Tuskegee and its people: their ideals and achievements

I U . f n K-/

' ■ : • r. VASHINGTON

S. 6. and E. L. ELBERT

|J«5p-tttit6 Jbg ELLA SMI!PH ELBERT. »38

X9 -KATHABIimJS^ CaMAH

Complime?its of

BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Principal Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute
Tuskegee Institute, Alabama

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

BOOKER T. WASHINGTON.

TUSKEGEE &

ITS PEOPLE: THEIR IDEALS
AND ACHIEVEMENTS $ i *

EDITED BY

BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
NEW YORK
1906

COPTRIGHT, 1905, BT

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY

Published June, 1905

PREFACE

In a general way the reading public is fairly-
well acquainted with the work of the Tuskegee
Normal and Industrial Institute, but there is con-
tinued demand for definite information as to just
what the graduates of that institution are doing
with their education.

That inquiry is partly answered by this book.
The scope of the Tuskegee Institute work is out-
lined by the chapters contained in Part I, while
those of Part II evidence the fact that the gradu-
ates of the school are grappling at first-hand with
the conditions that environ the masses of the Negro
people.

At the school, in addition to the regular Nor-
mal School course of academic work, thirty-six
industries are taught the young men and women.
These are: Agriculture; Basketry; Blacksmithing ;
Bee-keeping; Brickmasonry ; Plastering; Brick-
making; Carpentry; Carriage Trimming; Cook-
ing; Dairying; Architectural, Freehand, and Me-

V

PREFACE

chanical Drawing; Dressmaking; Electrical and
Steam Engineering; Founding; Harness-making;
Housekeeping ; Horticulture ; Canning ; Plain
Sewing; Laundering; Machinery; Mattress-mak-
ing; Millinery; Xurse Training; Painting; Saw-
milling ; Shoemaking ; Printing ; Stock-raising ;
Tailoring; Tinning; and Wheelwrighting.

Since the founding of the institution, July 4,
1881, seven hundred and forty-six graduates have
gone out from the institution, while more than six
thousand others who were not able to remain and
complete the academic course, and thereby secure
a diploma, have been influenced for good by it.

The school has sought from the very beginning
to make itself of practical value to the Negro peo-
ple and to the South as well. It has taught those
industries that are of the South, the occupations in
which our men and w^omen find most ready em-
ployment, and unflinchingly has refused to aban-
don its course; it has sought to influence its young
men and women to live unselfish, sacrificing lives;
to put into practise the lessons taught on every side
that make for practical, helpful every-day living.

In the main those who go out from Tuskegee
Institute, (1) follow the industry they have been
taught, (2) teach in a public or private school or

vi

PREFACE

teach part of the year and farm or labor the rest,
(3) follow housekeeping or other domestic service,
or (4) enter a profession or the Government serv-
ice, or become merchants. Among the teachers are
many who instruct in farming or some industry;
the professional men are largely physicians, and
the professional women mostly trained nurses.
Dr. Washington, the Principal of the school,
makes the unqualified statement: "After diligent
investigation, I can not find a dozen former stu-
dents in idleness. They are in shop, field, school-
room, home, or the church. They are busy because
they have placed themselves in demand by learn-
ing to do that which the world wants done, and
because they have learned the disgrace of idleness
and the sweetness of labor."

No attempt has here been made to represent all
of the industries; no attempt has especially been
made to confine representation to those who are
working at manual labor. The public, or at least
a part of it, somewhat gratuitously, has reached
the conclusion that Tuskegee Institute is a " serv-
ant training school," or an employment agency.
That is a mistaken idea.

The object of the school is to train men and
women who will go out and repeat the work done

vii

PREFACE

here, to teach what they have learned to others, and
to leaven the whole mass of the Negro people in the
South with a desire for the knowledge and profit-
able operation of those industries in which they
have in so large a measure the right of way. Tus-
kegee students and graduates are never urged not
to take such service, especially not to refuse in
preference to idleness, but it all involves a simple,
ordinary, economic principle. Capable men and
women, skilled in the industrial arts, are like those
of all races — they seek the most profitable employ-
ment. A blacksmith, a tailor, a brickmason, a
harness-maker, or other artisan, who can find work
in shops and factories, or independently, and make
thirty to seventy-five dollars a month, and even
more, will not, simply because he is black, leave
those chances to accept service in private employ-
ment for fifteen dollars per month, and less, and
board himself. No school could covenant to train
servants for an indefinite tenure ; it can at best only
promise to train leaders who shall go among the
masses and lift them up ; to train men and women
who shall in turn reach hundreds of others.

Those who write the following chapters repre-
sent, in the main, this class. They have written
simply, with perfect frankness, have dealt with the

viii

PREFACE

significant things of their lives, and have demon-
strated, the writer beheves, that from humble
origin black men and women may confidently be
counted upon, with proper encouragement, to win
success. The chapters are autobiographical, sig-
nificantly optimistic, with just pride in what has
been done, and outlining, as did " Up from Slav-
ery"— which was commended as a proper model
■ — experiences from childhood, the school-life of
the writer, and the results achieved in the direc-
tion of putting into practise what was learned in
school. Through this symposium it is hoped that
the public may learn, in the best possible way, some
of the finer results already accomplished by the
Tuskegee Institute.

E. J. S.

Tuskegee Institute, Alabama, April i, 1905.

CONTENTS

PAGE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION 1

By Booker T. Washington.

PART I

THE SCHOOL AND IT8 PURPOSES

I.— PRESENT ACHIEVEMENTS AND GOVERNING

IDEALS 19

By Emmett J. Scott, Mr. Washington's Executive
Secretary.

II.-RESOURCES AND MATERIAL EQUIPMENT . . 35
By Warren Logan, Treasurer of the School.

III. — THE ACADEMIC AIMS 56

By Roscoe C. Bruce, Director of the Academic De-
partment.

IV. -WHAT GIRLS ARE TAUGHT, AND HOW ... 68

By Mrs. Booker T. Washington, Director of Indus-
tries for Girls.

V.-HAMPTON INSTITUTE'S RELATION TO TUS-

KEGEE 87

By Robert R. Moton.

PART n

AUTOBIOGRAPHIES BY GRADUATES OF THE SCHOOL

I.— A COLLEGE PRESIDENT'S STORY .... 101
By Isaac Fisher, of Pine Bluff, Arkansas.

n.— A SCHOOL PRINCIPAL'S STORY Ill

By WiUiam H. Holtzclaw, of Utica, Mississippi.

CONTENTS

PAGE

m.— A LAWYER'S STORY 141

By George W. Lovejoy, of Mobile, Alabama.

ly.— A SCHOOL TREASURER'S STORY .... 152
By Martin A. Menafee, of Denmark, South Carolina.

v.— THE STORY OF A FARMER 164

By Frank Reid, of Dawkins, Alabama.

VI.— THE STORY OF A CARPENTER .... 173
By Gabriel B. IMiller, of Fort Valley, Georgia.

Vn.— COTTON-GROWING IN AFRICA .... 184
By John W. Robinson, of Lome, Togo, West Africa.

VIII.— THE STORY OF A TEACHER OF COOKING . 200
By Mary L. Dotson, of Tuskegee Institue, Alabama.

IX.— A WOMAN'S WORK 211

By Cornelia Bowen, of Waugh (Mt. Meigs), Alabama.

X.— UPLIFTING OF THE SUBMERGED MASSES . 224
By W. J, Edwards, of Snow Hill, Alabama.

XL— A DAIRYMAN'S STORY 253

By Lewis A. Smith, of Rockford, Illinois.

XII.— THE STORY OF A WHEELWRIGHT . . .264
By Edward Lomax, of Tuskegee Institute, Alabama.

XIIL— THE STORY OF A BLACKSMITH .... 276
By Jubie B. Bragg, of Tallahassee, Florida.

XIV.-A DRUGGIST'S STORY 285

By David L. Johnston, of Birmingham, Alabama.

XV.— THE STORY OF A SUPERVISOR OF MECHAN-
ICAL INDUSTRIES 299

By James M. Canty, of Institute P. O., West Virginia.

XVI.— A NEGRO COMMUNITY BUILDER .... 317
By Russell C. Calhoun, of Eaton ville, Florida.

XVII.— THE EVOLUTION OF A SHOEMAKER . . .338
By Charles L. Marshall, of Cambria, Virginia.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING
PAGE

BOOKER T. WASHINGTON .... Frontispiece

EMMETT J. SCOTT 20

Mr. Washington's Executive Secretary.

THE COLLIS P. HUNTINGTON MEMORIAL BUILDING 26

WARREN LOGAN 36

Treasurer of the School

THE OFFICE BUILDING IN PROCESS OF ERECTION . 50
Student carpenters shown at work.

ROSCOE C. BRUCE 56

Director of the Academic Department.

A PORTION OF THE SCHOOL GROUNDS . . .64

ANOTHER PORTION OF THE SCHOOL GROUNDS . . 66

MRS. BOOKER T. WASHINGTON 68

Director of Industries for Girls.

A CLASS IN MILLINERY 76

THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL 94

Standing, left to right : P. C. Parks, Superintendent of Farm ; Qeorge
W. Carver, Director, Agricultural Department ; J. N. Calloway,
Land Extension ; John H. Palmer, Registrar ; Charles H. Gibson,
Resident Auditor ; Edgar J. Penney, Chaplain.

Seated, left to right : Lloyd G. Wheeler, Business Agent ; Robert R.
Taylor, Director of Mechanical Industries ; John H. Washington,
General Superintendent of Industries ; Warren Logan, Treasurer ;
Booker T. Washington, Principal ; Miss Jane E. Clark, Dean of
Woman's Department; Mrs. Booker T. Washington, Director of In-
dustries for Girls: and Emmett J. Scott, Secretary to the Principal.

The Director of the Academic Department, Roscoe C. Bruce, and the
Commandant of Cadets, Major J. B. Ramsey, also members of
the Executive Council, were absent when photograph was taken.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING
PAGE

THE CARNEGIE LIBRARY BUILDING .... 108

MORNING AT THE BARNS ON THE SCHOOL FARM . 122
Teams of horses and cattle ready to start for the day's work.

STUDENTS PRUNING PEACH-TREES 146

A SILO ON THE FARM 166

Students filling it with fodder corn, steam-power being used.

A MODEL DINING-ROOM 208

From the department where table-service is taught.

THE CULTURE OF BEES 220

Students at work in the apiary.

IN THE DAIRY 254

Students using separators.

STUDENTS AT WORK IN THE HARNESS SHOP . . 270

AT THE HOSPITAL 294

A comer in the boys* ward.

IN THE TIN SHOP SOO

STUDENTS CANNING FRUIT 308

STARTING A NEW BUILDING 314

Student masons laying the foundation in brick.

GIRLS GARDENING 344

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION
By Booker T. Washington

Institutions, like individuals, are properly
judged by their ideals, their methods, and their
achievements in the production of men and women
who are to do the world's work.

One school is better than another in proportion
as its system touches the more pressing needs of
the people it aims to serve, and provides the more
speedily and satisfactorily the elements that bring
to them honorable and enduring success in the
struggle of life. Education of some kind is the
first essential of the young man, or young woman,
who would lay the foundation of a career. The
choice of the school to which one will go and
the calling he will adopt must be influenced in
a very large measure by his environments, trend of
ambition, natural capacity, possible opportunities

1

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

in the proposed calling, and the means at his
command.

In the past twenty-four years thousands of the
youth of this and other lands have elected to come
to the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute
to secure what they deem the training that would
offer them the widest range of usefulness in the
activities open to the masses of the Negro people.
Their hopes, fears, strength, weaknesses, struggles,
and triumphs can not fail to be of absorbing
interest to the great body of American people,
more particularly to the student of educational
theories and their attendant results.

When an institution has, like Tuskegee Insti-
tute, reached that stage in its development that
its system of instruction has aroused very general
discussion, and has given to the world of varied
industry an army of workers, numbering not less
than 6,000, there is a natural curiosity on the
part of the public to learn all that is possible
of such an institution, and of the personality and
methods of those administering its affairs. They
wish to ascertain the actual truth concerning its
resources and equipment; they want figures de-
tailing the degree of pecuniary productiveness and
moral efficiency attained by those who have re-

2

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

ceived the prescribed training; and they are eager
to hear the whole story from the hps of both the
instructors and the instructed as to how the re-
corded results have been accomplished.

In several volumes already published, bearing
upon Tuskegee Institute and what it stands for,
an endeavor has been made to present a truthful
account of the Principal's early strivings and life-
work ; an honest attempt has been made to analyze
and impress the basic principles upon which Tuske-
gee Institute was founded. It has been the aim
to write a history of individual yearnings for the
light of knowledge that would stir the inner con-
sciousness of the humblest of the race and arouse
him to the vast possibilities that lie in the wake
of solid character, intelligent industry, and ma-
terial acquisition. He has tried, with all earnest-
ness, to hold up the future of the American Negro
in its most attractive aspect, and to emphasize the
virile philosophy that there is a positive dignity
in working with the hands, when that labor is forti-
fied by a developed brain and a consecrated heart.

Though much has been said of the spirit and
purpose of this center of social and economic up-
hft in the famed Black Belt of the South, there
is still a wide-spread demand for a more specific

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

recital of what is being done here, by whom, under
what conditions, and the concrete evidences of the
benefits that are growing out of the thrift, indus-
try, right thinking, and right Hving taught by our
faculty.

In response to this insistent call, Mr. Emmett
J. Scott, Executive Secretary of the Tuskegee In-
stitute, presents to the public a further contribu-
tion, Tuskegee and Its People: Their Ideals and
Achievements, with authentic accompanying au-
tobiographies of a number of typical students of
the school.

To this work Mr. Scott brings a peculiar fit-
ness, unequaled by any other person who might
have been chosen to perform it. He is closely
knit to the Southland and her great masses by
the common sympathy of nativity and the mutu-
ality of hopes. The South has always been his
home, but he has traveled so extensively and
mingled so freely that he has acquired most ample
breadth of vision as regards men and things.

For many years now Mr. Scott has served
the school with rare fidelity and zeal, and has been
to the Principal not only a loyal assistant in every
phase of his manifold and frequently trying duties,
but has proved a valuable personal friend and

4

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

counselor in matters of the most delicate nature,
exhibiting in emergencies a quality of judgment
and diplomatic calmness seldom found in men of
even riper maturity and more extended experience.

As I stated in one of my books published several
years ago, as far as one individual can fill the place
of another, Mr. Scott has acted in the Principal's
stead, seeing with the Principal's eyes and hearing
with the Principal's ears, counting no sacrifice
too great to be made for Tuskegee's well-being.
He is in perfect accord with the fundamental
principles and practical policies through the per-
sistent adherence to which Tuskegee Institute
has won its conspicuous place in the educational
world.

The volume here presented has been edited by
Mr. Scott with the utmost care, he preferring to
have the contributors understate rather than over-
state the results that have come from the labors
of Tuskegee and its people. It has been the Prin-
cipal's pleasure and privilege to examine and crit-
ically review the manuscript after its comple-
tion, and the volume is so praiseworthy that
it is given his cordial approval. The task of
editing he had expected to perform has been
so well done that it has only been necessary to

5

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

review the manuscript after its preparation for
the publishers, and to forego the strict editorial
revisioning planned. The book is an accurate por-
trait of the Tuskegee of to-day, and reasonably
forecasts the hopes for the institution of to-mor-
row. It tells with forceful directness and graphic
precision the formative work that is being done
for this generation, and supplies a fulcrum upon
which there may justly rest a prophecy of greater
things for the generations that are to follow.

A Tuskegee book, whatever its primary motive,
is invariably expected to deal broadly with the
entire problem of the Negro and his relationships
of every kind. It must be more than a mere flesh-
and-blood narrative, descriptive of the material
progress of the men and women the Institute has
produced and is producing. It must be a book
free from ostentatious pretension, breathing the
atmosphere of the life of the earnest people it
describes. It must, of course, exhibit not only the
achievements, but also the ideals, the possibilities
of the Tuskegee trained man and woman. This,
I feel, is adequately done in this volume.

Tuskegee and Its People possesses ideals in
thought, morals, and action — and they are lofty.
In these respects the symposium will not prove a

6

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

disappointment. This instinct for the ideal, how-
ever, lies not in idly sighing for it, but is born
of an abiding belief that worth is intrinsic, and
that applied common sense, practical knowledge,
constancy of effort, and mechanical skill will make
a place for the patient striver far more secure
than the artificial niche into which some one may
thrust him. The masses who are most helpfully
reached by the Tuskegee Institute are coming to
realize that education in its truest sense is no
longer to be regarded as an emotional impulse, a
fetish made up of loosely joined information, to
be worshiped for its mere possession, but as a
practical means to a definite end. They are being
taught that mind-training is the logical helpmeet
of hand-training, and that both, supplemented and
sweetened by heart-training, make the high-souled,
useful, productive, patriotic, law-loving, public-
spirited citizen, of whom any nation might well
be proud. The outcome of such education will
be that, instead of the downtrodden child of igno-
rance, shiftlessness, and moral weakness, we shall
generate the thoroughly rounded man of prudence,
foresight, responsibility, and financial independ-
ence. He will cease to be the gullible victim
of the sharper who plays upon vanity, credulity,

7

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

and superstition, and learn to value onty that which
is real and substantial. It is of the highest im-
portance to the Xegro, who must make his way
amid disadvantages and embarrassments of the se-
verest character, that he be made aware of the
vast difF erence between working and being worked.
In carrying this inspiring message and impress-
ing these fundamental truths, the new Tuske-
gee book renders a splendid service.

Industrial training will be more potent for
good to the race when its relation to the other
phases of essential education is more clearly under-
stood. There is afloat no end of discussion as to
what is the " proper kind of education for the
Negro," and much of it is hurtful to the cause
it is designed to promote. The danger, at pres-
ent, that most seriously threatens the success of in-
dustrial training, is the ill-advised insistence in cer-
tain quarters that this form of education should be
off*ered to the exclusion of all other branches of
knowledge. If the idea becomes fixed in the minds
of the people that industrial education means class
education, that it should be offered the Negro be-
cause he is a Negro, and that the Negro should be
confined to this sort of education, then I fear
serious injury will be done the cause of hand-train-

8

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

ing. It should be understood rather that at such
institutions as Hampton Institute and Tuskegee
Institute, industrial education is not emphasized
because colored people are to receive it, but because
the ripest educational thought of the world ap-
proves it; because the undeveloped material re-
sources of the South make it peculiarly important
for both races; and because it should be given
in a large measure to any race, regardless of color,
which is in the same stage of development as the
Negro.

On the other hand, no one understanding the
real needs of the race would advocate that indus-
trial education should be given to every Negro to
the exclusion of the professions and other branches
of learning. It is evident that a race so largely
segregated as the Negro is, must have an increas-
ing number of its own professional men and
women. There is, then, a place and an increasing
need for the Negro college as well as for the in-
dustrial institute, and the two classes of schools
should, and as a matter of fact do, cooperate in
the common purpose of elevating the masses.
There is nothing in hand-training to suggest that
it is a class-training. The best educational au-
thorities in the world are indorsing it as an es-

9

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

sential feature in the education of both races, and
especially so when a very large proportion of the
people in question are compelled by dint of cir-
cumstances to earn their living in manufactures
and agricultural and mechanical pursuits in gen-
eral. It so happens that the bulk of our people
are permanently to remain in the South, and con-
ditions beyond their control have attached them to
the soil; for a long time the status of the majority
of them is likely to be that of laborers. To make
hard conditions easier, to raise common labor from
drudgery to dignity, and to adopt systems of train-
ing that will meet the needs of the greatest num-
ber and prepare them for the better things that
intelHgent effort will surely bring, form a task
to which the wisest of the race are addressing them-
selves with an eager enthusiasm which refuses to
be chilled by adverse criticism.

Tuskegee emphasizes industrial training for
the Negro, not with the thought that the Negro
should be confined to industrialism, the plow, or
the hoe, but because the undeveloped material re-
sources of the South offer at this time a field pecul-
iarly advantageous to the worker skilled in agri-
culture and the industries, and here are found the
Negro's most inviting opportunities for taking on

10

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

the rudimentary elements that ultimately make for
a permanently progressive civilization.

The Tuskegee Idea is that correct education
begins at the bottom, and expands naturally as
the necessities of the people expand. As the race
grows in knowledge, experience, culture, taste, and
wealth, its wants are bound to become more and
more diverse; and to satisfy these wants there will
be gradually developed within our own ranks — as
has already been true of the whites — a constantly
increasing variety of professional and business men
and women. Their places in the economic world
will be assured and their prosperity guaranteed in
proportion to the merit displayed by them in their
several callings, for about them will have been es-
tablished the solid bulwark of an industrial mass
to which they may safely look for support. The
esthetic demands will be met as the capacity of
the race to procure them is enlarged through the
processes of sane intellectual advancement. In
this cumulative way there will be erected by the
Negro, and for the Negro, a complete and inde-
structible civilization that will be respected by all
whose respect is worth the having. There should
be no limit placed upon the development of any
individual because of color, and let it be under-

11

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

stood that no one kind of training can safely
be prescribed for any entire race. Care should be
taken that racial education be not one-sided for
lack of adaptation to personal fitness, nor un-
wieldy through sheer top-heaviness. Education, to
fulfil its mission for any people anywhere, should
be symmetrical and sensible.

A mastery of the industries taught at Tuske-
gee presupposes and requires no small degree of
academic study, for competency in agriculture calls
for considerable knowledge of chemistry, and no
mechanical pursuit can be followed satisfactorily
without some acquaintance with the "three Rs."
Likewise, the individual of liberal academic or
college preparation possesses a stronger equipment
for constructive work who has trained his hands to
supplement his brain.

After all, the final test of the value of any
system of education is found in the record of its
actual achievements. In Tuskegee and Its People
heads of the several departments have not only
given a succinct account of the history, resources,
and current labors of the school, but deal most hap-
pily with the governing ideals behind the institu-
tion, and vindicate its claim to the approval of
the world's thinkers and moving forces. Besides

12

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

treating rather elaborately the structural efficiency
of the work of the teachers, the editor has not neg-
lected to emphasize the spiritual and ethical vir-
tues that spread over a wider range of influence
here and among our people throughout the South-
land than those familiar with the purely academic
phases have adequately understood.

Tuskegee's germ principle is to be found in
its unboasted ideals, in the things that of necessity
can not be listed in catalogue or report, rather than
in its buildings, shops, farms, and what not. The
school dwells upon the saving power of land, and
learning, and skill, and a bank-account — not as
finalities in themselves, but as tangible witnesses
to the Negro's capacity to compete with others.

Perhaps the newest and most refreshing fea-
ture of the book is its vivid pen-portraits of the
young men and women who have gone out of Tus-
kegee carrying into diversified lives the principles
and precepts imbibed from their parent school.
The pictures are drawn by the originals themselves,
and they illustrate by honorable achievement the
wholesome and evangelizing influence of Tuske-
gee's preachments, and the far-reaching effect of
placing before them as teachers the highest ex-
ample of what the Negro of morals and manners

13

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

may become. They tell their story at first-hand,
modestly and sincerely, and the foundations of
inspiring lives, laid in the Christian virtues and
conscientious service of their fellow men, foster
a firm belief that the school is doing a work that
will live.

These types of Tuskegee's graduates, picked
out at random from hundreds of equal scholarship
and ability, represent distinctive channels of activ-
ity, including the president of a leading college,
principals and teachers of thriving schools, a law-
yer, a tinner, a school treasurer, farmers, cot-
ton-growers, master builders and contractors, a
dairyman, and a blacksmith. No element contribu-
ting to the racial uplift is overlooked. The scenes
of their labors are scattered over a vast area, show-
ing convincingly the diffusive character as well
as the rich harvest garnered through the Tuske-
gee Idea. These rough-hewn sketches of a sturdy
pioneer band in staking out a larger life and a
wider horizon for later generations are worthy
of the most careful perusal.

