- Brent, Bishop, 251
- Briggs, F. C., 53
- Brown, Lee, 30, 34, 49
- Brown, Hugh M., 166
- Bruyer, John, 116
- Bullock, Judge W. S., 183
- Bumstead, Dr. Horace, 153
- Butler's School, 50
- Buttrick, Dr. Wallace, 169, 270
- Cabaniss, Dr. George W., 239
- Caldwell, B. C., 275
- Calhoun, R. C., 190
- Call to Tuskegee, 196-202
- Calloway, C. J., 284
- Campbell, Mr. George W., 212
- Campbell, Mr. W. W., 200, 209
- Carlisle School, 123
- Carnegie, Andrew, 272
- Carver, Prof. George W., 225
- Charlotte County, Va., 6
Page 292
- Chisholm, Melvin J., 282
- Christmas Celebration at Cottontown, 91
- Christmas Episode at Hampton, 111
- Civil War, 3, 12, 158,266
- Claxton, Dr. P. P., 243
- Clean-up Week, 172
- Clinton, Bishop George W., 245
- Coates, Mary E.,72
- Cole, Annie Russell, 279
- Collier, Prof. F. S., 142
- Commandant, appointment as, 131
- Cooper, Annie J., 166
- Coppin, Bishop L. J., 177
- Corson, Mr. (Sup't. Cumberland
County Schools), 93, 99
- Craddock, Doctor, 5
- Crowder, John, 6-13
- Cumberland County, 79, 80, 99, 101, 133
- Curtis, George L., 52-3, 104, 135
- Curtis, Mrs. J. L., 262
- Dags, Wm. H., 136
- Davis, Miss J. E., 71, 110
- DeFrantz, F. E., 239
- Des Moines, Iowa, 238
- Denny, George, 30-1, 288
- Denny, Rev., George H., 29-32
- Dillard, Dr. James H., 244, 272, 274, 275,
- DuBois, Dr. W. E. B., 166, 253
- Dunbar, Paul Lawrence, 166
- Eagan, John J., 280
- Early Youth, 17
- Education, 14, 26, 36, 41, 142
- Educational Conferences at
Hampton, 165
- Edwards, Wm. J., 214
- Eggleston, Dr. J. D., 270
- Employment, first, 17
- Erwin, Judge Frank and Son, 94-5
- European Trip, 149
- Examination for Hampton, 52
- Examinations for bar, 95-98
- Farmville, Va., 22, 80, 82, 94,108
- Father, 6, 13, 46, 70
- Fisher, Isaac, 236, 280
- Fisk University, 60, 153, 215
- Fitch, F. M., 169
- Ford, Miss, later Mrs. Armstrong, 71
- Fortune, T. Thomas, 166
- Freeland, Chas. W., 105-6, 122, 128, 135
- Friday Afternoon Lectures, 92
- Frissell, Dr. H. B., meeting with,
54; prayer on first Sunday night,
56; Sunday-School lessons with
Seniors, 107; Principal of Hampton
Institute, 141; suggests my
remaining permanently at Hampton, 147;
with quartette, 157
presides at Educational Conferences, 165;
attitude of coloured people, 168;
failing health, 192;
prayer at funeral Doctor Washington, 195;
discusses Principalship of Tuskegee, 196-7;
death, 230; tribute of Doctor Washington, 231;
tribute to Doctor Washington, 231
- Gandy, Prof. J. M., 172, 280
- General Education Board, 270-2
- General Miles and Paul Natchee,126
- Gibson, Charles H., 226
- Graduates, Tuskegee, 215
- Grant, Bishop Abraham, 272
- Greene, C. W., 214
- Green, Rev. Anthony, 82
- Gregg, Dr. James E., 233