The immeasurable advancement of the Negro,
manifested in character, courage, and cash, vital-
ized by valiant service to the republic in education,
commerce, and religion, and crowned by an

14

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

enlightened, vigorously efficient, sensibly ambi-
tious, and law-abiding citizenship, is " confirma-
tion strong as proofs of Holy Writ " that the gos-
pel of industry, as exemplified by Tuskegee and its
helpers, has exerted a leavening influence upon
civilization wherever it has been brought within
the reach of those who are struggling toward
the heights. Under this new dispensation of mind,
morals, and muscle, with the best whites and best
blacks in sympathetic cooperation, and justice
meaning the same to the weak as to the strong, the
South will no longer be vexed by a " race problem."
Peace and prosperity for all will come with
the strength to rise above the baser self. Civic
righteousness is the South's speediest thoroughfare
to economic greatness.

A book that opens the inner chambers of a
people's heart, and sheds a light that may guide
the footsteps of both races along the upward way,
should meet with a hearty welcome at the hands
of all lovers of mankind.

15

PART I

THE SCHOOL AND ITS PURPOSES

I

PRESENT ACHIEVEMENTS AND
GOVERNING IDEALS

By Emmett J. Scott

So much has been said about Tuskegee Insti-
tute as a training-school in which to prepare young
colored men and women for earning a living in the
world of trade and business, that the ideals and
spirit behind all this training are to a very large
extent lost sight of.

Tuskegee, with its hundreds of acres of farm-
land under intelligent cultivation, with its ever-
increasing number of well-appointed buildings and
its equipment, and the many things on the grounds
included in the name of handicrafts, is always in
the public eye, and continually appeals to the
interest of those who are deeply concerned in the
well-being and progress of the Negro people.

Yet behind all of these more tangible manifes-
tations of work, skill, and achievement, there is an
unseen, persistent groping after the higher ideals
of life and living. No one can remain long on
3 19

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

the grounds as an intelligent observer of all that is
to be here seen and felt, without recognizing that
the things that are not written in the catalogue and
not a part of the daily program of activities are
real, vital, and of far-reaching importance.

Principal Booker T. Washington and the men
and women who have helped him to build Tuskegee
Institute are constantly looking beyond the present
to a future filled with the evidences of a better liv-
ing for all those who have felt the transforming
spirit of the hidden forces at work.

How the perspective widens and deepens ! Far,
far beyond the confines of the Tuskegee Institute
community the light of this new life is seen and
felt and has its salutary effect. The stagnant life
of centuries has awakened, and is casting off its
bonds. A new term, " intelligent thrift," has come
into its possession. Wherever this term has gone
and taken root, there has gone with it the thought
that unless the idea make for character, as well as
for more cotton or corn, it is not of much value.

The Tuskegee Idea always asks one question,
and that is, "What are you?" and not, "What
have you? " The man who does not rise superior to
his possessions does not measure up to the Tuske-
gee idea of manhood.

20

EMMETT J. SCOTT.
Mr. Washington's Executive Secretary.

PRESENT ACHIEVEMENTS

In other words, character-building is the Alpha
and Omega of all that Tuskegee stands for. F rom
the moment the new student comes on the grounds
until he leaves, he is appealed to in ways innu-
merable to regard life as more than bread or meat,
as more than mere mental equipment. Cleanli-
ness, decorum, promptness, truthfulness — these are
old-fashioned virtues, and are more properly taught
in the home, but in Tuskegee they mean everything.
Tuskegee not only acts as a teacher, but assumes
the role of parent, and lays emphasis on the im-
portance of these virtues every moment of the time
from the entrance of the student until Commence-
ment Day. The " cleanliness that is next to godli-
ness " is one of the Tuskegee ideals, and a student
can scarcely commit a more serious misdemeanor
than to appear slovenly, either in dress or manners.
The facilities and requirements for bathing are
quite as complete and exacting as the equipments in
the laboratories and recitation-rooms. The result is
that Tuskegee has the reputation of being one of
the most cleanly and sanitary institutions in the
South.

As for good manners, Lord Chesterfield him-
self would scarcely ask more than is insisted upon
by Tuskegee precision. A man must first be con-

21

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

scious of being a gentleman before he can be recog-
nized as such by others, and a girl's good manners
are only outward evidences of her individual worth
and passport to respectful treatment. Tuskegee
Institute, then, insists upon these things because
they make for character, and are a part of the
ideals toward which all training tends.

But how are all these things taught and en-
forced? The first requisite, of course, is the char-
acter of the teachers and instructors themselves, the
men and women who are the embodiment of the
ideals that Tuskegee Institute stands for. While
it can not be claimed that the best teachers in the
South are all at Tuskegee, it can be said that no
other school has so large a number of colored men
and women who have had the advantage of the
highest industrial and intellectual, moral and re-
ligious training. The teaching force is made up
largely of graduates from nearly every first-class
educational institution in America. These teachers
have been carefully sought out and brought to Tus-
kegee, not only for their teaching ability, but that
the students may have the benefit of the best exam-
ples before them of what the highest culture can do
for men and women of their own race. For the
majority of our students the perspective of life is

22

PRESENT ACHIEVEMENTS

narrow: many of them have never lived out of the
community in which they were born. That was
their only world; their ideals of life were shaped by
their mean and narrow environments. They have
learned to believe, and act accordingly, that the
best people are all of one complexion, and the worst
and poorest people are all of another complexion.
There is no such thing as creating a sentiment of
race pride in such people unless they have set be-
fore them living examples of their own race in
whom they can feel a sense of pride.

It is scarcely too much to say that one of the
best things about the Tuskegee Institute is that
it wins our young men and women from mean and
sordid environment and brings them in contact
with teachers whose minds, hearts, and lives have
been enlarged and graced by the highest learning
in the best educational institutions of the country.
The school teaches no more important lesson than
that of cultivating a sense of pride and respect for
colored men and women who deserve it because of
their character, education, and achievements.

Pride of race, though not so written in the
courses of study, is as much a part of Tuskegee's
work as agriculture, brick-making, millinery, or
any other trade, and quite as important. This may

23

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

be called sentiment, but it makes for race develop-
ment quite as much as any of the material things
taught in the class-room or shop. To borrow a line
from George Eliot:

" Because our race has no great memories,
I will so live, it shall remember me
For deeds of such divine beneficence
As rivers have, that teach men what is good
By blessing them —

And make their name, now but a badge of scorn,
A glorious banner floating in their midst.
Stirring the air they breathe with impulses
Of generous pride, exalting fellowship
Until it soars to magnanimity."

That self-respect demands race pride; that vir-
tue is its own reward ; that character is the greatest
thing in human life, are taught and emphasized in
other ways also. Dr. Washington has succeeded, to
a remarkable degree, in developing the Tuskegee
Institute by insisting that this institution must have
nothing less than the best within and without it,
everywhere. What is not best is only temporary.
Those who have done most for the school have been
made to feel that the character of the work done
here and the ideals striven for are deserving of the
best. The idea that " anything is good enough for
a Negro school " has never been allowed to have

24

PRESENT ACHIEVEMENTS

any part or exert any effect in Tuskegee's ex-
pansion.

For example, when Mr. Carnegie donated the
money for a library for Tuskegee, a building was
erected of classic outline — a noble structure of ar-
tistic symmetry and beauty that must appeal to
every one who has any appreciation of architec-
tural beauty. The CoUis P. Huntington Memorial
Building, just completed, a gift of Mrs. C. P.
Huntington, used for the academic classes of the
school, would be a credit and delight to any munici-
pality. There is everything about the exterior and
interior that must awaken a sense of pride in every
pupil who enters its portals. Its facilities are sen-
sible and unostentatious, yet they meet every re-
quirement of the department. What is true of the
new Academic Building is likewise true of the vari-
ous dormitories for girls and boys. The cleanliness
and the sanitation to be found at Tuskegee are in
delightful contrast to the poor environment to
which many of the students have been accustomed ;
especially is this contrast heightened when these
same students have, under competent direction,
installed the plants which yield these comforts.
Thus it is that in dormitory, recitation-room, shop,
dining-hall, library, chapel, and landscape, the idea

25

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

that only the best is worth having and striving for
is emphasized as an object-lesson and principle
with such insistence that it becomes an actual part
of a student's training and life.

The student at Tuskegee is constantly being
trained to look up and forward. He learns how
the idea of beauty can be actualized in home and
social life; how faithful performance of every duty
means nobility of character; how the value of
achievement is determined by the motive behind
it. But besides these, the one aim, thought, or anxi-
ety around which all others revolve is the high
honorableness of all kinds of work intelligently
done.

In a section where those who work with their
hands are marked olf by the inexorable line of caste
from those who work with their brains or not at
all, this idea of making intelligent work more
honorable than intelligent idleness is of construc-
tive value in race development. The problem that
the Tuskegee Institute is helping to solve is not
only that the colored people shall do their pro-
portionate share of the work, but that they shall
do it in such a way that the benefits will remain
with those who do the work. Who can measure
the transforming effect and influence when it caq

26

PRESENT ACHIEVEMENTS

be said that the " best mechanics " and the " best
agriculturists " in the South are Negroes? Cer-
tainly, if such a time ever comes, there will be no
such painful thing as a race problem, as Negroes
now see it and feel it.

This is one of Tuskegee's largest ideals; not
that Tuskegee alone can bring about a " consum-
mation so devoutly to be wished," but it is am-
bitious to be a potent factor in all the tendencies
that make for such a condition of life in the heart
of the South. So important is this aim and idea
of Tuskegee, that it allows no criticism to affect,
interfere, or obscure its vision. Tuskegee says to
the world that it is determined not only to be a
school, but an agent of civilization, a missionary
for a better life, that shall stand for a kindlier re-
lationship between the races.

The school enthusiastically seeks to live up to
the ideal of its Principal, that education in the
broadest and truest sense is designed to influence
individuals to help others; is designed, first, last,
and all the time, to transform and energize indi-
viduals into life-giving agencies for the uplift of
their fellows. Principal Washington's whole edu-
cational creed, accepted by Tuskegee Institute
teachers and students alike, was recently declared

27

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

in one of his familiar Sunday-evening " talks " to
the students of the institution. Said he:

" Education in the broadest and truest sense
will make an individual seek to help all people, re-
gardless of race, regardless of color, regardless of
condition. And you will find that the person who
is most truly educated is the one who is going to
be kindest, and is going to act in the gentlest man-
ner toward persons who are unfortunate, toward
the race or the individual that is most despised.
The highly educated person is the one who is
most considerate of those individuals who are less
fortunate. I hope when you go out from here
and meet persons who are afflicted by poverty,
whether of mind or body, or persons who are un-
fortunate in any way, that you will show your edu-
cation by being just as kind and considerate toward
those persons as it is possible for you to be. That
is the way to test a person with education. You
may see ignorant persons, who perhaps think
themselves educated, going about the street, and
when they meet an individual who is unfortunate —
lame, or with a defect of body, mind, or speech —
are inclined to laugh at and make sport of that in-
dividual. But the highly educated person, the one
who is really cultivated, is gentle and sympathetic

28

PRESENT ACHIEVEMENTS

to every one. Education is meant to make us abso-
lutely honest in dealing with our fellows. I do not
care how much arithmetic we have, or how many
cities we can locate; it is all useless unless we have
an education that makes us absolutely honest.
Education is meant to make us give satisfaction,
and to get satisfaction out of giving it. It is
meant to make us get happiness out of service for
our fellows. And until we get to the point where
we can get happiness and supreme satisfaction
out of helping our fellows, we are not truly edu-
cated. . . . Education is meant to make us
appreciate the things that are beautiful in nature.
A person is never educated until he is able to go
into the swamps and woods and see something that
is beautiful in the trees and shrubs there — is able
to see something beautiful in the grass and flowers
that surround him — is, in short, able to see some-
thing beautiful, elevating, and inspiring in every-
thing that God has created. Not only should edu-
cation enable us to see beauty in these objects which
God has put about us, but it is meant to influence
us to bring beautiful objects about us. I hope that
each one of you, after you graduate, will surround
himself at home with what is beautiful, inspiring,
and elevating. I do not believe that any person

29

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

is educated so long as he lives in a dirty, miserable
shanty. I do not believe that any person is edu-
cated until he has learned to want to live in a
clean room made attractive with pictures and
books, and with such surroundings as are elevating.
In a word, I w^sh to say again that education is
meant to give us that culture, that refinement,
that taste, which will make us deal truthfully and
sympathetically with our fellow men, and will make
us see what is beautiful, elevating, and inspiring in
what God has created. I want you to bear in mind
that your text-books, with all their contents, are not
an end, but a means to an end — a means to help us
get the highest, the best, the purest, and the most
beautiful things out of life."

The Tuskegee trained boy or girl has set be-
fore him every hour in the day, and every day in
the year, the substantial educational ideals here set
forth. Books, valuable as they are, and nowhere
more thoroughly reckoned as such than here, are
only a means to an end : this is the gospel preached
by the Tuskegee teacher. Life is the great, the
eternal thing; the serving of one's fellows, the min-
istering unto the needy of a groping, developing
people — this is the thing not forgotten, but ever
constantly enforced by precept and by example.

30

PRESENT ACHIEVEMENTS

The many old and time-worn frame buildings
are being replaced by finely built and imposing
brick and stone structures ; the tallow dip and anti-
quated oil-lamp and gas-jet, as illuminators, have
paled before the more brilliant white light of elec-
tricity, installed by Tuskegee students and operated
by them. Patience and f aith ! — these are Tuske-
gee's watchwords and her standard virtues. What
can not be accomplished to-day will certainly be
accomplished to-morrow.

So, in its larger outlook and household anxi-
eties, Tuskegee Institute teachers are confident
that the things taught and enforced by example
and precept will justify their efforts in helping
to make a dependent people independent, a dis-
tracted people confident, and an humble people to
thrill with pride in itself and in its best men and
women. Thus it is that Tuskegee Institute has
never been satisfied with being merely a school,
concerned wholly with its recitations and training
in shop and field. Every student who carries a
diploma from these grounds is urged not to hang
that diploma on the wall as an ornament, as an evi-
dence of individual superiority, but to make it mean
something constructive and life-giving to every one
in the community where he must live and work.

31

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

The young men and women who are trained
for mission work in foreign countries are not more
carefully trained in the spirit of consecration than
are these young men and women trained at Tuske-
gee for the work of creating better economic and
social conditions among their own people. It is not
necessary to state here what has already been ac-
complished in many parts of the South by Tuske-
gee graduates. The selected examples set forth in
this book are evidence enough. It is sufficient to
say that the Tuskegee Institute is determined to
become more and more a distinctive influence
among the regenerative agencies that are gradually
bringing order out of chaos, and justice, peace,
and happiness out of the wretched disorders of
a painful past. It is easy to trace the influence
of such well-established institutions as Harvard
and Yale in the progressive life of the American
people. The sons of Harvard and Yale almost
dominate civilization in America. In another
sense, it is possible for Tuskegee to have a like
influence in the many things that must be ac-
complished in the South, before love and justice
shall supplant race prejudice and race antago-
nism.

This reaching out helpfully in all directions

32

PRESENT ACHIEVEMENTS

where help is needed is the distinguishing feature
of Tuskegee. This race-loving spirit gives it a
largeness of view and purpose that saves both its
teachers and pupils from being narrow and self-
centered. Take from Tuskegee all this "vision
splendid," and it will at once shrink into common-
place insignificance. " Set your ideals high," says
the distinguished man who here is Principal as he
was founder, " and in your efforts to reach them
you become strong for greater things." It is but
truth to say that no institution in all the land,
whether for w^hite or black education, stands for
higher and more generous ideals.

Unless the young man who goes away from
Tuskegee as blacksmith, carpenter, printer, or as
any other mechanic, is something more than these,
he has been incapable of perceiving and taking in
the ideals that go with these accomplishments. He
has been taught over and over again to " hitch
his wagon to the stars," and if he fail to do so,
the fault is in himself, and not in Tuskegee.

As between a poor doctor and a poor carpenter,
there is but scant choice. They are both failures
and to be avoided. Honor in one is as precious as
in the other. Honor and efficiency — these, there-
fore, are the ideal test of every son and daughter

33

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

that passes out of these grounds into the larger
world of work and responsibility.

What a terrible task it has been and still is to
teach the lessons of the upward spirit: "God's
in His heaven, all's well with the world." Hope
is strength and discouragement is weakness. Ev-
erything that is false and unjust and wrong is
transitory. Those who are brave enough to solve
problems shall be more honored of mankind than
those who create problems which they make no
effort to solve.

There can be no liberty without intelligence,
no independence without industry, and no power
for man, and no charm for woman, without char-
acter.

These are some of the ideals toward which all
our teaching leads; without these there would be
no Tuskegee ; with them, as its very life and spirit
and inspiration, Tuskegee shall lead into more
ways of peace, happiness, and power than we of
this generation have yet dreamed of, or realized.

34

n

RESOURCES AND MATERIAL
EQUIPMENT

By Warren Logan

When the Alabama Legislature in 1881 passed
an act to establish a Normal School for colored
people at Tuskegee and appropriated for it $2,000
yearly, it made no provision whatever for land or
buildings; these were left to be provided for by
the people who were to be benefited by the school.
Here was ahnost a case of being required to make
bricks without straw. But as matters have turned
out, this neglect was the best thing that could have
happened to the school. First it gave opportunity
for the employment of those splendid qualities of
pluck, self-help, and perseverance which have dis-
tinguished jNIr. Washington so preeminently in
the building of Tuskegee. Moreover, the State
has contributed nothing to the school in the way
of land or buildings; it has not sought to control
the property of the institution, leaving it free to
be managed by the Board of Trustees.
4 35

TUSKEGEE AXD ITS PEOPLE

The school was opened on the 4th of July,
1881, in an old church building in the town of
Tuskegee, which lies nearly two miles from the
present school-grounds. Later in the same year
the growth of the school made it necessary to obtain
additional room, which was found in a dilapidated
shanty standing near the church and which had
been used as the village schoolliouse since the war.
These buildings were in such bad condition that
when it rained it was necessary for the teacher and
students to use umbrellas in order to protect them-
selves from the elements while recitations were
being conducted.

Students who came from a distance boarded in
families in the town, where the conditions of liv-
ing were very much like those in their own homes,
and these were far below proper standards. Mr.
Washington, understanding the great need for
colored people to be trained in correct ways of
living as well as to be educated in books, deter-
mined to secure a permanent location f or the school,
with buildings in which the students might live
under the care and influence of teachers day and
night, during the whole period of their connection
with the school.

It so happened at this time that there was an

36

WARREN LOGAN.
Treasurer of the School.

RESOURCES AND EQUIPMENT

old farm of 100 acres in the western part of
the town of Tuskegee, well suited to be the site
of such a school, which could be had for $500.
But where was the money to be found to pay
for it? iNIr. Washington himself had no money,
and the people of the town, much interested as
they were in the enterprise, were wholly unable to
give direct financial assistance. General J. F. B.
Marshall, then treasurer of the Hampton Insti-
tute in Virginia, was appealed to for a loan of
$200 with which to make the first payment. This
he gladly made, and the farm was secured.
In a few months sufficient money was raised from
entertainments and subscriptions in the North and
South (one friend in Connecticut giving $300) to
return the loan of General ]Marshall and pay the
balance due on the purchase of the property.

The land thus secured, preparations were at
once begun to put up a school building, toward the
cost of which ilr. A. H. Porter, of Brooklyn,
N. Y., gave $500, the structure being named
Porter Hall in recognition of ilr. Porter's gen-
erosity. In this building, which has three stories
and a basement, all the operations of the school
were for a time conducted. In the basement
were a kitchen, dining-room, laundry, and commis-

37

TUSKEGEE AXD ITS PEOPLE

sary. The first story was devoted to academic and
industrial class-rooms; in the second was an assem-
bly-room, where devotions and public exercises for
the whole school were held, while the third was
given up to dormitories.

From this small begiiming has gro'sm the pres-
ent extensive plant at Tuskegee, comprising 2,300
acres of land, on which are located 123 buildings
of all kmds devoted to the uses of the institution.
Some idea of the impression which the size of the
school makes upon one who sees it for the first time
may be gathered from the remark of a Xorthern
visitor, who, upon returning to his home from a
trip tlirough the South, was asked by a friend
if he had seen Booker Washington's school."
'"School?" he replied. "I have seen Booker
Washinoion's citv."

About 150 acres constitute the present campus,
the rest of the school-lands being devoted to farms,
truck-gardens, pastm-es, brick-yards, etc. Running
tlirough the grounds proper and extending the en-
tire distance of the farms for two or tlu-ee miles
is a di'iveway, on either side of wliich. and on roads
leading from it, are located the buildings of the
Institute. These, for the most part, are brick
structures, and have been built by the students

38

RESOURCES AND EQUIPMENT

themselves under the direction of their instructors
in the various building trades. The plans for these
buildings have been drawn in the architectural-
drawing division of the Institute. While not as
ornate as the buildings of some other institutions,
they are substantial and well adapted to the uses
for which they are intended. The newer build-
ings, constructed in the last ten years, are more
artistic and imposing, showing great improvement
in matters of architectural design and finish. Not
only have the students performed the building
operations that entered into the construction of
these buildings, but they have also manufactured
the brick, and have prepared much of the wooden
and other materials that were used. We some-
times speak of a man as self-made, but I have
never known another great educational institution
that could be so described. Tuskegee, itself, is
distinctively self-made.

Porter Hall was completed and occupied in the
spring of 1883. The following year a brick build-
ing for girls was undertaken, and two years later
completed. This building, named Alabama Hall,
is rectangular in shape and four stories high.
It contains a kitchen and dining-room, reception-
rooms, apartments of the Dean of the Woman's

39

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

Department, and sleeping-rooms. There was no
special gift made for this building, the money
required for its erection being taken from the
general funds of the Institute as they could be
spared. A wing added later gave more space for
dining-rooms and provided a number of sleeping-
rooms.

The money used in putting up the buildings at
Tuskegee is made to do double duty. In the first
place, it provides the buildings for which it was
primarily given, and, in the second place, furnishes
opportunities for young men to learn the trades
which are employed in their construction. Follow-
ing closely upon the completion of Alabama Hall,
there was begun another brick structure to be used
as a dormitory for young men. Olivia Davidson
Hall bears the honored name of the school's first
and only Assistant Principal. Miss Davidson
performed a conspicuous part in establishing the
school and placing its claim for support before the
public. This building is a four-story structure,
and the first of the school's buildings for which the
plans were made by the teacher of architectural
drawing. The plans for all the buildings put up
by the Institute are now made in the division of
architectural drawing in charge of Mr. R. R. Tay-

40

RESOURCES AND EQUIPMENT

lor, a graduate of the IMassachiisetts Institute of
Technology, who is ably assisted by INIr. W. S.
Pittman, a graduate of Tuskegee and of the
Drexel Institute in Philadelphia.

The need f or a building to house the mechanical
industries which, until 1892, had been conducted in
temporary frame buildings on different parts of
the grounds, led to the erection of Cassedy Hall,
a three-story brick building standing at the east
entrance to the grounds. Cassedj^ Hall, together
with a smaller building devoted to a blacksmith
shop and foundry, was used for the purpose men-
tioned, until three years ago, when all the indus-
tries for men were moved into the Slater- Arm-
strong Memorial Trades Building, at the opposite
end of the grounds. Through the generosity of
Mr. George F. Peabody, of New York, Cassedy
Hall has since been converted into a dormitory for
young men, and serves admirably for this purpose.

Phelps Hall, which is the Bible Training School
Building, is the gift of two New York ladies who
desired to do something to improve the Negro
ministry. The building is of wood and has three
stories, containing a lecture-hall, recitation-rooms,
library, and sleeping-rooms for young men. A
broad veranda extends entirely around the building.

TUSKEGEE AXD ITS PEOPLE

Last year there were enrolled fifty-six students
for the course in Bible Training, and among them
were a number of ordained ministers who have
regular charges. Phelps Hall was dedicated in
1892, Dr. Lyman Abbott preaching the dedica-
tory sermon and General Samuel C. Armstrong
delivering an address, wliich was among his last
pubhc utterances.

In the next year Science Hall (now called
Tln-asher HaU, after the lamented Max Bennett
Thrasher) was built. This is a handsome three-
story building, with recitation-rooms and labora-
tories in the first two stories, and sleeping-rooms
for teachers and boys in the third story. About
this time a frame cottage with two stories and attic
was built by the school as a residence for ]Mr.
Washington. This he occupied until the gift of
two BrookhTi friends enabled liim to erect on his
own lot, just opposite the school-grounds, his pres-
ent handsome brick residence, where he dispenses
a generous hospitality to the school's guests and to
the teachers of the Institute. The cottage which
he vacated was afterward utilized for a time as a
library, but now is the home of Director Bruce of
the Academic Department.

Alabama Hall, akeady mentioned, soon proved

42

RESOURCES AND EQUIPMENT

inadequate to meet the needs of the Woman's De-
partment. A long one-story frame building, hav-
ing the shape of a letter T, was then erected just
in the rear of Alabama Hall. It has been used
for girls' sleeping-rooms until this year, when it
was taken down to make room for a park and play-
ground for young women. There were also suc-
cessively built for the growing demands of this
department, and in the vicinity of the original girls'
building. Willow Cottage, Hamilton Cottage,
Parker Memorial Home, Huntington Hall, and
only this last year Douglass Hall. Huntington
Hall is the gift of Mrs. CoUis P. Huntington.
In design, finish, and appointments it is one of the
best buildings owned by the school.

Three years ago a wealthy but unostentatious
gentleman, who would not permit his name to be
used in connection with his benefaction, gave the
school $25,000 for a building for girls, suggesting
that the structure should bear the name of some
noted Negro. Douglass Hall was erected with this
money and named in honor of that great leader
of the race, Frederick Douglass. It is a two-story
brick building, with a basement in its central sec-
tion, and contains 40 sleeping-rooms, a reception-
room, bathrooms, and a large assembly-room with

43

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

a seating capacity of 450. In this room the Dean
of the Woman's Department holds meetings with
the girls on questions of health, morals, and man-
ners. The building is heated with steam and
lighted by electricity. All in all, Douglass Hall is
the best of the buildings so far built by the Insti-
tute, and is a fitting monument to the man whose
name it bears.

The Slater- Armstrong Memorial Agricultural
Building was completed and dedicated in 1897.
Hon. James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture of
the United States, honored the school by his pres-
ence and an address on the occasion of the formal
opening of this building. It is a brick structure
of two-and-a-half stories, with recitation-rooms,
laboratory, museums, library, and an office for the
use of the Department of Agriculture. In ad-
dition to its appropriation of $3,000 for the gen-
eral work of the school, the State of Alabama
makes an annual appropriation of $1,500 for the
maintenance of an Agricultural Experiment Sta-
tion. The plots of the Station and the school-farm
are in close proximity to the Agricultural Building,
and on these the young men taking the course in
Agriculture put in practise the theories which they
learn in the class-room. Many important experi-

44

RESOURCES AND EQUIPMENT

ments have been undertaken by the Station, of
particular interest being those relating to soil
building, the hybridization of sea-island cotton
with some of the common short-staple varieties,
fertilizer tests with potatoes, by which it has been
shown that it is possible to raise as much as 266
bushels per acre on light, sandy soil such as that
comprising the school-lands, while the average
yield in the same part of Alabama is not more
than 40 bushels to the acre.

The next building of importance to be put up
after the Agricultural Building was the Chapel.
Another gift from the two New York ladies who
gave the money for Phelps Hall made possible this
magnificent structure, admittedly one of the most
imposing church edifices in the South. It is built
of brick, 1,200,000 bricks entering into its con-
struction, all of which were laid by student masons.
It has stone trimmings, and in shape is a cross, the
nave with choir having a length of 154 feet, and
the distance through the transept being 106 feet.
There are anterooms and a study for the Chaplain
of the Institute. Including the gallery the seating
capacity is 2,400. Here all gatherings of the
school for religious and other purposes are now
held. The great Tuskegee Negro Conference that

45

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

assembles in February of each year holds its meet-
ings in the Chapel. Near the Chapel are the Bar-
racks, two long, roughly constructed one-story
frame buildings, which are used as sleeping quar-
ters for young men until they can be better housed
in permanent buildings.

Until 1900 the mechanical industries at Tuske-
gee were conducted in Cassedy Hall and some ad-
joining frame buildings. In that year they were
moved into the commodious quarters which the
then just completed Slater- Armstrong Memorial
Trades Building furnished. This building is rect-
angular in shape, is built about a central court, and
covers more space than any other of the school
buildings. In its outside dimensions it is 283 feet
by 315 feet. The front half of the building is two
stories high, the rear half one story. It is
constructed of brick, with a tin roof, and, like the
other larger buildings at the Institute, has steam
heat and electric light. The money for this build-
ing came in part from the J. W. and Belinda L.
Randall Charities Fund of Boston and the stead-
fast friend of the school, Mr. George Foster Pea-
body, of New York. There is a tablet in the build-
ing bearing the following inscription: "This
tablet is erected in memory of the generosity of

46

RESOURCES AND EQUIPMENT

J. W. and Belinda L. Randall, of Boston, Massa-
chusetts, from whose estate $20,000 were received
toward the erection of the building."

The various shops in this building are fairly
well equipped with tools and apparatus to do the
work required of them and to teach the trades
pursued by the young men. Taking the Machine
Division as an example, we find it supplied with
one 18-inch lathe, one 14-inch lathe, one 20-inch
planer, one 12 -inch shaping-machine, one 20-inch
drill-press, one 6^ -inch pipe-cutting and threading
machine, one Brown and Sharpe tool-grinder, one
sensitive drill-press, and, of course, the customary
tools that go with these machines. The Electric-
Lighting Plant is also located in this building.
Not only does this Division light the buildings and
grounds of the Institute, but it furnishes light to
individuals in the town of Tuskegee, which is, at
present, without other electric-lighting facilities.

In 1895 the school suffered the loss by fire of its
well-appointed barn, together with some of its
finest milch cows. This is the only serious fire
that has occurred in the history of the school —
a record almost unparalleled in an establishment
so large. This fact has led to the school being
able to get insurance at a lower rate than is gen-

47

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

erally given to educational institutions. It was
not until 1900 that the school fully recovered
from the loss of its barn. In this vear friends
in Brooklyn gave the money with which to rebuild
the barn on a larger scale. It was deemed wise
not to put all the money into one building, but to
erect numbers of smaller ones and locate them so
as to minimize the fire risk. Accordingly, plans
were made to build a hennery, creamery, dairy-
barn, horse-barn, carriage-house, tool-house, pig-
gery, silos, and slaughter-house. All these build-
ings were at once put up, and are now giving
effective service. At present the school owns 47
horses and colts, 76 mules, 495 cows and calves,
601 pigs, and 977 fowls of different kinds. These
animals are all of good stock, some of them being
thoroughbreds, and are cared for by the students
who work in the Agricultural Department.

Dorothy Hall, the building which accommo-
dates the Girls' Industrial Department, was built in
1901 on the side of the driveway opposite the Boys'
Trades Building. This building is the gift of the
two New York ladies who gave the Chapel and
Phelps Hall. It serves its purpose admirably, the
rooms being large, well lighted, and airy. Here are
conducted all the trades taught to young women,

48

RESOURCES AND EQUIPMENT

including sewing, dressmaking, millinery, laun-
dering, cooking, housekeeping, mattress-making,
upholstering, broom-making, and basketry. As
with the boys' trades, there is a very fair equip-
ment of accessories for proper teaching.

In point of time, the next important building
provided was the Carnegie Library, Mr. Carnegie
giving $20,000 for the building and furnishings.
The structure is two stories high, with massive Cor-
inthian columns on the front. It contains, besides
the library proper, a large assembly-room, an his-
torical room, study-rooms, and offices for the Libra-
rian. The building and the furniture are the prod-
uct of student labor.

In 1901, with $2,000 given by Mrs. Quincy A.
Shaw, of Boston, and $100 contributed by gradu-
ates of the Institute as a nucleus, the Children's
House was built. This is a one-story frame build-
ing of good proportions, in which the primary
school of the town is taught. It is the practise-
school for students of the Institute who mean
to teach. A kindergarten has also been estab-
lished.

Mr. Rockefeller has given a dormitory for boys,
which was completed and occupied last year. The
lack of adequate sleeping quarters for young men,

49

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

from which the school has suffered from the begin-
ning, was very materially supplied in Rockefeller
Hall, which is a three-story brick structure, furnish-
ing accommodations for 150 students. This need
for dormitories has been still further met through
the gift of three brick cottages by Miss Julia Em-
ery, an American now living in London. Two of
these buildings were finished last year, and young
men are now living in them. The third is nearing
completion. All are two stories high, with a hall
running through the middle, and contain 40 rooms
of good size.

Until last year the offices of the Institute were
scattered over the grounds wherever room could be
found. A New York friend, who does not permit
the use of his name, seeing the need of the school
for a building in which the offices might be con-
centrated, thus greatly increasing the efficiency of
its administrative work, gave $19,000 for this pur-
pose. The Office Building, completed in the latter
part of 1903, is the result of this benefaction. It
is two-and-a-half stories high, and contains the
offices of the Principal, the Principal's Secretary,
Treasurer, Auditor, Business Agent, Commandant,
Registrar, and the Post-Office and Savings De-
partment.

50

RESOURCES AND EQUIPMENT

The most pretentious building owned by the
Institute is the CoUis P. Huntington ^Memorial
Building, the new home of the Academic Depart-
ment, which is the gift of Mrs. Huntington as a
memorial to her husband, who was one of Tuske-
gee's stanchest supporters. It is built near the
site of the original building, Porter Hall, which it
displaces as the center of the academic work of
the school. The outside dimensions are 183 feet by
103 feet. It is four stories in height. Besides
recitation-rooms for all the classes, it contains a
gymnasium in the basement for young women, and
an assembly-room on the top floor capable of seat-
ing 800 persons. The finishing is in yellow pine.
The buildings of the Institute show a steady pro-
gression in quality of workmanship, materials, and
architectural design and efficiency, from the rather
rough, wooden Porter Hall erected by hired work-
men in 1882 to the stately Huntington Hall built
by students in 1904.

Located at different points on the grounds and
on lots detached are cottages occupied as residences
by teachers and officers of the Institute.

The furnishings for all the buildings, as well
as the buildings themselves, have been made by
the students in the various shops, who at the same

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

time were learning trades and creating articles
of use.

The annual cost of conducting the institution
is, in round numbers, $150,000. This may seem
high, but when certain facts in regard to the work
are borne in mind it will not appear exorbitant. In
the first place, there are really three schools at
Tuskegee — a day-school, a night-school, and a
trade-school. Such a system makes necessary the
employment of a larger number of teachers than
would be needed in a purely academic institution
holding only one session a day. Teachers in the
trade-school, with special technical training, can be
obtained only by paying them higher salaries than
are paid to those who simply teach in the class-
rooms.

Secondly, and principally, it is expensive to em-
ploy student labor to do the work of the school.
By the time students become fairly proficient in
their trades and reach the point where their serv-
ices begin to be profitable, their time at the insti-
tution has expired, and a new, untrained set take
their places, so that the school is constantly work-
ing on new material or raw recruits. Then, too,
Tuskegee is still in the formative period of its
growth as to buildings, laying-out and improve-

52

RESOURCES AND EQUIPMENT

ment of grounds, and equipment of its various
departments. When the school's needs in these di-
rections shall have been met, and the Negro parent
shall become able to pay a larger share of the cost
of educating his children, the expenses to the
public of running the school may be materially
reduced.

Money for the support of the school is derived
principally from the following sources, viz.: The
State of Alabama, $4,500; the John F. Slater
Fund, $10,000; the General Education Board,
$10,000; the Peabody Fund, $1,500; the Insti-
tute's Endowment Fund, $40,000 ; contributions of
persons and charitable organizations, $84,000; a
total of $150,000. The individual contributions
are, for the most part, small, and come from per-
sons of moderate means. Yet the institution an-
nually receives some large gifts toward its expenses
from those who are blessed with wealth.

Especial appeals are made by the institution
for scholarships of $50 each, in order to pay the
tuition of students who provide for their other
expenses themselves largely by their work for the
school, but who are unable to contribute an}i;hing
toward the item of teaching. These scholarships
are not turned over to the students, but are held

53

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

by the institution and assigned for their benefit,
the aim being to do nothing for students which
they can do for themselves, and thus help to de-
velop in them a spirit of manly and womanly self-
reliance.

The majority of the large donations, aside
from those for endowment, have been for build-
ings and the purchase of additional farm-lands
made necessary by the enlargement of the school's
agricultural work.

What may be regarded as the greatest need of
the institution is an adequate endowment which
will put it upon a permanent basis and make its
future certain.

A gratifying beginning in the building up of
an endowment has already been made. It is a fact,
still well remembered by the public, that ]Mr. An-
drew Carnegie has given to the endowment fund
the princely sum of $600,000. Before that time
$400,000 had been collected from other sources for
the same purpose, the largest single contribution
toward this amount being $50,000 from the late
Collis P. Huntington.

As already stated, the income from the present
endowment is $40,000, out of which several annu-
ities are paid. This is only a little more than one-

54

RESOURCES AND EQUIPMENT

fourth of the amount that must be had each year
to pay the expenses of the school. It will require
an endowment of at least $3,000,000 to yield an
income adequate to the present needs of the institu-
tion alone.

55

ni

THE ACADEMIC AIMS

By Roscoe Conkling Bruce

The Negro needs industrial training in emi-
nent degree, because the capacity for continuous
labor is a requisite of civilized living; because, in-
deed, the very first step in social advance must be
economic; because the industrial monopoly with
which slavery encompassed black men has fallen
shattered before the trumpet-blast of white labor
and eager competition; and, finally, because no in-
strument of moral education is more efF ective upon
the mass of mankind than cheerful and intelligent
work. These ideas powerfully voiced, together
with an unusually magnanimous attitude toward
the white South, have set the man who toiled dog-
gedly up from slavery, upon a hill apart. These
things are distinctive of this man; they suggest
his temper, his spirit, his point of view; but they
do not exhaust his interests. Similarly, the distinct-
ive feature of Tuskegee — adequate provision for
industrial training — sets it upon a hill apart, but

56

KOSCOE C. BKUCE.
Director of the Academic Department.

THE ACADEMIC AIMS

by a whimsical perversity this major feature is
in some quarters assumed to be the whole school.
A moment's reflection shows such a view to be
mistaken.

The very industries at Tuskegee presuppose a
considerable range of academic study. Tuskegee
does not graduate hoe-hands or plowboys. Agri-
culture is, of course, fundamental — fundamental
in recognition of the fact that the Negro popula-
tion is mainly a farming population, and of the
truth that something must be done to stem the
swelling tide which each year sweeps thousands of
black men and women and children from the sunlit
monotony of the plantation to the sunless iniquity
of the slums, from a drudgery that is not quite
cheerless to a competition that is altogether mer-
ciless. But the teaching of agriculture, even in
its elementary stages, presupposes a considerable
amount of academic preparation. To be sure, a
flourishing garden may be made and managed by
bright-eyed tots just out of the kindergarten, but
how can commercial fertilizers be carefully ana-
lyzed by a boy who has made no study of general
chemistry? and how can a balanced ration be ad-
justed by an illiterate person? Similarly, the girl
in the laundry does not make soap by rote, but

57

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

by principle; and the girl in the di^essmaking-shop
does not cut out her pattern by luck, or guess, or
instinct, or rule of thumb, but by geometry. And
so the successful teaching of the industries de-
mands no mean amount of academic preparation.
In this lies the technical utility of Tuskegee's Aca-
demic Department.

Then, too, a public service has been rendered
by Hampton and Tuskegee in showing that indus-
trial training — the system in which the student
learns by doing and is paid toT the commodities
he produces — may be so managed as to educate.
Among the excellencies of industrial training, I
would state that the severe commercial test in
which sentiment plays no part is applied as con-
sistently to the student's labor as is the force of
gravitation to a falling body. Here we must keep
in mind the unavoidably concrete nature of the
product, whether satisfactory or not; the discipline
such training affords in organized endeavor; the
stimulus it offers to all the virtues of a drudgery
which, though it repel an unusually ardent and
sensitive temperament, yet wears a precious jewel
in its head; and an exceptionally keen sense of re-
sponsibility, since on occasion large amounts of
money and the esteem of the school at large and

58

THE ACADEMIC AIMS

the lives of a student's fellows depend upon his cir-
cumspection and skill. Such training educates.

But that would indeed be a sorry program
of education which blinked the fact that the stu-
dent must be rendered responsive to the nobler
ideals of the human race, that his eyes must be
opened to the immanent values of life. If a clear
title to forty acres and a mule represents the ex-
treme upper limit of a black man's ambition, why
call him a man? If a bank-account represents
the sum of his happiness, that happiness lacks
humanity. If you would educate for life, you
must arouse spiritual interests. " The life is more
than meat, and the body than raiment." Through
history and literature the Tuskegee student is
brought to develop a criticism, an appreciation
of life and the worthier ends of human stri-
ving. To such a discipline, how^ever elementary,
the critic will not, I take it, begrudge the name
" education."

And if the reader wavers in contemplating the
problems of trudging Negroes, remember that the
type of Negro who is a menace to the community
is he who, in moments of leisure, responds to some-
what grosser incentives than the poetry of Long-
fellow, the romance of Hawthorne, and the philoso-

59

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

phy of Emerson. I would reassure your idealism
with this counsel of prudence.

Another question presses: Does the value of
Tuskegee lie in the fact that the school equips for
happy lives merely as many persons as are sub-
jected to the immediate play of its influences; that
its circle of efficiency includes only as many as are
enrolled in its various courses? To that question
every teacher in the school and the mass of gradu-
ates and students would give an emphatic, a de-
cisive, Xo ! The real value of the school lies in the
service rendered to the people of the communities
where our young folks go to live and labor. Xow,
work in wood and iron, however assiduously prose-
cuted, never erected in any human being's heart a
passion for social service; a finer material must be
used, a material finer than gold. And so the plan
and deeper intent of Tuskegee Institute are in-
capable of realization without the incentives sup-
plied by history and literature.

Finally, there is a trade for which the academic
studies, supplemented by specific normal instruc-
tion, are the direct preparation — teaching school.
In the census year there were over 21,000 Xegro
school-teachers in the United States, and in the
decade 1890-1900 the ratio of increase was more

60

THE ACADEMIC AIMS

than twice as rapid as that of the Negro popula-
tion; but, nevertheless, there were in 1900 more
than twice as many teachers in the South per
10,000 white children as per 10,000 colored. But
such data can not even approximately indicate the
relative amounts of teaching enjoyed by these two
classes of children, for the statistical method can
not express the incalculable disparity in teaching-
efficiency.

A friend of mine — a graduate of Brown Uni-
versity— was for several years a member of a
board which corrected the examination-papers of
Negro candidates for teachers' certificates in a
certain Southern State where the school facilities
for the Negro population are exceptionally good;
but he confessed to me that repeatedly not a paper
submitted deserved a passing mark, but the board
was " simply compelled to grant certificates in
order to provide teachers enough to go around."
Nor is such a dearth of black pedagogues in the
least extraordinary. The mission of Tuskegee
Institute is largely to supply measurably well-
equipped teachers for the schools — teachers able
and eager to teach gardening and carpentry as
well as grammar and arithmetic, teachers who seek
to organize the social life of their communities

61

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

upon wholesome principles, tactfully restraining
grossness and unobtrusively proffering new and
nobler sources of enjoyment. And so the academic
studies are wrought into the essential scheme of
Tuskegee's work.

Let us inspect with some closeness the organiza-
tion of the institution. The student-body is funda-
mentally divided into day-students and night-stu-
dents. The night-students work in the industries,
largely at common labor, all day and every day,
and go to school at night, thus paying their current
board bills, and accumulating such credits at the
Treasurer's office as will later defray their expenses
in the day-school. The day-school students are di-
vided perpendicularly through the classes into two
sections, section No. 1 working in the industries
every other day for three days a week and attend-
ing academic classes the remaining three days,
while this situation is exactly reversed for section
No. 2. Thus every week-day half of each day-
school class is in the Academic Department, while
the other half is in the Industrial. This arrange-
ment induces a wholesome rivalry between the stu-
dents of the two sections, and effects an equal dis-
tribution of the working force and skill over every
week-day.

62

THE ACADEMIC AIMS

The day-school students consist, then, of two
classes of persons: those who, as night-students,
have accumulated credits sufficient to pay their
way in the day-school, and those whose families
are able to pay a considerable part of their ex-
penses. The earnings of a student in the day-
school can not be large enough to pay his current
board bill, but such a student is ordinarily enjoying
the valuable advantage of working at one of the
more skilled trades.

The night-school student, perhaps, because of
greater maturity in years and experience, may be
relied upon to apply himself with the utmost dili-
gence to his academic studies ; so, in much less than
half the time-allotment, he advances in his academic
studies about half as fast as the day-school student.
This schedule did not spring full-fledged from
the seething brain of any theorist; it is no fatuous
imitation of the educational practise of some re-
mote and presumptively dissimilar institution; it
has, so to say, elaborated itself in adjustment to
the actual needs of the particular situation. This
provision boasts not of novelty, but of utility;
though not ideal, it is practicable. But the central
fact is that this Tuskegee Plan, while clearly se-
curing ample time for the teaching of the indus-

63

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

tries, makes possible no mean amount of academic
study.

In order more clearly to exhibit the grounds
of this proposition, I shall refer in some slight de-
tail to the course of study in English and in Mathe-
matics.

Mathematics represents the group of academic
studies which possess direct technical value for
the industries; moreover, it is a pretty good index
of the grades comprehended in the Academic De-
partment. In the lowest class in the day-school —
there is one lower in the night-school — the arith-
metical tables are mastered, and fractions intro-
duced and developed with the use of liquid, dry,
surface, and time measures; whereas in the Senior
class algebra is studied through quadratics and
plane geometry through the " area of polygons."
That is to say, the lowest day-school class is about
equivalent to a fourth grade in the North, and the
Senior to the first or the second year (barring the
foreign languages) in a Northern high school.

Despite a much smaller time-allotment, our stu-
dents, roughly speaking, keep pace with Northern
students because they are older and somewhat more
serious, because the course is shortened by the
elimination of uselessly perplexing topics in arith-

64

THE ACiVDEMIC AIMS

metic like compound proportion and cube root, but
chiefly because the utihty of mathematics is made
vivid, and vigorous interest aroused by its immedi-
ate apphcation in class-room and shop to problems
arising in the industries. Our students are not
stufl*ed like sausages with rules and definitions,
mathematical or other ; they ascend to general prin-
ciples through the analysis of concrete cases.

English serves to represent the group of studies
that exert a liberalizing influence upon the student,
that possess a cultural rather than a technical value.
From oral lessons in language in the lower classes,
the students advance to a modicum of technical
grammar in the middle of the course, and hence to
the rhetoric of the Senior year. JNIoreover, an un-
usually large amount of written composition is in-
sisted upon, the compositions being used not merely
to discipline the student in chaste feeling, consecu-
tive thinking, and efficient expression, but also to
sharpen his powers of observation and to stimu-
late him to pick out of his daily experience the ele-
ments that are significant. School readers are used
in the lower classes because the readers present eco-
nomically and compactly a whole gamut of literary
styles and forms. These readers are importantly
supplemented and gradually superseded by certain

65

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

classics appropriate to the grades. The classic,
whether Robinson Crusoe, or Ivanhoe, Rip Van
Winkle, the House of Seven Gables, or The Mer-
chant of Venice, presents an artistic whole, and
permits the students to acquire some sense of lit-
erary structure. The dominant motive in literary
instruction is, perhaps, esthetic, but I am convinced
that the ethical influence of this instruction at Tus-
kegee is profound and abiding.