- Gresham, Prof. C. N., 166
- Grimke Dr. A. H.,166
- Grimke Dr. Francis, 166
Page 293
- Hall, Dr. George C., 190
- Hamilton, R. M., 215
- Hammond, Mrs. L. H., 278
- Hare, C. W., 200, 214
- Harris, Commissioner T. H., 245
- Harris, Elizabeth Hunt, 168
- Harvard Summer School, 148
- Haynes, Dr. George E., 246-7
- Hembrick, Eston 83, 89, 100
- Henderson, Governor Charles, 210, 221
- Holsey, Albon L., 243
- Holtzclaw, W. H., 214
- Hooper, Ben, 36
- Hooper, Ex-Governor B. W., 279
- Hope, Dr. John, 236, 244, 261, 280
- Hopkins, Mark, 108
- Hotel, Hygeia, 138
- House, Col. E. M., 251, 260
- Howard, Perry, 179
- Howard University, 215
- Howe Albert, 93
- Hudson, Prof. R. B., 236, 280
- Hunt, Nathan, 253, 254
- Hunton, Mrs. W. A., 262
- Imes, Rev. G. Lake, 247
- Inaugural Address, 210
- Indian Students, Contact with, 123
- Indian Characteristics, 143-146
- Jackson, Edward R., 54
- James, Arthur Curtis, 148
- Jamestown Presbyterian Church, 28, 30, 75
- Jeanes, Anna T., 272
- Jeanes, Anna T., Foundation, 272
- Johnson, Miss Katharine, 262
- Jones, Dr. Thomas Jesse, 244, 254
- Jones, Dr. M. Ashby 280
- Jones, Beverley, 16
- Kealing, President H. T., 210
- Kenney, Dr. John A., 190-193
- Knapp, Dr. Seaman A., 271
- Langston, Hon. John M., 36, 88
- Law Studies, 94, 95-8, 132-142
- Lippman, Capt Walter, 260
- "Literary Penitentiary," A, 164
- Little, Dr. John, 277
- Logan, Adella H., 215
- Logan, Warren, 214, 223-4
- Long, Edgar A., 214
- Lord, Dr. John, 159
- Low, Hon. Seth, 198-201, 207, 224, 229
- Low, Mrs. Seth, 227
- Lumber Camp experiences, 39-42
- Macedonia Baptist Church, 73, 74, 81
- Mackie, Mary F., 68, 100
- Mahone, General, 36
- Mann, Ex-Governor W. H., 188, 279
- Marriage, 168, 186
- Mason, Mr. Charles E., 198, 227
- Mason, Mrs. Charles E., 227
- Mastin, Dr. J. T., 174
- McAneny, George, 273
- McCaslin, Dr. Robert H., 280
- McCulloch, Dr. J. E., 279
- Memorial Fund to Doctor Washington, 206
- Miller, Kelley, 166
- Miles, Gen. Nelson A., 126-9
- Miller, Clyde R., 253
- Mitchell, Dr. S. C., 273
- Montgomery, Isaiah T., 179
- Moreland, Dr. J. E., 244
- Morgan, Gen., 112
- Morrisette, John, 26
- Morton, Earnest, 30, 32, 35
- Morton, J. X., 32, 35
Page 294
- Mother, 5-13, 46, 56, 74, 228
- Moton, Jennie D., 186, 202, 228-9
- Mumford, Mrs. B. B., 270
- Murphy, Edgar Gardner, 270
- "My Larger Education,"
203
- Napier, Hon. J. C., 273
- Natchee, Paul, 126-9
- Negro Conference at Tuskegee,
165
- Negroes'
Loyalty in War, 235
- Negro Organization
Society of Va.,
172-8,
188, 197
- Negro Press, 168,
248
- Night School, 14
- Ninth U. S. Coloured Troops, 120
- Officers' Training Camp, Ft. Des
Moines, Ia., 238,
240.
- Ogden, Mrs Robert C.,
101.