However liberal the provisions of the academic
curriculum, the value of the department is finally
determined by the devotion and ability of the teach-
ers. Universities and normal schools, and the sea-
soned staffs of public-school systems — from these
sources, whether in Massachusetts, California, or
Tennessee, Principal Washington has gathered a
force of academic teachers of rare ability and de-
votion. Eminent for personality rather than for
method, these teachers are no tyros in method.
In such hands the excellent features of the cur-
riculum are raised to the N-th power.

Finally, academic and industrial teachers are
animated with a sentiment of solidarity, with an
esprit de corps, which solves many a problem of
conflicting duty and jurisdiction, and which must
impress the student with the essential unity of Tus-

66

THE ACADEMIC AIMS

kegee's endeavor to equip men and women for life.
The crude, stumbling, sightless plantation-boy who
lives in the environment of Tuskegee for three or
four years, departs with an address, an alertness, a
resourcefulness, and above all a spirit of service,
that announce the educated man.

6

67

IV

WHAT GIRLS ARE TAUGHT,
AXD HOW

By Mrs. Booker T. Washington

" We wants our baby gal, ilary Lou, to come
up to Tuskegee to git eddicated and learn seam-
stress; kase we doesn't want her to work lak we
is," says the farmer. " I wish to help you plant
this new industry, broom-making," ^^Tites ]Miss Su-
san B. Anthony, " because you are trying so ear-
nestly to teach your girls other means of livelihood
besides sewing, housework, and cookmg." This
is the problem we have been tr\^g to solve at
Tuskegee for over twenty years: What handi-
work can we give our girls with their academic
training that vdW better fit them to meet the de-
mand for skilled teachers in the various avenues
of the industrial and academic world now opening
so rapidly to women?

Learning to sew, with the ultimate end of be-
coming a full-fledged dressmaker, has been the

68

MRS. BOOKER T. WASHINGTON.
Director of Industries for Girls.

WHAT GIRLS ARE TAUGHT

height of ambition with the major part of our girls
when brought to the institution by their horny-
handed fathers and mothers fresh from the soil
of Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, or Florida.
After the last gripless hand-shake, with the tremu-
lous, " Take care of yourself, honey," the hard-
working father and mother have turned their
faces homeward, visibly affected by the separa-
tion, but resolved to shoulder the sacrifice of the
daughter's much-needed help on the plantation,
which oftentimes is all that they are able to con-
tribute toward her education.

Not infrequently the girl has begun in the low-
est class in night-school. Her parents send her
articles of clothing now and then on Christmas;
but the largest contributions to her wardrobe come
from the boxes and barrels sent to the institution
by Northern friends. She has remained in school
during the summer vacation, and within two
years has entered day-school with enough to her
credit to finish her education. When the happy
parents return to see their daughter graduated,
after six or seven long years, their faces are radiant
because of their realized hopes. When they see
their white-robed daughter transformed from the
girl they brought here clad in the homespun of the

69

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

old days, and receiving her certificate, the tears
come unchecked, and the moving hps no doubfl
form a whispered prayer.

In a recent class there was graduated a young
woman of twenty-five. She came to the school
in her eighteenth year from the " piney woods "of
Alabama. She entered the lowest preparatory class
in night-school and was assigned to work in the
laundry. She was earnest and faithful in work
and study. She passed on from class to class, re-
maining at school to work during the vacation.
After two years in the laundry she was given an
opportunity to learn plain sewing in that division.
She was promoted to the Dressmaking Division at
the end of the year, and received her certificate
at the close of two years, after working every
day and attending night-school. She spent the
last two years of her school life in the Millinery
Division, and received her certificate from that di-
vision with one from the Academic Department on
her graduation. During these two years she taught
the sewing-classes in the night-school of the town of
Tuskegee. At the outset she bought the materials
used with $1, left over from the sales of the previ-
ous year. From this small nest-egg as a starter,
seventeen girls were supplied with work. But so

70

WHAT GIRLS ARE TAUGHT

efficient and frugal was the young teacher that she
sold articles, bought supplies for her class, and
ended the year with $3.45 in the treasury.

This is just a leaf from the history of one girl.
Of the 520 girls entering the institution during this
year (1903-'04), 458 have remained for the full
scholastic year. About 50 per cent came from
country districts all over the United States. A
large majority of them asked to enter the Dress-
making Division to learn that trade; but after the
field of industries was opened to their view, they
were scattered about in the different divisions, a
very large per cent still leaning to the side of
dressmaking and millinery.

Taking into account the number of girls work-
ing their way through at their trades by day and
attending night-school, they were distributed as
follows: Horticulture, 4; training-kitchen, 13;
housekeeping, 38; dining-room, 29; hospital, 20;
kitchen-gardening, 8 ; poultry-raising, 7 ; tailor-
ing, 14; dairying, 10; printing, 6; broom-making,
26; mattress-making, 18; upholstering, 18; laun-
dering, 54; plain sewing, 72; millinery, 51; dress-
making, 69. All the girls were required to take
cooking twice a week and 209 of the girls in the
normal classes took basketry.

71

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

As the trades were the great attraction in the
school curriculum, it was deemed necessary- to sep-
arate the school into two divisions, that students
might have an opportunity to receive instruction
equally in the Academic and Industrial Depart-
ments. This year tliis scheme worked successfully
by an arrangement that placed one division in the
Academic Department on Mondays, Wednesdays,
and Fridays, wliile the other was at work, and the
other di^-ision in the Trades Department on Thurs-
days, Fridays, and Saturdays, while the other was
in school, and so on regularly.

Girl life at Tuskegee is strenuous. Though
study and work are constantly to the fore, char-
acter is effectively developed with brain and mus-
cle, and the weU-earned recreation-hour comes just
frequently enough to lend the highest source of
pleasure. Though the girl usually comes with a
hazy conception of what the days in school will
really mean for the ripening of those powers that
she earnestly intends to use for the best develop-
ment of herself, there is always a spirit of learning,
that she may be of service to others. That is what
counts in the school-days of the average girl in
her struggle for more light.

The girl, coming a stranger from her home

72

WHAT GIRLS ARE TAUGHT

in the city or country, is lost in a crowd of girls
new to dormitory life. New surroundings and
new conditions are everywhere. New emotions,
new purposes, new resolutions chase one another
in her thoughts, and she becomes a stranger to her-
self only to find her bearings first in her own room.
Here JMaine and California, far-away Washing-
ton and Central America, meet on common
ground. Alabama and Georgia alone feel kinship
from geographical propinquity.

Beds, one double and one single, chairs, a table,
mirror, bookcase, wardrobe, wash-stand, and screen,
all manuf actured on the grounds, compose the sim-
ple furniture of the room. But a few pictures, a
strip of carpet before each bed, a bright table-
covering, soon give the room the appearance of
home, and the untried life has begun. The duty-
list assigns to each girl her work, and perhaps the
first lessons in order and system will be fairly
instituted.

How many and varied are the associations that
cluster about the life of the girl in her room, that
refuge from a day of discouragement in school-
room or workshop, and a haven of peace during the
quiet hours of the Sabbath! Roommate meets
roommate, quick to resent and as quick to forgive —

73

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

and the petty strife and envy suppressed at birth
only serve to discipline them for the coming days.

Up with the rising bell at five, the duties of the
room are almost finished when the girl leaves her
beds to air while she takes her six o'clock breakfast.
Social amenities, the niceties of table-training, and
the tricks of speech that betray the sectional birth-
right, proclaim to the ever-observant table-mates
the status of each newcomer, and she rises or falls
in estimation just so far as her metal rings true.
Thus another element enters into her life, one that
will prove a potent force in balancing character;
for the frankly expressed criticisms of schoolmates
play no small part in the development of students.

If a girl be one of the forty-five waitresses on
the eighty-nine tables of the dining-room, she eats
her breakfast as the other students march out, then
finishes her room-duties and is ready for work at
ten minutes of seven wherever she happens to be
assigned. If she is a dishwasher, she does that
work, waits for inspection of the table that she has
set, finishes her room-duty, and is admitted into her
work division at half past seven.

Gardening and greenhouse work are becoming
so attractive through the Nature- Study classes of
the Academic Department that there are constant

74

WHAT GIRLS ARE TAUGHT

applications for transfers from the sewing divisions
to this outside work. Equipped in an overall
gingham apron and sunbonnet of the same ma-
terial, the girl begins her duties, and no prouder
girl can be found than she who takes her first bas-
ket of early spring vegetables to the Teachers'
Home.

If the day is to be spent with the whole agri-
cultural force of girls picking strawberries for the
tables of the Boarding Department and the local
market, the stage takes the group out to the patch
two miles back on the farm — and that is happiness
unalloyed for the schoolgirl. When she correlates
her outing with her school work on the day f oUow-
ing, there is seen nature at first-hand in the class-
room.

If other classmates have been working in the
Plain-Sewing Division turning out cotton under-
wear and plain articles of clothing to supply the
demand of the Salesroom of the institution, the
lesson in English has a natural, practical bearing,
arising from the fact that one hour has been spent
with the theory class of the workroom studying the
warp and woof of the materials used, perhaps the
sixth or seventh lesson in a series on cotton, intro-
duced to the class first in its native heath. Correla-

75

TUSKEGEE AXD ITS PEOPLE

tion comes in wherever it may, and the association
of ideas obtained in class-room and workroom is
closely joined.

The large class of the Dressmaking Division,
spending the day from seven until half past five
making the blue uniform dresses, filhng orders for
tailor-made dresses in silk and cloth, measuring,
di'afting, cutting, and fittmg, has many a repre-
sentative in the schoolroom the succeeding day ; and
still more is the lesson varied by the practical illus-
trations in ^lathematics or the recital of the experi-
ences of the day in the English classes.

The girl in the millinery work, shaping forms,
trimming hats, blending colors, drawing designs,
stud^dng textiles and fabrics for analysis in her
theory classes t^vice during her tliree days of work,
finds added inspiration for her three days of class-
room study. If she is in the Senior class, she
specializes in geometry on her school-days and me-
chanical drawing on her work-days. When our
girl has finished her course in dra\\ing and be-
gins one of the uniform hats worn by the hundreds
of girls, she ranks among the first milliners of
the land in the estimation of the beginners. She
completes hat after hat, drapes them until the num-
ber meets the requirement, and then comes her own

76

WHAT GIRLS ARE TAUGHT

creation, a pattern hat, undersized of course, but a
real dress hat and a thing of beauty. It usually
finds its way to the old home for her mother and
neighbors to admire. The commendation that
comes back to the school is worth its weight in gold.

But there are backward learners. Some there
are who excel in embroidery, crocheting, making
ties and other fancy articles, but who have no apti-
tude for shaping and trimming hats. They plod
on, and win at last. Then there is the girl whose
parents wish her to open a millinery establishment
in their town. She tries, but finally agrees with
her long-suffering instructor that she would suc-
ceed at mattress-making and upholstering instead.

The work in the Mattress Division begins
with sheet, pillow-case, table-linen, and comforter-
making for the endless demands of the lodging di-
vision of the boys and girls. Pulling shucks for the
mattress is the next step in advance, and when
shucks are covered by the cotton layers in the ma-
king, they prove an excellent substitute for the hair
filling of a more expensive manufacture, and they
have an advantage in the matter of cleanliness.
Covering screen frames made in the Carpentry Di-
vision for the numerous rooms, caning couches,
rockers, and stools, help add to the variety of work

77

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

in the division. The girl is not awarded her cer-
tificate until she has completed the round of work,
including the fashioning of a bedroom suite from
barrels finally covered with neat-figured denim.
The semiweekly theory classes are not unlike those
of the plain-sewing division, and the girl is as
proud of her achievement with needle, hammer,
and saw as if she were an adept in lighter work.

When the machinery was introduced for
Broom-making, the girls looked askance at the ap-
pliances. But when the broom-corn was delivered
from the farm, and the pioneer girl broom-maker
began threshing off the seed in the cleaner, an inter-
est was evinced that has increased with the knowl-
edge that the work, study, or manufacture (call it
what you will) is very productive, especially in
the confines of the girls' broom-factory at Tuske-
gee Institute. The poultry-yard bought the seeds
threshed off the broom-stalks; the hundreds of
old handles collected cost nothing, and when the
wiring, stitching, and clipping were finished and
the girl saw the first broom turned out, there was
triumph in the fact that the industry was the most
inexpensive and still the most productive of credit
of all the girls' industries under the roof of Doro-
thy Hall. The evolution from the flag-straw

78

WHAT GIRLS ARE TAUGHT

broom used in cabins of the South to the ones now
completed and labeled, creates the sensation of
the girl-world in the trades school. The wonders
brought out in the theory class in connection with
broom-making were marvelous. Broom-making
has come to remain with our other girls' industries.

Work in the Laundry presents another aspect to
the onlooker, and he doubtless decides on the spur
of the moment that all is drudgery here. Girls
are then assorting countless pieces received on
Mondays from students and teachers. They are
placing the assorted articles in cages in the base-
ment. Two boys are filling three washers with
bed-linen, and in another apartment two girls are
weighing and measuring materials to make more
soap to add to the boxes standing in the soap-room.
Girls up -stairs in the wash-room are busy rubbing
at the tubs. Some girls are starching, and others
are sending baskets down on the elevator for girls
below to hang in the drying-room. Others are in
the assorting-room putting away clothes-bags into
numerous boxes. The ironing-room farther on is
filled with busy workers. Days come during every
week when time is spent in the study of laundry
chemistry. Rust and mildew stains and scorching
are some of the problems of the Laundry, and

79

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

they find solution. Soap, starch, water, and bluing
have their composite qualities and are analyzed,
and no more interesting correlation is there than
that of the laundry with the class-room.

Although each Tuskegee girl is expected to
become proficient in one trade at least, all are
required to attend the cooking classes. Girls be-
longing to certain classes are scattered in the vari-
ous divisions, each busily engaged at her chosen
trade. At the ringing of the bells in each division
at stated hours, classes form and pass to the train-
ing-kitchen for their lesson in cooking. Both
night-school and day-school girls report every day
until every girl has received her lesson weekly.
The normal classes have theory and practise one
hour each, the preparatory girls one hour weekly
for their trades.

This is true also of girls in the normal classes.
They spend one hour in basketry study, making in
all three hours away from their individual trades
each week. Theory is combined with practise, and
many a fanciful thought is woven in with the reed
and raffia of the Indian baskets, African purses,
belts, and pine-needle work-baskets. The shuck
hats and foot-mats are so foreign in design that
one often wonders how it were possible to utilize

80

WHAT GIRLS ARE TAUGHT

the same material in so widely different purposes.
But our girl is progressive, and not a few instances
have occurred when one has been informed of the
presence of a Tuskegee student in a remote country
district, by the inevitable shuck hat prettily de-
signed and worn by an utter stranger. So remu-
nerative has been the work that many have earned
money enough from the sales of these hats to
purchase books for the school year and pay their
entrance fees.

Few girls work at typesetting. Those learning
the trade are in the Boys' Trades Building. The
same is true of the girl tailors, who are as capable
workers in the trade as the boys. The majority
of these girls are in night-school, and of late years
have not earned much for their work. In for-
mer years the greater body of the students were
working their way through school, and by their
labor would earn enough to complete their educa-
tion in the Academic Department and the Indus-
trial as well. Last year the pay schedule was re-
duced, and many appeals for assistance came from
those battling their way through. A young girl
whose monthly statement warned her that she owed
the school $15, at the end of the school year wrote
the following:

81

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

" Dear Mrs. Washington: I write to inform
you of the enormous sum that I owe on my board
bill. I am not satisfied, because I want to earn
something in life, but it seems that means and op-
portunity will not permit me. I can't help from
crying when I think how anxious and willing my
people are to help me to be something, and yet they
are unable to help me.

" My mother has struggled to bring up eight
of us, and now is to the point where she can give
me no more help, and that leaves me alone to
be something by myself. I am anxious to enter
day-school so I may finish my course of study and
my trade, and at last let my mother see me a good,
noble woman, who will take care of her.

" I will thank you very much for your kind-
ness, if you will look into my board bill and help
me as soon, and as much, as possible. Yours grate-
fully."

As the day girls have put in so many hours
of work recently under the new system, it elimi-
nates the necessity of so many night-school girls
being paid for their work. It is to the interest
of the school and its day-students that fewer work
their way through school, and the time has come to
teach this fact. The boy or girl for a time will
stagger in the attempt to gain education, but will be
all the more able, later, to reach the desired goaL

82

WHAT GIRLS ARE TAUGHT

All girls are taught housekeeping incidental^
in the care of their rooms ; but the number assigned
to the regular division yearly are instructed in all
branches of home industry. The course covering
two years is mapped out thoroughly, and when
the girls reach the Senior class, all have their turn
at housekeeping in the Practise Cottage of four
rooms. No girl is graduated from the school with-
out the finishing touch of the little home. Market-
ing, the planning of meals, table-setting, the care of
table- and bed-linen, dusting, sweeping, and every-
thing else pertaining to a well-kept house, are
taught by the teacher in domestic science who is in
charge of the training-kitchen where the senior girls
received their first lessons in cookery. The young
housekeepers have reached the stage of efficiency
when they may prepare a meal for a distinguished
guest.

A red-letter day in the history of the cottage
came when a warm-hearted and much-beloved
trustee of the institution expressed a w4sh to dine
with the girls during one of his visits to the in-
stitution. The flowers that graced the small table
on this day were brought by the distinguished
visitor, who came from a stroll in the " piney "
woods. The gii'ls, apprehensive of their success

83

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

in preparing the dinner for one with so cultured
a palate, felt visibly relieved on the disappearance
of the roast, the vegetables, and the dessert. The
corn bread was voted the best ever eaten, and the
dinner, as a whole, a delicious preparation. If
ever, in the years to come, any of the four forgets
the kindly heart that made all forget station or
condition, " the right hand will forget its cunning."

Days pass all too quickly in work and study.
After the supper at six, the girls in the normal
classes go to their rooms or the Carnegie Library
for study, the girls in the preparatory classes go
to the study-hour, and those who have been work-
ing at the trades during the day spend two hours
in night-school covering half as much ground as
those in day-school, and consequently spend a
longer period in school. At the ringing of the bell
at half past eight all the girls form in line to pass
to the Chapel for prayers.

School and work over for the day, every girl
seems to lose her personality in her blue braided
uniform, with her red tie and turnover on week-
day evenings at Chapel, and her white ribbon on
Sundays when she passes the platform as she
marches by out of the Chapel to her room. Her
carriage at least identifies her class-standing, and

84

WHAT GIRLS ARE TAUGHT

one may easily note the difference in the manner
of her who has newly arrived and another who
has been in school with the advantages of several
years.

Friday afternoons mark an hour for lectures,
girls' clubs, and circle entertainments. Saturday
evenings are spent optionally. Time for class
gymnastics or sewing or swimming is always spent
pleasantly on schedule time during the week. Our
girl attends the Christian Endeavor Sunday morn-
ings at nine, Chapel at eleven, Sunday-school at
one, and, after dinner is out of the way, spends
the enforced quiet hour in her room from three
until four o'clock reading. The band concert on the
lawn calls all to listen, some walking, some sitting
on the seats on the green, but all presenting a pic-
turesque appearance in the blue skirts and white
waists of the spring season.

Thus the days and weeks pass, mingled with
the sorrows and joys of school-life, its encourage-
ments and disappointments. The months and sea-
sons come and go, and, before one is scarcely aware
of the fact, the Commencement Week is here and
the hundreds of young people whose lives have
come in touch with one another pass on to their
homes. Some go out as helpful workers, giving

So

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

useful service to others; many will return to com-
plete the course begun, but all, we hope, will give
out the light that will not fail. Some are workers
with ten talents, some with five, some with one ; but
all, we trust, will be using them for the upbuilding
of the kingdom here on earth.

86

V

HAMPTON INSTITUTE'S RELATION
TO TUSKEGEE

By Robert R. Moton

In his eloquent address in May, 1903, at the
memorial services of General Samuel Chapman
Armstrong, Founder, and for twenty-five years
Principal, of Hampton Institute, Dr. Booker T.
Washington said: "A few nights ago, while I
was driving through the woods in Alabama, I dis-
cerned in the distance a large, bright fire. Driving
to it, I soon found out that by the glow of this
fire several busy hands were building a nice frame
cottage, to replace a log cabin that had been the
abode of the family for a quarter of a century.
That fire was lighted by General Armstrong
years ago. What does it matter that it was
twenty-five years passing through Hampton to
Tuskegee and through the Tuskegee Conference
to that lonely spot in those lonely woods! It was
doing its work very effectually all the same, and
will continue to do it through the years to come."

The relations existing between Tuskegee Insti-

87

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

tute and Hampton Institute are much like those
existing between a son and the father who has
watched the growth and development of his child
through the formative transition periods of his
youth, and looks with pride upon him as he stands
forth in the full bloom of manhood, enumerating
successes already achieved, with large promise of
greater and more far-reaching achievements for
the immediate future. The child never reaches
the point where he does not seek the approval and
blessing of the parent, or where he refuses to ac-
cept advice and assistance if needed.

In the early days of Tuskegee Mr. Washing-
ton turned naturally and properly to Hampton
for anything that was needed, as he so beautifully
and repeatedly testifies in his autobiography. Up
from Slavery. For a long time the men and
women who helped him were from Hampton, more
than fifty such having been there.

While there is a large number of Hampton
graduates in the Industrial Departments of Tuske-
gee, the teaching force, especially in the Academic
Department, represents a dozen or more of the
best colleges and universities in this country. The
same may be said of Hampton.

Up to about eight or ten years ago we at

88

HAMPTON INSTITUTE

Hampton spoke of Tuskegee as a small Hamp-
ton, but " small " no longer describes Tuskegee,
and I doubt seriously if large Hampton would
be altogether proper.

While Tuskegee was founded on the Hampton
plan, and has consistently followed that plan as
far as possible, and while these two great " Indus-
trial Universities " are very much alike in spirit
and purpose, they are, on the other hand, very
dissimilar in external appearance as well as in in-
ternal conduct. Each sends out into the benighted
districts of the South, and Hampton also into
the Indian country of the West, hundreds of men
and women who are li\ang influences of civilization
and Christianity in their deepest and most far-
reaching sense, adding much to the solution of
the perplexing questions vdih which the nation
has to deal.

The conditions surrounding the two schools
have necessitated certain differences in their evo-
lution. The personnel of the two institutions is
different. Hampton has always been governed
and controlled by white people, and its teachers
have come from the best families of the North.
Tuskegee was founded by a Negro, and its teach-
ers and officers have come from the best types of

89

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

the American Negro and from the best schools
opened to them. Hampton deals with a different
class of student material, including the Indian,
who is almost as different in traits and character-
istics from the Negro as he is in feature and origin.
These are, in a sense, external differences which
must of necessity affect the character and internal
machinery of the two institutions.

This is no reflection upon either school, for
each is unique and complete in its way, and any
marked ethnic change in the management of either
would be unfortunate. Hampton is a magnificent
illustration of Anglo-Saxon ideas in modern edu-
cation. Tuskegee, on the other hand, is the best
demonstration of Negro achievement along dis-
tinctly altruistic lines. In its successful work for
the elevation and civilization of the children of
the freedmen, it is also the most convincing evi-
dence of the Negroes' ability to work together with
mutual regard and mutual helpfulness. When
Tuskegee was started there was a serious question
as to whether Negroes could in any large measure
combine for business or educational purposes.
The only cooperative institutions that had been
successful among them were the Church and, per-
haps, the secret societies.

90

HAMPTON INSTITUTE

In material development, in the rapid and
steadily improving accession of student material,
in enlarging powers for greater usefulness, in in-
fluence upon the educational methods of the
country and the civilized world, and in the sym-
pathy and respect it has gained for the Negro
tlirough the writings and speeches of its Founder
and Principal, the Tuskegee Institute has without
doubt passed beyond the expectations of those who
were most sanguine about its future.

The Tuskegee torch, from the Hampton fire
started so many years ago by General Armstrong,
has spread and is spreading light to thousands of
homes and communities throughout the South, and
is the greatest pride and glory of Hampton Insti-
tute, and a constant source of inspiration and en-
couragement to the devoted men and women who
have always made Hampton's work possible.

At the conclusion of an address in a Northern
city in the interest of Hampton, in which I had
quoted Dr. Curry's saying that, " if Hampton had
done nothing more than to give us Booker Wash-
ington, its history would be immortality," a New
England lady of apparently good circumstances
and well informed, in the kindness of her heart,
took me to task for distorting my facts in saying

91

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

that Tuskegee had grown out of Hami)ton. She
was sure that it was just the other way — that
Hampton was an offshoot of Tuskegee. She cer-
tainly could not have paid a higher tribute to
Hampton, and likewise to Tuskegee.

For the past few years ]\Ir. Washington's de-
served popularity and prominence have brought
Tuskegee conspicuously and constantly before the
pubhc. This has in no sense been a disadvantage
to Hampton, but has been a distinct gain in ena-
bling Hampton to point to the foremost man of
the Negro race, and to the largest and most inter-
esting and in many ways the best -managed institu-
tion of the race, as the best and most conspicuous
product of the peculiar kind of education for
w^hich Hampton stands.

While Tuskegee is, perhaps, in many respects,
better known than Hampton, its antecedent,
Hampton, is without doubt much better known and
more highly thought of because of the existence of
Tuskegee.

Tuskegee in its present state of development
would be one of the marvels of the age, even if
the personality of its Principal were left out of
consideration.

Two thousand Negroes who are scarcely a

92

HAMPTON INSTITUTE

generation removed from bondage, being trained,
disciplined, controlled by 200 or more of the same
racial type ; 2,000 Negroes being educated, morally,
industrially, intellectually; an industrial university
with 100 large buildings well equipped and beauti-
fully laid-ofF grounds, with a hum and bustle of in-
dustry, scientifically and practically conducted by
a race considered as representing the lowest ethnic
type, upsetting the theories of many well-meaning
people who believe the Negroes incapable of main-
taining themselves in this civilization, incapable of
uniting in any successful endeavor without being
under the direct personal control of the dominant
Aryan — this is one of the greatest achievements of
the race during its years of freedom.

Hampton, though a dozen years older, the pio-
neer in industrial education, equally well equipped,
quite as well conducted, doing as great a work in
the elevation of the races it represents, and holding
just as important a place in the scheme of modern
education, is not so interesting or so wonderful, be-
cause its conception and execution are the product
of Aryan thought and Aryan ingenuity. New
ideas, new discoveries, new inventions and organi-
zations, new methods and new institutions, have
been conspicuous among the white race for a thou-

93

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

sand years. General Armstrong's wisdom and
foresight were truly wonderful, as indeed are also
those of his worthy successor, Dr. H. B. Frissell,
under whose direction the school's influence and
usefulness have steadily increased, and along lines
that General AiTOstrong would approve; but had
Hampton been founded and brought to its present
state of proficiency by a Negro, and its dominating
force been of the African race, it would be a more
wonderful and interesting institution. In other
words, the white race has long since passed its
experimental period. It now is the standard of
measurement for all other races. The Negro's
achievements, then, are. considered largely with
reference to the impression which they make upon
the race of whose civilization and government he
is a part.

Tuskegee, therefore, stands out more promi-
nently than Hampton as an exponent of industrial
education, and has been more severely questioned
because of the imagined disloyalty in a Negro's
aggressive attitude for this particular kind of edu-
cation for his race. There are people of both races
who, while they do not on the whole oppose Hamp-
ton and Tuskegee in their educational methods,
are honestly afraid that, because of the growing

94

HAMPTON INSTITUTE

importance and influence of these two schools and
others of a similar kind, the idea will be thoroughly
established that the Negro needs only and is capa-
ble only of the narrowest sort of industrial train-
ing— such as is represented by the " rule-of -thumb
carpenter " and the " one-suspender mule-driver,"
who work by rule and rote rather than by principle
and method, not in the slightest degree compre-
hending the science underlying the work in which
they are engaged, whose mathematical knowledge
is bounded by " the distance between two corn or
cotton rows."

To fix such an idea in the minds of the people
of this country — which is not likely to be done —
would, no doubt, be disastrous to us for genera-
tions to come, and make it much more easy than it
is now to deprive the Negro of the civil and po-
litical rights which are guaranteed by the Consti-
tution. It would, without question, defeat the
objects for which Hampton and Tuskegee have
persistently stood, and for which they have ever
worked and are still very successfully working.

No one familiar with the curricula of these two
schools would for a moment raise such a question.
General Armstrong saw, as few people did, the
moral and intellectual value of industrial training

95

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

aside from its merely economic importance. He
founded a school on an entirely different basis
from any that had been known before — the basis
of character-building through practical education,
industrial training, and self-help.

During the thirty-six years of its history,
Hampton has sent into the world about 1,200 grad-
utes and 5,000 undergraduates, many of whom
have taken with them the spark that has started
many other Hamptons, large and small, among the
Negroes of the South and the Indians of the West.
Hampton's success, and indeed the success of any
institution, depends not so much upon the scholastic
attainments of its pupils as upon the work that
those who have received its instruction accomplish.
Hampton glories, and justly, in the loyalty of its
graduates and in the faithfulness with which they
have inculcated and exemplified the traditions and
principles for which it stands. Hampton glories in
Tuskegee, because Tuskegee has started in so many
communities the spark of true lif e and real civiliza-
tion; in the impetus and inspiration it has given,
so beautiful and so perfect a consummation of
the prophetic vision of Hampton's founder.

Can the relations between the two institutions
be better stated than in the words of their two

96

HAMPTON INSTITUTE

founders? After a visit to Tuskegee, General
Armstrong said: " The Tuskegee school is a won-
derful work and Mr. Washington is a remarkable
man. He has carried out the idea of training the
head, hand, and heart in a wonderfully complete
and perfect way. This school is very much like
the one at Hampton, and any one can recognize
the similarity, but he has made many improvements.
It is not merely an imitation. It is the Hampton
Idea adapted and worked into a most sensible and
efficient application to the needs of the Alabama
Negroes." In the same memorial address at Gen-
eral Armstrong's funeral from which I quoted at
the beginning of this paper, Mr. Washington said,
" The rose I place on his grave is his work at Tus-
kegee."

Hampton and Tuskegee, striving along com-
mon lines for common ends, intimate in relation-
ship, interdependent, each frankly criticizing and
freely advising, each profiting by the failures of
the other, each benefiting by the successes of the
other, are both working as best they may toward
that " far-off divine event to which the whole crea-
tion moves."

97

PART U

AUTOBIOGRAPHIES BY
GRADUATES OF THE SCHOOL

8

I

A COLLEGE PRESIDENT'S STORY
By Isaac Fisher

I WAS born January 18, 1877, on a planta-
tion called Perry's place, in East Carroll Par-
ish, Louisiana, and was the sixteenth and last child
of my parents. My early childhood was unevent-
ful, save during the year 1882, when, by reason
of the breaking of the Mississippi River levee near
my home, I was compelled, together with my par-
ents, to live six months in the plantation cotton-
gin, fed by the Federal Government and by the
determination never to live so close to the "Big
Muddy" again; and during 1886, in which year
my mother died.

Up to this latter year my life had been nothing
more than that of the average Negro boy on a
cotton-farm. While I had been too young to
feel the burden of farm-life toil, I had not been
spared a realization of the narrowness and the
dwarfing tendencies of the lives which the Negro
farmers and their families were living, and, in
my heart, I cursed the farm and all its environs

101

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

as being in verity an inferno on earth. A broader
knowledge of the causes which operated to produce
the cheerless life against which my child-nature
rebelled, and a clearer insight into the possibilities
of rural life, have altered this early impression; and
to-day I find myself thinking some thoughts rela-
tive to the life lived near to nature's heart which
are not at all complimentary to the bustle and
selfishness of city life.

The death of my mother furnished the oppor-
tunity to leave the farm and go to a city; and I
took advantage of this, going to Vicksburg, Miss.,
to live with an older sister. I had always desired
to go to school, and had spent four terms of six
months each in the country school near my home;
but for some reason, which I can not now remem-
ber, I attended the city school in Vicksburg but
one year, after which I was employed as a cake-
baker's assistant and bread-wagon driver. A short
time before this I was a house-boy in the city. I
was, at the time of my employment in the bakery,
an omnivorous reader of the newspapers, and, in
fact, of all kinds of literature; but my hours of
labor at both places were so long and incessant
that I found it almost impossible to do any read-
ing during my employment at either place.

102

A COLLEGE PRESIDENT'S STORY

Finally I saw and took advantage of an op-
portunity to secure employment with the drug firm
of W. H. Jones & Brother; and I count my work
in this store, and with these gentlemen as em-
ployers, as the turning-point in my life, because
there my work demanded some intelligence above
the average. I had some chance to study, and in
addition, when it was found by these white men
that I loved to read, all magazines, newspapers,
and drug journals, not needed by the firm and
the physicians whose offices were with them, were
given to me. I never make any mention of my
life in Vicksburg without mentioning, in particu-
lar, Mr. W. H. Jones; for not only was he a
kind and considerate employer, but I learned from
his actions that a white man could be kind and
interested in a Negro — a fact which no amount
of reasoning could have driven into my stubborn
understanding previous to that time.

There came a time when I learned that at the
Tuskegee Institute, in Alabama, any poor Negro
boy who was willing to work could pay for all
his education in labor. To hear was to act. I
wrote to Mr. Washington, asking if my informa-
tion was correct. The affirmative answer came
at once. It was the middle of August, and school

103

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

began in September, but I determined to be pres-
ent at the opening of the school year. I was then
a boy wearing short trousers, but I inmiediately
set about preparing to dehver a " lecture " to help
raise funds for my trip. With a knowledge
of the subject, and an assurance which I have never
since assumed, I spoke to a large audience in Vicks-
burg on the question, Will America Absorb the
Xegro? I settled the question then and there to
my own satisfaction, even if I did not convince the
nation that my affirmative conclusion was rational.
The " lecture " netted me my fare to Tuskegee,
with a few dollars over, and brought me from Rev.
O. P. Ross, pastor of the African Methodist Epis-
copal Church in Vicksburg, the offer of a scholar-
ship at Wilberforce College at the expense of his
church. I respectfully declined the offer, feeling
that I did not want to bind myself to any particular
denomination by accepting so great a gift; but I
have always felt very kindly toward that church
ever since.

iVIy first glimpse of ^Ir. Washington was had
in the depot in ^Montgomery, Ala., where a friend
and I, on our way to Tuskegee, had changed
cars for the Tuskegee train. Two gentlemen came
into the waiting-room where we were seated, one

A COLLEGE PRESIDENT'S STORY

a man of splendid appearance and address, the
other a most ordinary appearing individual, we
thought. The latter, addressing us, inquired our
destination. Upon being told that we were going
to Tuskegee, he remarked that he had heard that
Tuskegee was a very hard place — a place where
students were given too much work to do, and
where the food was very simple and coarse. He
was afraid we would not stay there three months.
We assured him that we were not afraid of hard
work, and meant to finish the course of study at
Tuskegee at all hazards. He then left us. Very
soon after, the gentleman who had so favorably
impressed us, and whom we afterward found to
be the capable treasurer of the Tuskegee Institute,
]Mr. Warren Logan, came back and told us that
our interlocutor was none other than the Presi-
dent of the school to which we were going.

Arriving at Tuskegee, I found what it meant
to be in a school without a penny, without as-
surance of help from the outside, and wholly de-
pendent upon one's own resources and labor; and
I found further that in the severe, trying process
through which ISlr. John H. Washington, super-
intendent of industries, brother of Mr. Booker T.
Washington, and familiarly though very respect-

105

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

fully known to the students as " old man John,"
put all students who offered to work for their edu-
cation, only the fittest, and the fittest of the fit at
that, survived.

I was assigned work with the resident phy-
sician, a very efficient woman doctor from Phila-
delphia; and I have a recollection, by no means
dim, that when this good woman made her monthly
report to the treasurer, she could write, " Health
Department to Isaac Fisher, Dr., $12.50 — value
received." Every morning before breakfast it was
my duty to go to the rooms of six hundred young
men to see if any were ill, have those who were,
carried to the hospital, report all such to four de-
partments, take meals to those confined in the hos-
pital, attend to all their wants, keep their build-
ing heated and supplied with fuel, and — But
space will not permit the full catalogue of duties.
At the end of such a day's work I would attend
the night-school during its session of two hours.

Desiring to learn a trade, I asked permission
to enter the printing-office for the next year. This
was not granted until it was found that I would
not leave the school during the summer, but would
remain and work until the beginning of the next
school year. Accordingly, when my second year

106

A COLLEGE PRESIDENT'S STORY

began I entered the printing-office as an appren-
tice. During that year I suffered actual want and
privation in the matter of shoes and clothes; but
later came under the notice of Mrs. Booker T.
Washington, who made arrangements by which I
could procure some of the second-hand clothes and
shoes sent from the North to the school for just
such cases. At the end of this year my health, as a
result of my work in the office, was so poor that
the resident physician recommended my removal
therefrom. To the surprise of Mr. J. H. Wash-
ington, I asked to be transferred to the farm;
and I think I proved while working on the school-
farm that I was sincere when I said that I would
work wherever I was placed.

It was during this summer that JNIr. Booker T.
Washington showed me that I had come favorably
under his notice. At one of the weekly prayer-
meetings, conducted by the chaplain, IVIr. Penney,
and at which INIr. Washington was present, I made
some remarks relative to the agnosticism of the
late Col. Robert G. Ingersoll. The following day
Mr. Washington sent for me, inquired my age
and class in the school, and then said some very
kind things about the talk which I had made in
the prayer-meeting, and made me a conditional

107

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

promise of his friendship, which, despite my oft-
proven unworthiness, he has ever since given me
in unstinted measure. After that second year
my hardships as a " work-student " were practi-
cally over.

In my third year I entered the day-school,
working one day in every week and every other
Saturday, and going to school the remainder of
the time. While the school made compulsory the
earning of some money on the part of all students,
it set no maximum limit on the amounts to be
earned. I elected to earn as much as I could under
the circumstances, earning, by reason of the many
odd jobs which I did, often as much as $20 per
month, going to school every day in the meantime.
The average amount usually earned is $5 and $6
per month. At one time I worked eight days
per month on the farm, sent notes of the school to
127 Negro newspapers, cleaned one laboratory
every day, played in both the brass band and the or-
chestra, blew the bugle for the battalion, and
taught two classes in the night-school, for each of
which duties I received pay; and even though I
broke down under the accumulated strain soon
after my graduation, I carried my point and com-
pleted the course of study as I had planned.

108

A COLLEGE PRESIDENT'S STORY

In my fourth year I won the Trinity Church
(Boston) Prize of $25 for oratory; and in my
senior year won the Loughridge Book Prize for
scholarship, and also the valedictory of my class,
graduating in 1898.

I was immediately sent to the Schofield School,
a Quaker institution for Negroes in Aiken, S. C,
to organize farmers' conferences on the order of
those conducted by the Tuskegee Institute, and to
serve as a teacher in the school. After one year's
service in that position Mr. Washington asked
me to accept the position of Assistant Northern
Financial Agent for Tuskegee. I accepted, and
remained two years in New England, helping to
interest friends in my alma mater. At my own
request I was transferred from the Northern work
to the South, being assigned this time to the Negro
Conference work in Alabama. Before beginning
this work I was married to a Tuskegee girl, JNIiss
Sallie McCann.

Within a few months a principal was needed
for the Swayne Public School of Montgomery,
Ala., and this in the middle of the school year.
Mr. Washington recommended me for the work,
and I was elected to the position. At the close of
the term I went to New York to study the public-

109

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

school system of that city as far as possible. While
there I was reelected principal of the Swayne
School, and a notice of the election reached me one
morning. Three hours later I received a letter
from the secretary of the University of Arkansas
(white) informing me that my name had been pre-
sented to the board of trustees of that institution,
and I had been elected to the presidency of the
State Branch Normal College at Pine Bluff, Ark.
I was not a candidate for the position, but seeing
in it an opportunity for greater usefulness, I ac-
cepted the position in my twenty-fifth year, and
have just been reelected to serve a third term as
president of the school. The Branch Normal Col-
lege was established in 1875 as one of the Land
Grant colleges, and has a property valuation of
$100,000.

Over my desk hangs a picture of the Principal
of Tuskegee ; and in my desk are views of the insti-
tution which he has built. But these may be re-
moved. In the book of my memory and in the se-
cret chambers of my heart I have enshrined the two
names which, with God and the parents now on the
other side of the Great Divide, have shaped and
given direction to my whole life — Tuskegee and
Booker T. Washington.

110

II

A SCHOOL PRINCIPAL'S STORY

By William H. Holtzclaw

I WAS born in Randolph County, Ala., near the
little town of Roanoke. The house in which I first
saw the light — or that part of it which streamed
through the cracks, for there were no windows —
was a little log cabin 12 by 16 feet. I know
very little of my ancestry, except that my mother
was the daughter of her mother's master, born
in the days of slavery, and up to 1864 herself
the slave of her half-brother. She was born in
the State of Georgia. My father was born in
Elmore County, Ala. He never knew his father,
but remembered his mother and eleven brothers.
My mother was married twice before she married
my father. She married first at the age of fifteen.
I am the fifth of fifteen children, and my father's
oldest child. Neither my father nor my mother
could read or write; mother could get a little out
of some pages of the Bible by spelling each word
as she came to it.

Ill

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

My early years were spent on a farm. When
only four years old I was put to such work as I
could do — such as riding a deaf and blind mule,
while my brother plowed him in order to make
him go forward, for he cared nothing for assault
from the rear. We worked for a white man for
one-fourth of the crop. He furnished the stock,
land, and seeds, and we did the work, although he
was supposed to help. He furnished money to
" run " us at fifteen to a hundred per cent, ac-
cording to the time of the year. He grew wealth-
ier; we grew, if possible, poorer. Before I was
fifteen years old I instinctively felt the injustice
of the scheme. When the crop was divided he got
three loads of corn to our one, and somehow he
always got all the cotton: never did a single bale
come to us.

Those were hard times for us; for it must be
remembered that this was in the days of recon-
struction and the Ku-Klux-Klan, and if to this
be added the fact that my father, a young and
inexperienced man, had started out with a family
of six on his hands, some idea of the situation may
be had. I can recall having been without food
many a day, and the pangs of hunger drove me
almost to desperation. But mother and father

112

A SCHOOL PRINCIPAL'S STORY

would come late at night from a day of depressing
toil and excruciating inward pain, the result of
their inability to relieve our suffering, and pacify
us for the night with such things as they had been
able to get. When I awoke the next morning they
were gone again on a food mission.

Hunger would sometimes nearly drive us mad.
My brother and I were given a meal of pie-crusts
from the white folks' table one day, and as we
ate them, Old Buck, the family dog, who resembled
an emaciated panther, stole one of the crusts. It
was our dinner. We loved Old Buck, but we had
to live first; so my brother lit on him, and a battle
royal took place over that crust. Brother was los-
ing ground, so I joined in, and, coming up from
the rear, we conquered and saved the crust, but
not till both of us w^ere well scratched and bitten.

I was put to school at the age of six. Both
mother and father were determined that their chil-
dren should be educated. School lasted two months
in the year — July and August. The schoolhouse
was three miles from our house, but we walked
every day, my oldest sister carrying me astride
her neck when I gave out. Sometimes we had an
ear of roasted green corn in our basket for dinner,,
or a roasted sweet potato, but more often simply

113

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

persimmons, or fruit and nuts picked from our
landlord's orchard and from the forest.

When cotton began to open, in the latter part
of August, the landlord wanted us to stop school
and pick cotton, and I can distinctly remember
how my mother used to outgeneral him by slipping
me off to school through the woods, following me
through the swamps and dark places, with her hand
on my back, shoving me on till I was well on
the way, and then returning to try to do as much in
the field that day as she and I together would be ex-
pected to do. When the landlord came to the quar-
ters early to look for me, my mother would hide
me behind the cook-pot and other vessels. When
I was a little older I had to play my part on the
farm. Mother now worked another scheme. I
took turns with my brother at school and at the
plow. What he learned at school on his school-day
was taught to me at night, and vice versa. In this
way we got a month of schooling each during the
year, and got the habit of home study.

Our family was increasing rapidly, and to
keep the children even roughly clothed and fed
was about all that could be done under the circum-
stances. When the school exhibition took place and
every girl was expected to have a white dress and

114

A SCHOOL PRINCIPAL'S STORY

every boy a pair of white pantaloons, my mother
was often put to her trumps to get these things.
Father would not trouble himself about them,
as he said they were useless. But the teacher said
they were necessary, and his word was law and
gospel with most parents in our community. An
exhibition was near at hand and three of us had
no white pantaloons. ^Mother manipulated every
scheme, but no cloth yet to make them! Finally
the day arrived, but not till mother solved the prob-
lem by getting up before dawn that morning and
making three pairs of w^hite pantaloons for us
out of her Sunday petticoat. JNIother was of a
determined disposition, and seldom failed to solve
a domestic problem. We looked about as well
as other people's children in that exhibition — at
least we thought we did, and that was sufficient.
But it must be remembered that there is just so
much cloth, and no more, in a petticoat. So our
suits were necessarily made tight. I had to be
careful how I got around on the stage.

I usually had different teachers every year, as
one teacher seldom cared to stay at a place for
more than a session. I well remember the disad-
vantages of this custom. One teacher would have
me in a Third Reader and fractions, another in
9 115

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

Fifth Reader and addition. When I reached the
point where the teacher ordered me to get a United
States History, the book-store did not have one, but
sold me a biography of Martin Luther instead,
which I studied for some time, thinking that I was
learning something about the United States. I did
not know what the United States was or was like,
although I had studied geography and knew some-
thing about South America and Africa; and my
teacher did not tell me. My teacher at this time was
a good man, but that was all. INI any of my teachers
knew very little, but I thought they knew every-
thing, and that was sufficient, for their teach-
ing w^as wholesome. I remember one or two, how-
ever, whose work, under the circumstances, would
be hard to match even now.

As soon as I was old enough I was hired out
for wages, to help support the family. My school
opportunities were now almost gone, and for this
reason, together with a desire for more excite-
ment, I began to grow restless on the farm. I
grew morose. I pulled myself loose from all pub-
lie functions, ceased to attend any public meetings,
save regular monthly church meetings, and betook
me to the woods, where I read everything I could
get. It was during this time that accidentally, I

116

A SCHOOL PRINCIPAL'S STORY

may say providentially, I got hold of a book con-
taining the life of Ignacius Saneho; and I have
never read anything that has given me more in-
spiration. I wish every Negro boy in the land
might read it. I read and worked, and helped to
support the family. I had vowed that as soon
as I was twenty-one I would leave for some
school and there stay until I was educated. I
was already a little in advance of the young
people in my community, so I spent my long win-
ter evenings teaching a little night-school to which
the young people of the neighborhood came.

All my life up to this time my father had
been working as a tenant. He now determined
to strike out for himself — buy stock and rent land.
The mule he bought soon became hopelessly lame
in the back. It was a peculiar sort of illness.
Once upon his feet, he could work all day without
difficulty, but when he lay down at night he had
to be helped up the following morning. During
that entire season the first thing I heard each
morning was the voice of my father, " Children,
children, get up ! let's go and help up the old mule."
A neighbor also was called in each morning to
help. Toward the end of the season the school
opened. We were so anxious to enter, that we

117

TUSKEGEE AXD ITS PEOPLE

determined to help the old mule. ]My brother and
I hitched ourselves to the plow, and sister did the
plowing. Early each morning we plowed in this
way, and soon finished the crop and entered the
little school.

]\Iy father and some others had built a little
school out of pine poles which they had cut. and
hauled to the spot on their shoulders. The teacher,
a married man, easily won all his pupils, but I
could never forgive hmi for winning and finally
eloping with liis prett}^ assistant teacher.

Christmas eve, 1889. I went to bed a boy. Just
after breakfast the next morning I became a man
— my own man. " Sandy Claw " did not come
that night, although I had hung up my stocking,
and I was feeling bad about it. After breakfast
my father called me out into the yard, where we
seated ourselves on the protruding roots of a
large oak-tree, and there he set me free.