- Ogden, Mr Robert C.,
103, 122,
148, 231, 270
- Oveltrea, John W., Chaplain,
622
- Pace, Harry, 236, 280
- Page, Dr. Inman, 166
- Page, Dr. Walter H., 270
- Palmer, Charlie, 85-9
- Palmer, John H., 55, 144
- Parents, marriage, 13
- "Patrollers," 7
- Patterson, Thomas B., 58
- Peabody, George Foster, 239, 244, 270
- Peabody, Prof. Francis G., 148
- Penn School, 229
- Perkinson, Miss Pattie, 23, 25
- Perkinson, Captain, 23
- Pershing, General, 251, 257, 261
- Petersburg School, 36, 39, 69
- Phases of work touched at Hampton, 187
- Plantation Songs, 57, 61, 93, 183, 187
- "Pleasant Shade," 17, 25, 288
- Politics, 42-6, 85
- Poteat, Dr. William Louis, 280
- Pratt, Capt. Robert H., 122
- Prince Edward County, 6, 16, 40, 108, 194
- Public Schools, 26
- Ramsey, Major J. B., 226, 247
- Randolph, Miss Agnes, 174
- "Readjuster Movement," 40-3
- Reed, Sam, 18, 287
- Religious convictions, 37-8
- Religious folk songs, 57, 183
- Representation in War Department, 242
- Rice's Depot, 33, 49
- Robert Hungerford School, 190
- Roberts, Dr. Charles H., 189
- Roberts, Dr. E. P., 189, 193
- Robinson, Judge, C. W., 200
- Rockefeller, John D., Jr., 270
- Roman, Dr. C. V., 248
- Roosevelt, Col. Theodore, 198-9
- Rosenwald, Julius, 190, 282, 286
- Rosenwald, Mrs. Julius, 227, 286
- Rosenwald School Building Project, 284
- Sailor Creek, 31
- Saurez, Miss M. E., 47
- Scarborough, President, W. S., 166
- Schieffelin, William Jay, 227
- School, first day, 26
- Scott, Emmett J., 190, 225, 242, 245-7, 261
- Scott, William H., 198
- Secret Societies, 170, 171
- Sherman, Miss M. J., 72
- Simmons, E. P., 179
- Slater John F., Fund, 273
- Smith, R. L., 273
- Southall, Capt. Frank, 37-8
Page 295
- Southall, Dr. J. M., 37
- Southern Workman, 181
- Southern Publicity Committee, 278
- Southern Sociological Congress, 279
- Spurgeon, James R., 113
- Steward, Edw. D., 46
- Student Army Training Corps, 249
- Surrey County, 39
- Taft, President Wm. H., 273
- Taylor, R. R., 225
- Teaching, 77-8, 82-101
- Tennessee Coal & Iron Co., 282
- Thanksgiving at Cottontown, 90
- Tillinghast, Mrs. I. N., 100
- Tours with Doctor Washington, 178-186
- Trip to Europe, 148-152
- Trip to France, 250-265
- Trumbull, Frank, 198,
201,
231, 210
- Trustees, Tuskegee Board of, 198, 202, 22-7
- Trustees' wives, 227
- Tulane, Victor H., 201
- Turner, Dr. H. P., 149, 168
- Tuskegee, 62, 55, 132, 191, 198, 206, 223-4, 227
- "Tuskegee Spirit, The," 214, 219
- "Up from Slavery," 69
- "Uncle Remus," 6
- University Race Commission, 276
- Vaughan, "Mr. Samuel," 16, 22, 24, 25, 28, 29, 32
- "Miss Lucy," 17, 18, 21, 22
- "Miss Pattie," 17
- "Miss Jennie," 17
- "Miss Mollie," 17, 22
- "Mr. Willie," 20, 75
- Villard, Oswald Garrison, 244
- Viny, "Aunt," 34
- Virginia N. & I. Institute, 36, 39, 69, 172
- Virginia Organization Society, 172-8, 188, 197
- Virginia Polytechnic Institute, 32, 33
- Wake Forest College, 280
- Walker, T. C., 169
- Wallace, Sec'y., 262
- Walton, Lester A., 253
- Walthall, Mr., 80
- Wanamaker, John, 101-2,122
- Ware, President, 153
- Washburn, Dr., 112
- Washington, Major Allen, 144, 176, 244
- Washington, Mrs. Booker T., 189, 224
- Washington, J. H., 214, 222
- Washington, Booker T., first
meeting with, 63; General
Armstrong's introduction and
prophecy, 63; speaks at
Hampton, 65; impression on
students, 132; coöperation with
Hampton, 160, 165, 231, 233; tours
Oklahoma, Miss., and Florida,
178-186; illness in New York, 188;
death, 193; funeral services, 195;
estimate of Major Moton, 203;
tribute to Doctor Frissell, 231;
tribute of Doctor Frissell, 231; on
Anna T. Jeanes Fund Board, 272,
and Rosenwald Fund, 284
- Weatherford, Dr. W. D., 276
- Westwood, Wm. T., 67
- "Whispering Gallery-," in France, 252
- Whiting, Joseph, 247, 262
- Wilborn, A. J., 200
- Willcox, Mrs. William G., 227
- Willcox, William G.,
191,
198, 226
Page 296
- Williams College, 158
- Williams, Dr. Talcott, 273
- Williams, W. T. B., 275
- Wilson, Hon. Wm. L., 270
- Wilson, President Woodrow,
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242,
250, 265
- Wilson, Sec'y. James, 246
- Womack, Colonel, 12
- Wright, Prof. R. R., 166
- Y. M. C. A. in France, 276
- Young, Col. Chas., 239-40
- Young, Prof. N. B., 166
- Y. W. C. A. in France, 278
THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N.Y.
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