" Son," said he, you are nearing manhood,
and you have no education; besides, if you remain
with me I will not be able to help you when you
are twenty-one. We've decided to make you free,
if you'll make us one promise — that you will edu-
cate yourself."

By that time my mother had joined the party.

118

A SCHOOL PRINCIPAL'S STORY

I cried, I know not why, and my mother cried;
even my father could not conceal his emotion. I
accepted the proposal immediately, and although
we usually took Christmas till New Year's day, my
Christmas that year was then at an end. Manhood
had dawned upon me that morning. I tried to be
calm, but inwardly I was like a fish out of water.

I struck out to find work, that I might make
money to go to school. One mile across the forest
brought me to a man who hired me, and promised
me $9.25 a month for nine months.

At the end of six months I came across the
Tuskegee Student, published at the Tuskegee
Normal and Industrial Institute. I read every
line in it. On the first page was a note: " There
is an opportunity for a limited number of able-
bodied young men to enter the Tuskegee Normal
and Industrial Institute and work their way
through, provided application is made at once.
Booker T. Washington, Principal."

Work their way through! I had never heard
of such a thing before. Neither had I heard of
Tuskegee. I sent in my application. I did not
know how to address a letter, and so only put
" Booker T. Washington " on the envelope. Some-
how he received it and gave me permission to come.

119

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

There ensued a general scramble to get ready
to go by the opening of school. I broke off re-
lations with my employer by compromising for
a suit of clothes and $8 in money. My chum,
a man of about forty years of age, seeing the
struggle I was making to get off, offered to
help me, or rather to show me how to get the
money easily by stealing a few chickens and selling
them. It was a tempting bait, but against all the
previous teachings of my mother. He argued, and
my mother, who was not there, also argued within
me. I could not consent. My friend pitied me
and offered to do the job himself.

To get a supply of clothes to take to Tuskegee
was the question. Up to that time I had never
worn an undershirt, or a pair of drawers, or a stiff-
bosom shirt, or a stiff collar. All these I had not
only to get, but had to learn to wear them. JNIy
shirts and collars were bought second-hand from
a white neighbor and were all too large by three
numbers.

The last day of September, 1890, I left for
Tuskegee. When I reached there, although I
was a young man, I could not tell what county
t lived in, in answer to Mr. Washington's question.
I was admitted, after some hesitancy on the part

120

A SCHOOL PRINCIPAL'S STORY

of Principal Washington, and sent to the farm
to work for one year in the daytime and to attend
school at night.

I was dazed at the splendor of Tuskegee.
There was Armstrong Hall, the most imposing
brick structure I had ever seen. Then came Ala-
bama Hall, where the girls lived. How wonder-
ful! I could hardly believe that I was not dream-
ing, and I was almost afraid I should awake.
When I went to bed that night I got between two
sheets — something I had not been accustomed to
do. About twelve o'clock an officer came in, threw
the cover off me, and asked some questions about
nightshirts, comb and brush, and tooth-brush, with
all of which I was but meagerly acquainted. He
made me get up, pull off my socks, necktie,
collar, and shirt, and told me I would rest bet-
ter without them. I didn't believe him, but I
obeyed.

The next morning I saw more activity among
Negroes than I had ever seen before in my life.
Not only was everybody at work, but every soul
seemed to be in earnest. I heard the ringing of
the anvil, the click of machinery, the music of the
carpenters' hammers. Before my eyes was a pair
of big fat mules drawing a piece of new and im-

121

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

proved farm machinery, which Hterally gutted
the earth as the mules moved. Here was a herd
of cattle, there a herd of swine; here thumped the
mighty steam-engine that propelled the machine
which delivered up its many thousand of brick
daily; there was another machine, equally power-
ful, turning out thousands of feet of pine lumber
every day. Then there were the class-rooms, with
their dignified teachers and worthy -looking young
men and women. Amid it all moved that won-
derful figure, Booker T. Washington.

I began at once a new existence. I made a
vow that I would educate myself there, or I would
die and be buried in the school cemetery. When
Mr. Washington stood at the altar in the first
service which I attended and uttered a fervent
prayer asking for guidance, and for spiritual and
financial strength to carry on that great work, I
felt that the Lord would surely answer his prayer.
Since then I have traveled practically all over
this country, and in one foreign country, without
once seeing anything that made so deep an im-
pression on me.

Simultaneously with this opportunity for self-
education came many real hardships — to say noth-
ing of imaginary hardships — v/hich nearly resulted

122

A SCHOOL PRINCIPAL'S STORY

disastrously to my health. I was poorly clad for
the extraordinary winter then setting in. I had
only one undershirt and one pair of drawers. I
could not, of course, put these articles in the laun-
dry, and therefore had to pull them off on Satur-
day nights, wash them, and get them dry enough
to wear by breakfast on Sunday morning. It fol-
lowed that many Sunday mornings found me sit-
ting at the table wearing damp underwear. I could
do no better, without leaving school, and this I
was determined not to do. I was earnest in my
work, and was promoted from a common laborer
to be a hostler in charge of all boys dealing with
horses, and then to the much-sought position of
special assistant to the farm manager.

I was beginning to see the mistakes of my for-
mer life, the time I had lost, and now applied my-
self diligently. I carried a book with me every-
where I went, and not a second of time would I
lose. While driving my mules with a load of wood,
I would read until I reached the place of unload-
ing. Mr. Washington took note of this, and upon
one occasion, while admonishing the students to
make good use of their time, said: " There is a
young man on the grounds who will be heard from
some day because of his intense application to

123

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

study and diligence in his work." I listened. I
knew he was speaking of me, and the fact that
I was to be " heard from " later made me double
my resolutions.

In September, 1891, I had to my credit in the
treasury of the institution $100, and I was now
ready to enter the day-school, to measure arms
with the more fortunate students. But, alas! sick-
ness overtook me, and when I emerged from the
hospital, after about two months' sickness, my doc-
tor's bill was exactly $100. My accumulated credit
went to pay it.

This was the penalty for making the transit
from a lower to a higher civilization. When I
went without undergarments at home, my health
was saved because of uniformity of habit. Now
it was injured because I could wear them this
week, but might not be able to do so the next —
irregularity of habit. Then, too, Tuskegee gave
me such living-rooms as I had never lived in, or
hoped to. I had lived in log houses, which are
self -ventilating. Now I had either overventilated
or failed to ventilate my room. It is a difficult
matter to make the transit from a lower to a higher
civilization. There are many obstacles, and many
have fallen by the way.

124.

A SCHOOL PRINCIPAL'S STORY

I went home to recuperate, but returned to
Tuskegee in a few weks, and as I had no money
I was again permitted to enter the night-school
and work during the day. This time I took up
the printers' trade. Here I broke over the con-
ventional rule of acting " devil " six months, and
began setting type after one month in the office.
In six months I was one of the school's regular
compositors; and in one term I had sufficient
credit with the treasurer to enter the day-school.

But I was not yet to enter. A letter came
from my father, saying, "If you wish to see me
again alive, I think it would be well to come at
once." I went. My father died a few days after
I got home, June 27, 1893.

All hope of future schooling seemed now at
an end. JNIy only concern was to do the best I
could with the exceedingly heavy load now left on
my hands. I pulled off my school-clothes, went
to the field, and finished the crop father had left.
There w^as a hea\y debt, and I began to teach
school to pay this debt. Of course I knew very
little, but I taught what I knew — and, I suppose,
some things I didn't know.

I think even now that I did the people some
good. I had not learned much at Tuskegee in

125

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

books, but I had learned much from Mr. Washing-
ton's Sunday evening talks in the chapel. I had
listened carefully to him and had treasured up in
my heart what he had said from time to time. Now
I was teaching it to others. I felt I was to this
little community what Mr. Washington was to
Tuskegee. So I made the people whitewash their
fences and fix up their houses and premises gen-
erally. They were very poor, and when the school
closed they could not pay me. I told them I
would take corn, peas, potatoes, sirup, pork,
shucks, cotton-seed — in fact, anything with which
they wished to pay me.

Wagons were secured and loaded, and for
several days all sorts of provisions were hauled
to my mother's house and stored away for winter.
I went to the house of one good widow, who said:

" 'Fesser, I ain't got nothin' to pay you wid
but dis 'ere house-cat, and he's a good'n. I owes
you twenty-five cents, and I wants to pay it. You
done my little gal good — more'n any teacher ever
did. She ain't stop' washin' her face yit when she
gits up in de mornin'."

" Very well," I said, " I'll take the cat with
thanks and call the debt square."

Another said: " 'Fesser, I heard you was com-

126

A SCHOOL PRINCIPAL'S STORY

ing, and I hid all my meat in de smoke-house, and
says: ' I'll tell him I ain't got none;' but when I
seed you coming I tole de chillen to go open de
smoke-house. Anybody who do my chillens as
much good as you, can get every bit de meat I got."
From that woman I got fifty pounds of meat.

Another good woman wanted me to take her
only pair of scissors, and when I refused to do so,
she put them into my coat-pocket, saying the man
who taught her child so much must be paid.

For three years I taught school with one per-
sonal object in view — the support of my mother
and her family. Mother was not satisfied with
this ; she wanted me educated. Finally she married
again, for no higher reason than to permit me,
and the other children growing up, to go to school.
My hope for an education was again renewed, and
I went back to Tuskegee.

Nearly everybody had forgotten that I had
ever been there. Notwithstanding I had been out
nearly three terms, I had kept pace with my class,
making one class each year, the same as if I had
been in school. Upon a very critical examination,
in w^hich I averaged ninety-three for all subjects,
I entered the B IMiddle class in the day-school.

Financially I was very little better off than
127

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

when I left, but I had learned how to manipulate
things in such a way as to make it possible to re-
main in school. I knew a trade at which I could
easily make a dollar a day in credit, and I could
teach during the vacation. Things went smoothly
for one year. Then my brother came, and I had
to support him in part. Just about the time I was
getting myself adjusted to this, my sister came.
I knew I should have to support her almost wholly,
so I felt like giving up under such a triple burden;
but I held on. I had to deny myself many of
the pleasures of school life in order to make two
ends meet. I had to wear two pairs of pantaloons
and one pair of drawers ; and I remember one Sun-
day, while the school was enjoying a good sermon
by a great bishop, I was in the shop melting some
glue, with which I glued patches on my only pair
of pantaloons, which had reached a condition where
thread would no longer hold the patches on. I will
not tell what happened when the patches had been
on for a few days.

But amid all these conflicting affairs of my
school-days ran an immense amount of pleasure,
more than I had ever known before. I was gradu-
ally coming to see things as they are in the affairs
of men. I thought then, and I still think, that

128

A SCHOOL PRINCIPAL'S STORY

no sacrifice was too great when there was such a
golden opportunity. To sit and hsten to one Sun-
day evening talk by Principal Washington was
worth all the trouble one had to undergo for a year.

Two years before I graduated I began to in-
quire what I was made for — what calling should
I follow? It was hard to decide. Mr. Washing-
ton's teaching had impressed me that I should do
something to help those less fortunate than my-
self, and that in the very darkest place I could
find. ISIy father had called me to his death-bed
and said to me: "Son, I want you to become
a teacher of your people. I have done what I
could in that direction. The people need your
services." I recalled how in his last moments I
had promised him I would carry out his wishes.
There w^as nothing else left for me to do but to
go into those dark places. But there was the rub;
and every Sunday evening Mr. Washington thun-
dered that same theme: " Go into the darkest
places, the places where you are most needed, and
there give your life with little thought of self."
I knew about those dark places. I had been born
in one of them. I had been spending my vacations
teaching in them.

Once, while teaching in the State of Georgia,
129

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

I boarded with a family where there were fifteen
besides myself, all sleeping, eating, and cooking
in the same room. There were three young women
in the family. When bedtime came I had to go
out of doors and amuse myself with the stars till
all the women were in bed; then they would ex-
tinguish the hearth-light by putting some ashes
on it and let me come in and go to bed. I had
to keep my head under the cover the next morning
while they got up and dressed. I used to sleep
with my nose near a crack in the wall in order
to get fresh air. One little girl in the family,
while saying her prayers one night, begged the
Lord to let the angels come down and stay with
them that night. Her little brother promptly in-
terrupted her by saying that she ought to have
sense enough to know that there was no room
in that bed for angels, as there were already five
persons in it. I was used to the country and its
worst conditions. I prayed over the matter till
finally I gave myself, heart and mind, to what-
ever place should call me.

During my last year at Tuskegee I was made
a substitute salaried teacher in the night-school.
My financial burdens were now lifted and my
school life became one great pleasure. Toward the

130

A SCHOOL PRINCIPAL'S STORY

end of my Senior year I decided to try for the
Trinity Prize of $25 for the best original oration.
I remembered what JNIr. Washington had so often
said: that a man usually gets out of a thing what
he puts into it. I determined to put $100 worth
of eff ort into this contest. I was awarded the prize.

A place was offered to me at Tuskegee as aca-
demic teacher, but I declined it. I had settled in my
mind that I would go to the State of Mississippi,
which I had found by two years of investigation
was the place where my services were most needed.
I could not go to Mississippi at once. I had not
money to pay my way, so I accepted a position
with my friend, William J. Edwards, at his school
in Snow Hill, Ala., where I worked for four years,
never losing sight of my Mississippi object. While
at Snow Hill I married Miss Mary Ella Patterson,
a Tuskegee graduate of the Class of '95. We put
our earnings together and built us a comfortable
little home. One child, William Sidney, was born
to us, but lived only six months.

It took me just two years to convince my wife
that there was any wisdom or judgment in leaving
our little home and going to ^Mississippi, where
neither of us was known. But finally she gave
herself, soul and body, to my way of thinking.
10 131

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

The way was now clear for me to make the
start. Just before I left for Mississippi, one of
my old teachers from Tuskegee visited me. He
inquired about my going to Mississippi, and when
I explained the scheme to him, he said jestingly,
" You know there is no God in Mississippi." I
simply replied that then I would take " the one that
Alabama had " with me.

I could not take my wife, for she was under
the care of a physician at th?t time. I decided to
leave nearly all my ready cash with her. I did
not take quite enough for my railroad fare, for
I had expected to sell my wife's bicycle when I
reached Selma, the nearest town, and thus secure
enough money to finish my trip. But when I got
to Selma the wheel would not sell, so I boarded
the train without money enough to reach Utica,
the place in Mississippi to which I was bound.

I had not got far into the State of Mississippi
when my purse was empty. I stopped off at
a little town, late at night, where there were no
boarding-houses, and no one would admit me to
a private house to sleep. I wandered about until
I came upon an old guano-house, and crawled
into this and slept until the break of day. Then
I crawled out, pulled myself together, jumped

132

A SCHOOL PRINCIPAL'S STORY

astride my bicycle, and made my way toward Utica,
through a wild and unfrequented part of Missis-
sippi. But before I could reach Utica my wheel
broke down, whereupon I put it upon my shoulder,
rolled up my trousers, and continued the journey
to Utica. I soon met a young man who relieved
me of my burden by trading me his brass watch
for the wheel and giving me $2 to boot.

I had previously got myself elected principal
of the little county school, which, if I could pass
the State examination, would pay me a little salary,
which would be a great help to me while I worked
up the Industrial and Xormal School which I
had come to build. ]Much depended on my ability
to pass the examination. Tuskegee's reputation
was at stake — my own reputation was at stake;
for, if I f ailed, the people would certainly lose con-
fidence in me, and make it impossible for me to ac-
complish my purpose.

I was out of money, and this was the only way
I could see to get any for a long time. If I failed,
my wife — who was still in Alabama, and who be-
lieved in my ability to do anything — would per-
haps lose respect for me, and, most of all, the fail-
ure to pass the examination might upset aU my
plans and blast all my hopes. I confess I went to

133

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

that examination with a sort of anxious determina-
tion. I did not, however, find it half so difficult as
I had expected. I soon succeeded in obtaining the
necessary license to teach in the public schools of
the State.

The little schoolhouse where the school had been
heretof ore was so much out of repair that we could
not risk having pupils under its roof. I had hoped
to open in the church, but the good deacons would
not permit this. So the few pupils who came the
first day were gathered together under an oak-tree,
and there were taught. After some time a tempo-
rary cabin was fixed up, and in this we taught the
entire winter. The cabin was practically no protec-
tion against the rain, and less against the winter
winds. The wind literally came through from all di-
rections— from the sides, ends, above, and beneath.

We soon had the floor stopped up with clay.
This brought about another disadvantage: when
it began to rain through the roof, the water would
collect on the floor until it was two or three inches
deep. Two young women were helping me to
teach. They often amused me by trying to main-
tain their dignity and keep out of the water at the
same time. They would stand upon stools and
fire questions at their pupils, who were standing

134

A SCHOOL PRINCIPAL'S STORY

in the water below while answering them. On such
days as this I usually wore my overcoat and rubber
shoes. I would then stand in the water and teach
with as much indifference as possible. We bored
holes in the floor to let the water out, but it usu-
ally came through the roof faster than it could
escape. There was much suffering at this time
on the part of both teachers and students, but it
was all a joy and pleasure to me, for I felt
that I had found my life-work.

I was a stranger to the people, and they had
very little confidence in me. Some of them ques-
tioned my motives in every direction. At the first
meeting of the patrons for the purpose of raising
money, seventy-five cents were collected and were
turned over to me to hold. In a couple of days
some one demanded that the collection be taken out
of my hands. I quietly turned it over to them.
Then they got up a scramble as to which one should
hold it. They settled the quarrel by selecting a
white man in the town of Utica, in whom all of
them had confidence. I then went out canvassing
and got $10, which I promptly turned over. Im-
mediately they wanted to turn it back to me to
hold, together with what the white man had. They
never again questioned my sincerity.

135

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

My wife, who was still in Alabama, kept wri-
ting me to let her join me. Explanations would
do no good. She laid aside all the comforts of
home life and came to live in a hovel. We rented
a little room, bought a skillet and a frying-pan, a
bed and two chairs, and set up housekeeping. I
did the cooking, for my wife was a city girl and
did not know how to cook on the open fireplace.
We never contrasted our condition in JNIississippi
with that in Alabama; we simply made the best
of what we had.

At first there was difficulty in securing land for
a location, and many of the patrons began to feel
that nothing w^ould be accomplished. To off'set
this idea I purchased lumber for a building, had
it put in the churchyard, and cut up ready for
framing. The enthusiasm had to be kept up.
Land was soon bought and the building started.
Everybody felt now that something was going to
be done. At the end of the first year's work I
was able to make to the trustees a creditable re-
port, from which the following is taken:

As soon as we secured a cabin to teach in, the
young people came in great numbers. We soon
had an attendance of 200. One teacher after an-

136

A SCHOOL PRINCIPAL'S STORY

other was employed to assist, until seven teachers
were daily at work. After three months in our
temporary quarters conditions were very trying.
There was no money to pay teachers or to meet
the grocery bills for teachers' board. The winter
was well on, and the structure in which we were
located was little protection against it. The rain
easily came through the roof, and water was often
two inches deep on certain parts of the floor. Sev-
eral teachers and students were suffering with
pneumonia or kindred disorders, as a result of
all this exposure. I confess that during this dark
period only a carefully planned system and much
determination prevented despair.

During all this time I was trying to secure
the interest of the people. I went from door to
door, explaining our efforts; then I made a tour
of the churches ; after riding or walking five or ten
miles at night I would return, and then teach the
next day. After a protracted struggle of this
kind, and after visiting almost everybody for many
miles, I found that I had secured about $600.
This greatly relieved us. Forty acres of land were
purchased, and a part of the lumber for a good,
comfortable building was put upon the grounds.
Some of our trustees in New York city and Bos-
ton now came to our assistance, and with this,
and contributions from a few other friends, we
were able to get through the year. Although it
was a great struggle, I found in it some pleasure.

137

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

To know that you were doing the work that the
world needs, and must have done, is a pleasure
even under trying difficulties.

Starting last October without a cent, in the
open air, we have succeeded in establishing a regu-
larly organized institution incorporated under the
laws of the State of Mississippi, with 225 students
and seven teachers, and with property valued at
$4,000. Forty acres of good farm-land about a
mile from town have been secured. A model crop
is now growing on this farm. We have erected a
building — a two-story frame — at a cost of some-
thing over $2,000.

I hope you will not get, from what I have
said, an idea that I am measuring the success of
my efforts by material advancement. I am not.
There are forces which our labors have set to work
here, the results of which can not be measured in
facts and figures. One year ago religious services
were held once a month, at which time the day was
spent in singing, praying, and shouting. The way
some of the people lived for the next twenty-nine
days would shock a sensitive individual to read
about it. Young people would gamble with the
dice, etc., in a most despicable way, within a short
distance of the church, during services; others
would discharge revolvers at the church door dur-
ing services; ignorance, superstition, vice, and im-
morality were everywhere present, notwithstanding
the handful of determined Christian men and

138

A SCHOOL PRINCIPAL'S STORY

women who were trying to overcome these evil tend-
encies. I do not maintain that these evils have
been crushed out. They have not. But what I
do maintain is that the general current has been
checked. The revolution is on; and if we continue
the work here, as we surely will, these evil tenden-
cies will soon be crushed out.

During this year the people themselves fur-
nished $1,000 toward the support of the school.
They have never before spent a tenth as much for
education. The second year eleven teachers were
employed and 400 students were admitted. The
cost of operations was $10,000, all of which was
raised during the year. We are now entering into
our third term. Fifteen teachers have been em-
ployed, and the expenses of operation will be about
$15,000, all of which I must raise by direct effort.
Our property, all deeded to a board of trustees, is
valued at $10,000.

I can not feel that I have accomplished much
here in Mississippi, because I see all around me so
much to be done — so much that I can not touch
because of lack of means. But, being in the work
to stay, I may, in the end, contribute my share to
the betterment of man. If I have suffered much
to build up this work, I can not feel that it is

139

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

a sacrifice. It is a colossal opportunity. The
greater the sacrifice, the more extensive the oppor-
tunity. Whatever may have been accomplished al-
ready is certainly due more to my wife's superior
judgment than to my own activity. Whatever
I have been able to do myself here in Mississippi
for my people has been due, first, to the teach-
ings of my mother, and, second, to the all-im-
portant life-example and matchless teachings of
Booker T. Washington.

140

Ill

A LAWYER'S STORY
By George W. Lo\^joy

I CAN give no accurate date as to my birth, as
my mother was a slave and thus it was not re-
corded, but I think I was born in the month of
February, 1859. I was born in Coosa, one of
the middle counties of Alabama.

I am the third child and the second son of
eleven children, seven of whom are still living.

My father I do not remember, as he died when
I was very young, but I most vividly remember
my stepfather, the only father I ever knew.

Childhood to me was not that long season of
" painless play " of which Whittier so beautifully
sings, but I do remember that I was early im-
pressed that my feet must have been made for the
express purpose of treading " the mills of toil."
When seven years of age my stepfather put a
hoe in my little hands and bade me go and help
my mother weed the cotton-patch, and from that

m

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

day to the present time I have been constant in my
appHcation to some form of labor.

When my mind reverts to that early period of
my life I become my own photographer and get
various pictures of myself, either as picking, hoe-
ing, or planting cotton, of pulling fodder or split-
ting rails, for these were the things I did from
childhood to manhood.

My stepfather had been the foreman, or
" driver," for his master when he was a slave,
and I am persuaded to believe that he must have
been an excellent one, for I can not remember in
all my life when a day's work had been so full, so
complete, so well done, that he would not press for
a little more the next day.

Mortgaging of crops was then in vogue, as it
is to-day, and my mind revolts when I think of
how my young life and the lives of my mother,
sisters, and brothers were burdened with the con-
stant grind of trying to eke out a living and, if
possible, get even a little ahead.

Some years, when conditions had been favor-
able, we were able to clear ourselves of debt and
begin anew. But, seemingly, this prosperity was
not for us, for these years of plenty were almost
invariably followed by one or two less fruitful

142

A LAWYER'S STORY

ones that came and " swallowed up the whole,"
leaving us as forlorn and as wretchedly poor as
we were before. This failure of the crops because
of drouths unduly long, wet seasons, the ravages
of worms, caterpillars, and other uncontrollable
circumstances, not only meant that the whole of
that year's labor was to bring no tangible rewards,
but that much property accumulated in more pros-
perous times was to be dissipated as well. I can
recall repeated instances when all of my step-
father's live stock was taken for debt under this
crushing system. And thus it was that my step-
father, and my mother, and the rest of the farmers
for miles around existed!

During all these years my brothers, sisters, and
myself were growing up in ignorance. Until I
was ten years old I had never heard of a school
for colored children. Even after the privilege of
attending school two months of the year — July
and August — had been accorded me, I am certain
that the instruction received was of that kind
that hinders more than it helps. Year after year
the course of study would be repeated. Perhaps
this repetition was necessary for more than one
reason :

First, ten months' vacation does not tend to
143

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

firmly impress upon one's mind the knowledge ac-
quired in two.

Second, the teachers themselves had such lim-
ited knowledge that two months were ample time
in which to exhaust their store of knowledge, and,
as examinations were so easy, it was not impera-
tive that they do more than " keep school."

I remember quite distinctly that when I did
go to school we used the proverbial Webster's
blue-back speller. The majority of the pupils
began with the "A, B, C," the alphabet, and went
as far as " horseback," while apt pupils might be
able to reach " compressibility." And so for years
we went from " A " to " compressibility " on
" horseback."

In those days the three " R's " were not con-
founded. Only one of them was given to us, and
that in broken doses, for I reached manhood with-
out being able to write a single word or to work
a problem in mathematics.

Neither my mother nor stepfather could read
or write a line ; not a book, newspaper, or magazine
was ever seen in our home. It was most unusual
to see a colored man or woman who could either
read or write.

When a mere boy I inwardly protested against

144

A LAWYER'S STORY

this manner of bringing-up. I determined to
make my life more useful, to make it better than
it was. But how long these years were ! However,
the day came when I was twenty-one, and I began
to create a " life " for myself.

I immediately went to work doing farm labor,
and saved my earnings until I had twenty-five or
thirty dollars ahead. I then decided to go to school
somewhere and to learn something. I found my
first opportunity in Montgomery, Ala. I went
there in November, 1883, and entered the Swayne
School.

Everything was new and strange to me. I
had never seen so large a schoolhouse before.
I was dazed, bewildered. There I was, a great,
grown man, in the class with little children, who
looked upon me as a curiosity, something to be
wondered at. I, too, looked at them with amaze-
ment, for it seemed next to impossible for young
boys and girls to know as much as they seemed
to know.

I can not say that I was heartily received by
the pupils. I was awkward, and I discovered that
the city children did not find me pleasingly com-
panionable.

It is probable that at this point I should have

145

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

grown discouraged and given up had I not met
that great and good man, Rev. Robert C. Bed-
ford, who is now, as he has been for many years,
secretary of the board of trustees of the Tuske-
gee Institute, and who travels among and reports
upon the work of Tuskegee graduates and former
students, but who was at that time pastor of the
First Congregational Church in Montgomery. I
regularly attended his church and the Sunday-
school connected therewith, and received such help
and encouragement from him as but few men can
impart to others.

It was he who first told me of Tuskegee
and advised me to enter there. I felt that this
advice, if heeded, would work for my good. I
w^as admitted to Tuskegee for the session begin-
ning Sej)tember, 1884, three years after the school
had been opened.

When I entered Tuskegee I was filled with
loathing for all forms of manual labor. I had
been a slave to toil all my life and had resolved
that, if it were possible for a colored man to make
a living by doing something besides f arming, split-
ting rails, or picking and hoeing cotton, I would
be one of that number. I vvas compelled at the
school, however, like the others, to work at some

146

A LAWYER'S STORY

industry. I did some work on the farm and was
one of the school's " boss " janitors.

Though I had no real inclination to learn a
trade or to perform any kind of manual toil, I
did desire to be useful, and throughout my whole
school life at Tuskegee I had visions of myself
seated in an office pondering over Blackstone,
Kent, and Storey, with a " shingle " on the outside
announcing my profession to all passers-by.

After spending some time in Tuskegee and
diligently applying myself, I was much gratified
to find that I was able to pass the State examina-
tion for a second-grade certificate, and to teach,
during the vacation period, the very school in which
I had so long before learned to spell " horseback "
and " compressibility."

I spent four years in the Tuskegee Institute,
graduating with the class of 1888.

Before graduating, I divulged to Mr. Wash-
ington my long-cherished ambition, and was some-
what chagrined to find that he did not think much
of my dreams. He apparently sympathized with
this larger vision, but seemed to think I ought to
have more education. I suspect he was right.
However, I was determined to make an effort to
realize my ambitions. I insisted that he must
11 147

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

help me to find a place to read law. After a
while it was decided that I should begin in
the office of Mr. Wilham ISI. Reid, of Ports-
mouth, Va.

With this end in view, I taught in the State of
Alabama from May, 1888, until April, 1889. I
then left for Portsmouth.

Though I had worked for eleven months, I
had but $1.25 when I reached Portsmouth. My
salary had been meager, I had paid every cent I
owed the school, and had met the many obliga-
tions necessary to living in a decently comfortable
manner.

I found Mr. Reid to be an intelligent, studious,
hard-working young man, with a fairly good prac-
tise, and in that hour of uncertainty and embar-
rassment he proved himself to be " the friend in
need." With his aid I was not long in finding
work by which I earned enough to pay my board
and buy books to help me in my study of law at
night.

I worked during the daytime at the United
States Na\y-Yard in Portsmouth, receiving $1.25
per day. I had never before earned so much
money. I was able not only to meet my regular
bills but to save something, and soon began to

148

A LAWYER'S STORY

collect a law library. I worked at the Navy- Yard
for three years. It was my privilege to work
upon the second-class battleship Texas, and upon
the steel-protected cruiser Raleigh, both of which
rendered admirable service in the Spanish- Ameri-
can War.

In the spring of 1892 I felt that I had suffi-
cient knowledge of law to begin practising. I
left Virginia and returned to Alabama. The tug
of war had now begun. I found it exceedingly
difficult to get examined. After trying for five
months, I succeeded in getting a lawyer, a Mr.
Thompson, of Macon County, Ala., to recommend
me to the chancery court of that county for ex-
amination. I was examined in open court before
all the practising attorneys of that bar, and was
given license to practise law in the State of
Alabama.

I was elated, overjoyed — my dream was near-
ing its realization !

I selected INIobile, Ala., a city of about fifty
thousand inhabitants, as my field of labor. I
opened my office on September 8, 1892, and have
practised law there from that time to the present
date. Though I have met many obstacles and
have had many difficulties to surmount, I have

149

TUSKECxEE AXD ITS PEOPLE

never had to close my office, or seek other employ-
ment to make a living. I have done well.

I have experienced no embarrassment because
of prejudice. The judges and juries have dis-
cussed cases with me in the same manner that they
would with any other la^^yer at the bar. I have
even had a few white clients.

To get the confidence of my own people is the
hardest problem I have had to solve, for I find that
men are still sometimes ^^ithout honor in theii' o^^'u
eomitry.

I am daily confronted with many petty difficul-
ties. I sometimes find that even a religious dif-
ference will come between me and a probable cli-
ent. Some think I should be a Baptist, others
would have me a ^lethodist. and others still sug-
gest that I should embrace the Catholic faith. I
should also belong to every secret society in the
city, and attend every public gathering no matter
what the hour, whether it be called at high noon
or at dawn of day.

Despite these things to be expected of a people
but forty years free, and used to white judges, and
juries, and lawyers, and unused to dealing with
one of their own, I feel that I am still winning
my way. It is my desire to help my fellow men,

150

A LAWYER'S STORY

and in return receive an appreciable share of their
help.

After practising my profession for nearly two
years, I was married to Miss Sarah E. Ogden, who
was at that time a student at the Tuskegee Insti-
tute. We have been happily married for ten years
and have been blessed with six children, only three
of whom, I am sorry to state, are living.

I feel that I can not close this short sketch
without paying a closing tribute to my alma mater
— Tuskegee. Those lessons of thrift, industry,
and integrity dwelt upon by Principal Washing-
ton and his coworkers, I shall never forget. ]My
heart thrills and its pulses beat whenever I think
of what it has meant to me to come in contact with
the quickening influences of that school.

I lift up my voice and call her blessed, my Tus-

151

IV

A SCHOOL TREASURER'S STORY
By Martin A. Menafee

I WAS born on a plantation in Lee County,
Ala., and, as my parents were very poor, I was
placed in the field and did not see the inside of
a schoolroom until I was twelve years old. I
then had a chance to attend a three months' school
for six months, or for two years, as we usually
called it. Before this I had had one of my shoul-
ders dislocated through an accident and have been
able to use but one arm since.

At this period I made up my mind to secure
an education, and a gentleman who was teaching
school at my home took me to an Alabama college,
thinking that he could perhaps get me in school
there. I told the president of the college that I
wanted an education, and offered him my services in
return for such opportunities as he would open to
me, but seeing my condition, he soon concluded
that I could render but little in the way of services.

152

A SCHOOL TREASURER'S STORY

I pleaded with him for a trial, but he refused me
admittance, albeit in a very nice and polite manner.

I returned home, then at Oakbowery, Ala.
Very soon after my return I heard of the Tuske-
gee Institute, and I think it was in July of that
year when I made up my mind that I would start
for this school, which was about forty miles from
where I lived. After walking to Auburn, Ala.,
twelve miles, I waited for the train and, as she
glided up, I walked in and took my seat. Before
I left home I knew some walking would be neces-
sary, and preferred doing it at the beginning of
the journey. I was admitted on my arrival, after
some parleying, and was promptly assigned to
work in the brick-yard. After I had been there
for two days I found that the sun had no pity
on, or patience with, me; it seemed to blister me
through and through. I finally concluded that the
sun, together with the brick-yard, was blasting the
hopes I had entertained and the determination I
had fostered, of securing an education. I tried
to get my work changed, but the Director of In-
dustries did not see it as I did, and w^ould not do it.

The next thing that I settled upon for relief
was to get sick, but a day's trial of that showed
that would not work. I decided that I would

153

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

return home, where I was sure I would at least
find no brick-yard to harass or disturb. My stay at
the school was just about seven or eight days.
I would like to add just here, however, that I am
very glad that I was put on the brick-yard, as
it certainly left in me the spirit of work after I
got over that first affliction of heat.

Very soon after I had returned home I re-
ceived a letter from one of the teachers of Talla-
dega College, a Miss S. J. Elder, who met me
when I was there seeking entrance, asking me to
go to Jenifer, Ala., and attend a school there con-
ducted by two white ladies; she said she would
" foot " all of my bills. This greatly relieved
me, and I considered it a great thing. Very soon
thereafter I had my clothes ready, and was at
Jenifer. I was there for one year, but Tuskegee
was constantly on my mind; in fact, I had made
up my mind to give it a second trial.

On October 29, 1894, I again went to Tuske-
gee and asked for admission. I was admitted with
the understanding that I should stand up in the
Chapel and make a public acknowledgment of the
wrong I had done in leaving the school without
permission. This seemed like a great humiliation,
as I could hardly talk to one person, to say nothing

154

A SCHOOL TREASURER'S STORY

of the thousand students and teachers then there,
as I stammered so much. ]Mr. Washington seemed
to understand the situation and was kind enough
to help me out by asking questions.

I was given work on the farm, and started out
again with renewed vigor and determination to
complete a course of study. The farm manager,
Mr. C. W. Greene, was very kind to me and gave
me work that I could do. After I had been on the
farm about tw^o weeks he placed me at the gates
to keep out the cows and hogs that might be
tempted to walk in on the school-lawns. This work
I enjoyed, and very soon established an " office "
under a tree near the gate. I held this position
and kept this " office " for two years.

I was then taken from there and placed in IVIr.
Greene's office to help him. It was at Tuskegee
that I first saw a typewriter and shorthand wri-
ting. I made up my mind that I would be a stenog-
rapher and typewriter, and thought that if I could
learn this, that would be as high up as I cared
to go in life. I borrowed a book on shorthand, not
being able to purchase one, and began the study
without a teacher. Very soon I realized that I
had learned a little, and my ambition grew. I
wanted a typewriter.

155

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

I got up enough courage to go to the Rev.
R. C. Bedford, who often visited the school, and
who was one of my best friends, and, in fact, is
largely responsible for my being able to stay at
Tuskegee as long as I did, and told him I w^anted a
typewriter ; I repeatedly told him that my success in
life largely depended upon my securing it. ]Mr.
Bedford said he would see what could be done, and,
in a very short time, he came from the North and
brought the machine. When he informed me that
he had brought it, it did seem that I could not
stay on the grounds. I felt then that I had all
that was necessary to make me a stenographer, and
very soon declared myself a member of the steno-
graphic world.

I advanced very well in these new studies and
was given some work to do in the offices. The
regular school stenographers helped me all they
could.

The saddest experience I ever had in connec-
tion with the Tuskegee Institute was at the end of
my second summer. I was very anxious to remain
in the employ of the school, as my people were
very poor and I did not care to be home on them
unless I could become a full field hand, and I felt
that the school had much work that I could do.

156

A SCHOOL TREASURER'S STORY

I appealed to the Director more than once to let
me remain, but he replied each time that the work
department was closed ; that he could not take any
more, and furthermore, that it was best that I
return home. Mr. Bedford encouraged me all he
could and told me that I might find something to
do; that I should launch out for myself. I went
to Opelika, and Mr. Bedford was on the same
train. He and I were in Opelika together for
about a half day. He was on his way to Beloit,
Wis., his home, and I was on my way home to
Oakbowery. About thirty minutes before it was
time for my train to leave, I noticed a man who
w^as very busy superintending the hauling of some
lumber. This man asked my name, what I could
do, and where I was from. For a moment I hesi-
tated to tell him, but finally did. I found that he
was the principal of the colored city school at Ope-
lika, Professor J. R. Savage. Mr. Savage proved
to be a true friend. He gave me work at once
in the Summer Normal School he was conducting.
I went to my home that evening, rejoicing that I
had found work. When I returned to Opelika Mr.
Savage asked me to take charge of the business de-
partment of the Summer Normal and teach short-
hand and typewriting. I worked with him in this

157

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

way for three summers, my vacation periods, with
much success. We worked well together and in
perfect harmony.

At the opening of each school year at Tuske-
gee I would be among the first to get there to be-
gin my studies. I found that, in order to remain
at Tuskegee, students had to have a real purpose.
I had one, and I think so impressed the Faculty
before leaving there.

I did not have all smooth sailing, and, at times,
I would all but give up.

I was at Tuskegee for six years, and I recall
those years with much pleasure and satisfaction.
During my stay there I made many friends, and
I can not refrain from mentioning the Rev. R. C.
Bedford, who has helped me in so many ways; Mr.
Warren Logan, the Treasurer of the school; Mrs.
F. B. Thornton, the Matron, who took me as her
son, and my dear friend, the farm manager, Mr.
C. W. Greene. Many others were also very kind
to me.

I completed my course of study in 1900. By
this time Mr. Bedford had secured a position for
me at Denmark, S. C, as stenographer to the
principal, Miss Elizabeth E. Wright, a Tuskegee
graduate. I did not hold this position very long

158

A SCHOOL TREASURER'S STORY

before it was decided in a meeting of the board of
trustees to have me act as the school's treasurer.
On being asked to take this place, I answered that
I would do my best. I have now been here since
the fall of the year of my graduation. I like the
work immensely.

A word about the school: It is known as the
Voorhees Industrial School, and is located in the
midst of an overshadowing Negro population. It
has just completed the seventh year of its exist-
ence. Miss Wright, the principal, founded it on
faith. She is a delightfully spiritual woman, and
was at first greatly opposed in her efforts by both
the black and white people of this section. She
persevered, however, and all the people are now
her friends. Her work here has been but little
short of marvelous. The pride of the grounds is
a splendidly arranged Central Building, which cost
$3,000. It contains offices, class-rooms, and a
chapel that will seat 600 persons. A large building
for girls, costing $4,000, has also been erected. A
Tuskegee graduate drew the plans for both of
these buildings. A barn which cost $800 we have
also been able to complete, and are now using.

In our Faculty, in addition to ^liss Wright,
who is of the Class of 1904, Tuskegee Institute,

159

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

we have six other Tuskegee graduates: a farm
superintendent, a carpenter, a teacher of draw-
ing, a principal of the primary department, a sew-
ing and cooking teacher, a milhnery teacher and
industrial helper, and a treasurer and bookkeeper,
myself.

The day- and boarding-pupils number 300.

Voorhees is one of the sixteen larger "off-
shoots " of Tuskegee Institute, manned and con-
trolled by Tuskegee graduates. It is a chartered
State institution, and has on its board of trustees
white and colored persons, Northern and South-
ern. One of its very best and most helpful sup-
porters and friends is a Southern white man who
has helped it in ways innumerable, and has backed
it when the courage of all of us has all but fal-
tered.

By precept and example the school is helping
the black masses of rural South Carolina to help
themselves. The work we do is far different from
that done by any other school in the State ; we pro-
vide the way for our students, as at Tuskegee, be-
cause of their poverty, to work on the farm and in
the shops during the day and attend school at night.
Without this help most of them would be without
any chance to attend school. Our students are

160

A SCHOOT. TREASURER'S STORY

learning to dignify labor. None have yet gradu-
ated, as our school is young and most of those
who come to us can not read or write a word.
They are wofully ignorant, but so willing to
learn, so earnest, and so persevering.

During the last school year, 1903-'04, we re-
ceived from all sources $18,310.43. This will give
some idea as to the scope and importance of our
work, and of my work in disbursing this large
sum as the treasurer of the school.

Our present property valuation is $25,000, and
consists of 300 acres of land, 3 large buildings, a
large barn, a schoolhouse for primary children,
4 cottages, an industrial building, 10 mules, 6
horses, 30 cows, 3 wagons, 3 buggies, etc., all free
from indebtedness of any character. We stay out
of debt; that for which we can not pay we do
without.

We afford instruction in the following in-
dustries: Farming in its various branches, shoe-
making, carpentry, cooking, serving, housekeeping,
laundering, millinery in a small way, printing, and
blacksmithing.

The training received at Tuskegee has been of
so much help to me since leaving there. I made
up my mind after graduation that I would urge

161

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

my parents and relatives to cease paying five and
six bales of cotton each year for rent, and instead
take the same amount of cotton and buy a place
of their own. I am glad to say, through my
efforts in this regard, they have been placed on a
tract of 160 acres of good land, and it is practically
paid for, they paying four bales of cotton a year.
They are doing well and are making something for
themselves. Tliis project seemed a little strange
to them for the first two years, but they are now
used to it.

" He that hath a trade," saith Franklin, " hath
an estate, and he that hath a calling, hath a place
and honor." Since being out in the world I have
learned not to wait for a higher position or a bet-
ter salary, and have steadily sought to enlarge the
ones I have had. I have tried to fill such positions
as I have had as they were never filled before, by
doing better work, by being more prompt, by be-
ing more thorough, more polite, and, in fact, I
have filled them so completely that no one else
could slip in by me. I have always laid great stress
on work as a means of developing power; I am
called by some of my f riends a f anatic on this sub-
ject. My experience at Tuskegee taught me that
our racial salvation is to come through hard, ear-

162

A SCHOOL TREASURER'S STORY

nest, intelligent, sincere work. I owe a world of
gratitude to the Tuskegee Institute for the train-
ing I received there and for the great work it is
doing for the Xegro people.

I repeat, if I accomplish anything in life that
is worth while, it will be due wholly to the Tuske-
gee Institute, to its officers and teachers. No true
graduate of Tuskegee ever forgets the lessons
learned there. I am sure I shall not.

12

163

y

THE STORY OF A FARMER
By Frank Reid

I AM glad to be able to give some facts regard-
ing what my brother Dow rnd I have been able
to do since leaving the Tuskegee Institute.

We did not graduate, I am sorry to say, but
the lessons given us have not been forgotten.
These lessons started us on the way to our present
success. I do not use the word " success " boast-
fully, but because it really states a fact; we have
done much more than we ever hoped to do, and
have been the means of contributing in some
slight measure toward the uplifting of the imme-
diate community about us.

We are located at a place called Dawkins, not
more than twelve miles from the Tuskegee Insti-
tute, and immediately within its sphere of influence.

Our mother and father were born within a few
miles of where we now live. Both of our parents,
at the time I write, are living, and are each about

164

THE STORY OF A FARMER

sixty-five years of age; they were, for twenty-
five years each, slaves. Neither can read or write.
JNIy brother and I each spent about three years
at Tuskegee, and, in addition, he attended school
for two years at Talladega College.

I had a very thorough course in carpentry, and
my brother worked on the Institute farm. We
married two sisters, Susie and Lillie Hendon.
Shortly after my marriage my beloved wife Susie
died, leaving me with one child. My brother's wife
still lives; they have three children.

Until ten years ago we, with our father, were
renters, all of us working together. But the Sun-
day evening talks at Tuskegee by Principal Wash-
ington, and his urgent insistence, at all times, that
Tuskegee graduates and students should try to
own land, led us to desire to improve our condition.
We were large renters, however; for twenty-three
years our father and his relatives had leased and
" worked " a tract of 1,100 acres of land, having
leased it for ten years at a time. We still lease this
tract, and, in addition, rent an additional 480 acres
in the same way, ten years at a time. We subrent
tracts of this total of 1,580 acres to thirty tenants,
charging one and one-half bales of cotton for each
one-horse farm. We pay twenty- three bales for

165

TUSKEGEE AXD ITS PEOPLE

the rent of the 1,580 acres, lly brother and I run
a sixteen-horse farm, doing much of the ^vork our-
selves and paying wages to those who work for us.
A number of others also work for us on " halves "
— that is, we provide the land, furnish the seeds,
tools, mules, feed the mules, and equally divide
whatever is raised. This is largely done in all the
country districts of the South.

About ten years ago we bought in our own
right our first land, 320 acres. Since that time we
have acquired by purchase another tract containing
285 acres. The first tract we paid for in two years;
the other is also paid for. The total of 605 acres,
I am glad to say, is without incumbrance of any
kind.

The following statements may give some idea
as to what we have been able to do since leaving
Tuskegee :

During the year 1904 alone, we paid out $5,000,
covering debts on land, fertilizers, and money bor-
rowed with which to carry our thirty tenants.

We own sixteen mules and horses, fourteen
head of cattle, thirty hogs, and have absolutely no
indebtedness of any character.

My brother Dow lives in a good three-room
house. My father and I live in a good six-room

166

THE STORY OF A FARMER

house, with a large, airy hall, and kitchen; it cost
us to build, $1,500.

We conduct a large general store, with every-
thing carried in a country store of this kind. The
colored Odd Fellows use the hall above our store
for their meetings.

The Government post-office is located in our
store, and here all of the surrounding community
come for their mail.

Our store does a large yearly business aver-
aging about $5,000.

We have a steam-gin and grist-mill. We gin
about 500 bales of cotton a season for ourselves and
others living near; of the 150 bales got from the
land owned and rented by us, 100 are ours, the
other 50 belong to our tenants.

We raise large quantities of corn, potatoes, and
peas, in addition to our cotton crop.

We are now trying to purchase the 480 acres we
have been so long renting.

The church and the schoolhouse are on four
acres of land immediately adjoining ours. The
church is roomy, well-seated, ceiled and painted, in
striking contrast with most of those in the country
districts of the South. The schoolhouse has two
rooms, and is but partially ceiled, though it is

167

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

nicely weather-boarded. The school is regularly
conducted for five months each year, and part of
the time has two teachers. Mr. J. C. Calloway, a
Tuskegee graduate. Class of '96, is principal of the
school. We are cooperating with Mr. Calloway in
an effort to supplement the school funds and se-
cure an additional two months. We helped pay
for the land, and gave a part of the money toward
the schoolhouse, and have done all possible to
help, keeping in mind Principal Washington's oft-
repeated statement that "it is upon the country
public schools that the masses of the race are de-
pendent for an education."

My brother and I, with our father, it will be
noted, own and rent 2,185 acres of land, but we try
to help our tenants in every possible way, and, when
they desire it, subrent to them such tracts as they de-
sire for ten years, or less. We have established a
blacksmith-shop on our land, and do all our own
work and most of that of the whole community.
Rev. Robert C. Bedford, secretary of the board of
trustees, Tuskegee Institute, some time ago visited
us, as he does most of the Tuskegee graduates and
former students. He is apprised of the correct-
ness of the statements set forth above. He wrote
the following much-appreciated compliment to a

168

THE STORY OF A FARMER

friend regarding our homes and ourselves: " The
homes of the Reid brothers are very nicely
furnished throughout. Everything is well kept
and very orderly. The bedspreads are strikingly
white, and the rooms — though I called when not
expected — were in the very best of order."

This further statement may not be amiss:
Under the guidance of the Tuskegee influences,
the annual Tuskegee Negro Conferences, the visits
of Tuskegee teachers, etc., the importance of land-
buying was early brought to our attention, but
because of the crude and inexperienced laborers
about us, we found that we could, with advantage
to all, rent large tracts of land, subrent to others,
and in this way pay no rent ourselves, as these sub-
renters did that for us. We could in this way also
escape paying taxes, insurance, and other expenses
that naturally follow. We could, as many white
farmers do, hire wage hands at from $7.50 to
$10 a month, with " rations," or arrange to have
them work on " halves," as I have abeady de-
scribed.

But at last we yielded to the constant pounding
received at Tuskegee whenever we would go over,
that we ought to own land for ourselves; and then,
too, it occurred to me that we might not always have

169

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

the same whole-souled man to deal with, and that
terms might be made much harder. ]My brother
and f ather agreed, and we set about to purchase the
first 320 acres. As I feared, rental values have
increased; formerly we rented the 1,100 acres for
three bales of cotton ; now we give sixteen bales for
the same land.

My brother, our father, and I have worked to-
gether from the beginning. We have had no dis-
putes or differences; we have worked on the basis
of a common propert^^ interest.

We have encouraged the people of our com-
munity as much as possible to secure homes, buy
lands, live decently, and be somebody. The fol-
lowing are some typical examples of thrift and
industry in the community about us:

Turner ]Moore o^vns 210 acres of land adjoin-
ing ours. He was born near where he lives and was
over twenty-five years a slave. He has 11 mules
and horses and raised 65 bales of cotton last year.
His property is all paid for. His brother, Moses
Moore, also has 65 acres, all paid for, and Reuben
Moore, a nephew, owns 212 acres, all paid for.
Their farms join.

James Whitlow, father-in-law of ]Mr. J. C.
Calloway, the teacher referred to, owns 1,137 acres

170

THE STORY OF A FARMER

in one body, only about two miles from our place.
It is all paid for, and the deeds are all recorded at
the Macon County Courthouse. He was born right
where he now lives, and was twelve years old when
freed.

JNIr. Whitlow rents a gin, but will own one
of his own this year. He also carries on a store.
He has 20 tenants, who will raise over 100 bales of
cotton this year together. He has raised over 30
himself. He has 20 mules, 3 horses, 30 head of
cattle, and about 75 hogs. He does not owe a
nickel. His taxes are $60 per year. He has a very
good four-room house, besides a kitchen.

lSh\ Whitlow has fourteen children, ten boys
and four girls, who go to school on our place. He
himself can not read or write, but he helps the
school and church.

J. C. Calloway was born near us. He gradu-
ated from Tuskegee, and has continued to work
near his old home. He married James Whitlow's
daughter. He has a very good two-room frame
house. ]Mr. Whitlow gave them 40 acres of land,
and he is trying to buy an additional 100 acres.
He raised 17 bales of cotton this year and 150 bush-
els of corn. He has 4 horses and mules and 7 head
of cattle, besides hogs, chickens, etc. He is very

171

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

highly thought of in liis school work, and is suc-
cessful as a farmer.

I believe we are doing well. Our community
is rated high, and I shall never fail to praise Tuske-
gee for starting us in the way we are going.

172

VI

THE STORY OF A CARPENTER
By Gabriel B. Miller

The plantation on which I was born in 1875
is located near Pleasant Hill, Ga. At that time
Pleasant Hill was twenty miles from any railroad,
and I did not see a railroad train till I was twelve
years of age.

I lived on a plantation on which more than two
hundred men and women worked for the owner.
The children had no especial educational opportu-
nities. Few of them were even permitted to attend
the makeshift public school located near. For six
months only, of the twelve years my father lived
on that plantation, did I attend any school, and
that a small one taught by a Southern white woman
who had owned my father. When I was twelve
years of age my father moved from the plantation
on which he had been working " on shares " and
rented land which he and his family cultivated.
Soon there were thirteen children in his family, of
which number I was the second.

173

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

In December, 1892, I drove a wagon with two
bales of cotton to a little Georgia town. While
waiting for the wagon preceding me to move off
the scales on which the cotton was weighed, I
heard a colored man, who had heard of Tuskegee
Institute, telling of its advantages, and he quite
glo^^ingly recounted the glories of the place as
they had been related to him. As he proceeded
he informed those gathered about him that at this
school a boy could work his way if perchance he
could reach the institution. I got nearer to him
and heard and treasured every word he said. Es-
pecially did I remember his statement that he had
been informed that some of the boys graduating
from there had not paid a single cent in cash for
their education, having worked it all out.

When I reached home that night I told my
father of what I had heard. For three successive
years our crops had failed and my father was more
than $500 in debt. The prospect of interesting
him in am^ project that meant the expenditure of
money was discouraging, but an eager desire to
secure an education led me to make him a propo-
sition, viz.: that he should permit me during the
next year, 1893, to have full and complete charge
of the farm, and if I succeeded in settling all of

174

THE STORY OF A CARPENTER

his indebtedness I was to be released to attend
school at Tuskegee, provided I could secure admit-
tance, whether he cleared any money or not. This
proposition my father readily agreed to. He sym-
pathized with my ambitions, but the heavy burden
of carrying a large family with short-crop returns
dwarfed whatever good intentions he might have.

On the first of January, 1893, those of the fam-
ily who could work joined me in starting early and
working late during the whole of the year. We
ran a two-horse farm. From that year's work we
gathered 25 bales of cotton, 800 bushels of corn,
300 bushels of cow-peas, 250 gallons of sugar-cane
sirup, 5 wagon-loads of pumpkins, a great amount
of hay and fodder, and picked at night for neigh-
bors about us, white and black, 25 bales of cotton.
We had rented two mules and the wagon used that
year, but now at the close bought two younger,
stronger mules and a new wagon and paid cash
for the whole outfit. We settled our indebtedness
with everybody, and my father, who had earnestly
worked under my supervision along with the others,
was very, very happy. Of course, we had a very
small balance left — not enough to be of any service
to me in keeping me in school except I should be al-
lowed to help myself by working. After " laying

175

TUSKEGEE AXD ITS PEOPLE

the crops by " I made home-made baskets during
the summer and sold them, reahzing about $16. In
one year I had accompHshed a task my father
thought impossible of accomplishment. He re-
ligiously kept his word, and was as enthusiastic
about my getting off to school as I was.

I had now learned more of the Tuskegee Insti-
tute, and was impatient to reach there. Others, too,
became eager and enthusiastic, and so when I
started, January 19, 1894, it was a red-letter event
in our little community. I left home with only
the $16 I had saved from the sale of my baskets.
The next morning after reaching Tuskegee I was
piloted to the Principal's office and my recom-
mendations requested. I was puzzled. I did not
know what was wanted. I had not followed the
usual routine and written for permission to enter
as students are required to do, but had gone ahead,
thinking the presentation of myself all that would
be necessary. I had no recommendations, but mus-
tered courage enough to ask for a trial before be-
ing refused. ^ly request was granted, and I be-
came a student — proud event in my life! — of the
famous Tuskegee Xormal and Industrial Institute.

I had always wanted to be a carpenter ; as long
ago as I can remember this was my ambition, but

176

THE STORY OF A CARPENTER

when carried to the office of the director of in-
dustries he refused to assign me to work there, as
that division was filled, but assigned me instead to
the sawmilling division. I was not angry, of
course. I was too glad to be at Tuskegee ; but I was
bitterly disappointed, especially after I had seen the
carpenter shop, some of the work of the young
men, and the imposing buildings on which they had
been and were working. I was promised the first
vacancy, and that temporarily eased my sorrow. A
vacancy did not occur for one and a half years. In
the meantime I had become reconciled, and had
wwked as earnestly as I could to please the in-
structor in sawmilling. I tried to learn all there
was to learn in that division, and at the end of that
period could adjust and run proficiently every ma-
chine in the sawmilling division. The school cut
then, as it does now, most of the lumber used in
the carpentry division, and efficient students were
needed and desired. ^ly instructor was so well
pleased with my progress that he recommended,
over my protest, to the director of industries, my
retention in the division.

I had kept so busily after the director during
those eighteen months to allow me to enter the
shop that he could not well refuse to grant my

177

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

request when a vacancy occurred. I was admitted
to the carpenter shop.

For five years I was an apprentice, doing work
of every kind. I also took mechanical drawing
along with carpentry. When I graduated in 1900
I received not only a diploma from the academic
department, but a certificate from the carpentry
division as well. I had improved every oppor-
tunity, and had a fair knowledge of architectural
as well as of mechanical drawing. This latter in-
struction I had made a place for along with my
other studies.

Maj. J. B. Ramsey, the Commandant, had been
so well pleased with my general deportment that
for years I was commissioned by him to com-
mand, as captain, one of the companies of the Tus-
kegee Institute battalion of cadets. This had
pleased and encouraged me very much indeed.

To my surprise, three months before my gradu-
ation I was asked to remain in the employ of the
Tuskegee Institute as one of the assistant teachers
in the carpentry division. I had contracted, how-
ever, to do some work at Montgomery, Ala., and
I could not accept the place offered. I spent about
four months working at my trade in Montgomery,
and was again reminded of the offer made me at

178

THE STORY OF A CARPENTER

Tuskegee. I returned to Tuskegee, but did not re-
main long, as the Executive Council of the Insti-
tute recommended me, when application was made
for a competent man to take charge of the carpen-
try division of the Fort Valley High and Indus-
trial School, Fort Valley, Ga. The terms offered
were satisfactory and I accepted the position.

I began work here November 9, 1900, in a
shop 30 feet by 60 feet. No tools and no work-
benches were provided, only a lot of inexperienced
boys to whom I was expected to teach carpentry.
I owned a chest of tools, and these I used until
the school could secure some. I proceeded at once
to make w^ork benches, and my boys had their first
lessons in carpentry in providing these. Quite
often visitors who come to see us ask if these
benches were not made at some factory, they are
so well made. We next proceeded to fit out a
drawing-room, as I intended that my boys should
work — as I had been compelled to do from
the very beginning at Tuskegee — from drawings.
Everything I had done there had to be carefully
worked out in advance, and, knowing the value of
that kind of thing, I did not want these boys to
have anything less than the kind of instruction
I had had. We made tables and desks for the
13 179

TUSKEGEE AXD ITS PEOPLE

drawing-room; next we ceiled and finished twelve
rooms in the main school building that had long
been left unfinished. All of the work pleased the
authorities of the school, I have reason to know.
Xear the close of my first term at Fort Valley
it was decided to erect a dormitory building for
girls. I was asked to submit plans and specifica-
tions. My training as a carpenter at Tuskegee
had fitted me for just that kind of thing, and I
set about designing a building that would meet the
requirements of the young women attending Fort
VaUey.

My plans were finally accepted, and I thought
to go on with the erection of the building during
the summer, as had been planned; but one or two
of the building cormnittee began to object, urging
that I was too j^oung, that I had not had enough
experience, and that a building of that quality
should be erected by a builder of proved reputa-
tion. After much delay I was permitted to pro-
ceed. I began with ten " green " boys, and they,
under my direction as I worked side by side with
them, did all of the work except the hanging of
the window-sashes, doors, etc. I had outside help
in doing this part of the finishing. The building is
a real pride to all of us here. It is 36 feet by 78

180

THE STORY OF A CARPENTER

feet, 2i stories high, has 22 sleeping-rooms, a splen-
didly arranged dining-room, 36 feet by 36 feet,
and cost $3,200. No one, hereabouts at least, now
doubts that I can build anything I say I can. I
am glad that so soon after beginning the work here
I was able to prove the claims of my Tuskegee in-
structors as to my fitness for the position for which
they had recommended me.

Unfortunately, before I had completed the
dormitory for girls, a fire destroyed our main
school building with the contents. This fire left
us without class-rooms. We took refuge in the
Carpenter Shop, and held classes there until money
was secured with which to build a training-school
for the lower grades. This latter building I also
put up entirely with student labor. It contains
three large rooms, each 25 feet by 30 feet. The
appointments in every way accord with approved
hygienic laws. Dr. Wallace Buttrick, Executive
Secretary of the General Education Board, spoke
complimentarily of the building when he saw it, as
one of the few in the State he had seen that met
all the requirements of a class-room. We were able
to build it for $1,600.

Even during the construction of the training-
school I was drawing the plans for a large brick

181

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

building to replace the one burned. My plans were
submitted to friends of the work in the North, and
by the time we had finished the training-school we
had money enough to begin the brickwork on the
new building. By April, 1903, the brickwork was
complete, and as we had no additional money we
were compelled to allow the building to stand
until June, 1904, at which time we were able to
resume.

My boys did all of the woodwork, did the hod-
carrying, and most of the unskilled labor. The
building cost $8,000, and is 86 feet 8 inches by 52
feet 8 inches in its dimensions, is 2^ stories high,
and has a deckle roof with dormer windows. The
chapel is on the first floor, 6 recitation-rooms on
the second floor, and 13 sleeping-rooms for boys
on the one-half third-story floor. A basement for
storage purposes, 25 feet by 50 feet, is a great
convenience.

Of the many contractors and builders who have
visited our school-grounds none have f ailed to speak
in praise of the design, the workmanship, the
strength, and the relative relation to each other
of the school buildings with regard to future ad-
ditions.

I need not add that this has been very pleasing

182

THE STORY OF A CARPENTER

to me. I was married December 9, 1904, at At-
lanta, Ga., to Miss Mary E. Hobbs.

To me Tuskegee has been all in all, and I
still remember with gratitude the man who, in my
hearing, spoke so glowingly of the school as I
weighed my cotton in the little Georgia town away
back in December, 1892.

183

VII

COTTON-GROWING IN AFRICA
By John W. Robinson

As all autobiographical sketches begin, so do
I begin this one. I was born in Bennettsville,
S. C, in 1873. Neither of my parents could write
their names ; but my f ather could read a little, and
taught me the alphabet.

]\Iy paternal grandfather was a slave of some
intelligence. He was a competent carpenter, had
charge of his master's saw- and grist-mills, and
kept the accounts of the two mills. His master,
who was a member of the State Legislature, was
very kind to him. He allowed him a portion of the
savings from these industries he was controlling,
and even promised him his freedom. The latter he
delayed so long that my grandfather ran away. He
succeeded in reaching Charleston, S. C. He had
secured a ticket and was about to take passage for
Canada, when he was captured and returned to his
master's home. His master was attending the
General Assembly of the State of South Carolina,

184j

COTTON-GROWING IN AFRICA

and it became the overseer's duty to punish the re-
turned fugitive. My grandfather never recovered
from the effects of the brutal punishment meted
out to him for daring to desire freedom in his
own right.

My father was the oldest boy and the second
child in a family of five. He was a farmer and a
cobbler. At the age of twenty-seven he was mar-
ried to my mother.

I suppose the history of my mother's life would
be monotonous and dull to many ears, but I re-
member that I never grew tired of hearing her
relate its somber happenings. She often told us
how her grandmother could relate the thrilling
story of her capture on African soil and of being
brought to America, of the horrors of the passage,
and of much else that I shall always remember.

After their marriage my parents began farm-
ing in Bennett sville, Marlborough County, S. C,
the place where I was born. I remember most
vividly that two-roomed log cabin where my par-
ents' ten children were born —

" Low and little, and black and old.
With children as many as it could hold."

However, my father soon began working for
w^ages, and received $10 per month and the pro-

185

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

verbial " rations " — three pounds of meat and a
peck of meal per week. What a financier he must
have been, for from that mean sum he managed to
save $50 or $75 each year, and I still cherish the
memory of how fondly I felt those crisp green-
backs once a year. He brought them home every
Christmas and allowed each member of the family
to feel them — yes, even caress them.

When I was about nine years of age I entered
the pubhc school of the community, which was in
session about four months in a year, opening late
in the fall and going through the winter. My
parents were so delighted and gratified at the prog-
ress I made that I was occasionally privileged to
spend one month in the subscription school con-
ducted near by during the summer.

When I was fourteen years of age a great sor-
row visited our home. My mother died. I often
wonder if any one can realize what it means to lose
a mother without having suff*ered that bereave-
ment. My father did not marry again.

About this time the authorities opened a school
nearer us than the one I had been attending, but
the teachers were usually very incompetent and
my progress was seriously hindered.

The absorbing desire of my life had been to
186

COTTON-GROWING IN AFRICA

some day graduate from some institution of learn-
ing, but I found myself at eighteen years of age
far from the goal of my ambition. I became
alarmed. I realized what it would mean to grow
to manhood in ignorance; I also knew that there
were seven children younger than I to be cared
for. I seriously thought the matter over. I
finally broached it to my father, and he con-
sented that I should try to make a way for
myself.

I rented a small farm, trusting that by culti-
vating it I would be able to clear enough money
to begin my education. I began wrong, for I had
in advance mortgaged my crop. I began with
$75, but when the year closed I had only $10.
However, my aspirations were not to be daunted;
I was resolved on going to school.

With this $10 I purchased the necessary books,
paid my entrance fee, and entered the village
graded school. I was poorly clad, and much of
the time was without food, but I felt that I could
not even ask my father for assistance because of
his responsibility in caring for the younger chil-
dren. I was constant, however, in my endeavor
to find work, and finally a companion and I suc-
ceeded in getting an old farmhouse about three

187

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

miles from the village in which to live. In a meas-
ure this suited me, for I loved the country.

The house was an old, dilapidated one, and I do
not see now how we stood that first severe winter;
but though I was in rags and my food was often
roasted potatoes or peas with a little salt, I did
not miss a single day's schooling that year, and
great was my joy and satisfaction when, at the
end of the year, I stood at the head of my class.

During this time I had done such work in
the surrounding neighborhood as could be obtained.
My Saturdays and afternoons were spent in split-
ting rails, chopping wood, driving garden palings,
and doing any other work that would enable me
to exist. Although I had stinted myself and had
often gone without food, at the end of the year
I was $12 in debt. But this was not sufficient to
make me despair.

When vacation came I immediately sought
work, and though I was diligent in my application
to it when I had obtained it, steady employment
was not to be had. My wages were never more
than fifty cents a day, but I often received less.
For two years I lived in this way. At the expira-
tion of that time I decided that it would benefit
me to enter a higher institution of learning. I

188

COTTOX-GROWIXG IN AFRICA

knew that this would mean that I must have more
remunerative employment.

By some means my attention was directed to
the orange industry of Florida, and in the summer
of 1894 I regretfully left my companions and
relatives, went to Deland, Fla., and secured the
desired work. The winter proved to be an unusu-
ally cold one, and the orange industry was greatly
hindered; therefore I was soon out of employ-
ment, and at the season of the year when I most
needed it. I was not long idle, however, for the
very cause of my loss of work opened another
avenue ; I was kept busy chopping wood. Though
I went to Florida penniless, at the end of six
months I had saved $60.

It was at Deland that I learned of the mag-
nificent opportunities afforded earnest young men
and women at Tuskegee Institute. I at once made
application to become a student. That morning
I did not know that such a school existed; that
night, while I slept, the Southern Railway was
bearing my letter of application to ]Mr. Washing-
ton. My anxiety almost reached fever-heat dur-
ing those few intervening days that I waited for
an answer, and my joy was boundless when it came,
setting forth the requirements for admittance. I

189

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

sent a portion of the money I had saved to
my father. With the rest I bought some necessary
clothing, and left Deland far behind for Tuskegee.

I shall always remember how little and insig-
nificant I felt when I entered the school-grounds
and was told that all those buildings and all those
acres of ground were a part of the Tuskegee In-
stitute. I had read of it in the circular of in-
formation which was sent me when I applied for
admission, but the realization was, to me, almost
overpowering. After paying my entrance fee and
purchasing my school-books I had $15 left. Thus
I began what has proved to be a " new life."

Fifteen dollars were, of course, an inadequate
sum with which to pay my expenses through the
day-school, and so I was permitted to enter the
night-school, as so many others as poor as I had
done. This means that I was given an opportunity
to work at some industry during the day and at-
tend classes at night. I was not only receiving
training at an industry, being provided with food,
shelter, and fuel, and receiving instruction at night,
but I was earning enough over my board to be
placed to my credit in the school's treasury to help
pay my board when I should enter the day-school.

My first term was spent at work on Marshall

190

COTTON-GROWING IN AFRICA

Farm, where the greater part of the school's farm-
ing was at that time done.

When I entered Tuskegee I had no thought of
preparing myself for returning to farm life.
Even the word " farm " brought to my mind
visions of dull, hard work and drudgery without
comforts. I had not been at the Tuskegee Institute
long, however, before I was led to know that
" agriculture " is the very highest of all industrial
callings. I had never known that agriculture had
so many subdivisions, that soils could be analyzed
and treated, that rotation of crops enriched the
soil, that a certain crop planted season after season
on the same soil made it poor, because it was rid-
ding it of some life-giving chemical. To me soils
simply " wore out." But through lectures and
practical experiments my agricultural horizon be-
gan to expand, and a sense of the beauty of the
industry grew upon me.

It was to me a marvelous thing to go into the
dairy and take milk but recently milked, pour
it into the Sharpless Separator, set the machine in
motion, and behold a stream of rich, sweet cream
flow from one avenue of escape, while a foamy
jet of milk passed from another. There, too, I
learned cheese-making and butter-making.

191

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

My school life was filled with difficulties be-
cause of financial embarrassments. I was one of
the competitors in the first Trinity Church (Bos-
ton) Prize Contest, founded at the school by Dr. E.
Winchester Donald, successor of Phillips Brooks,
and rector of Trinity until his death, and I re-
member that I was greatly discomfited because
the socks I wore had no feet in them, and my shoes
had that afternoon been sewed with thread black-
ened with soot.

However, I was the successful contestant, the
first winner of the prize of $25. The next day
I provided myself with new shoes and socks. I
also received my diploma that same year, 1897,
within two days of receiving the prize, and was
very happy to receive it and the diploma at the
same time.

Two summers and one winter after graduating
I taught school at Mamie, Ala. When I was not
teaching I worked on the farm of the family with
which I boarded. For this work I received very
little pay, but I had been taught at Tuskegee that
it was better to work for nothing than to be idle —
a Booker T. Washington precept.

The second winter I was first assistant in the
Ozark city school, Ozark, Ala., and was offered

192

COTTON-CROWING IN AFRICA

the principalship for the next term, but I dechned
in order to further pursue postgraduate studies
in agriculture at Tuskegee. I remained there for
six months. I then went West, to Rockford, 111.,
to do practical work in that section for the purpose
of strengthening and improving the theory and
practise already learned.

It was harvesting season and I soon secured
work. I put all my energy into the work of the
rugged Western farm and succeeded admirably in
following the threshing-machine, in husking corn,
and in doing the other farm labors common to
Western fall and winter seasons. INIy first four
months were spent on the farm of a widow. After
the harvesting was over she offered me the farm,
with its implements, barns, horses, and dairy herd,
if I would remain and pay her certain percentages
of the profits, but I told her that I was only a
student in search of knowledge.

The next spring I secured work with a very
progressive Irishman. He was a farmer, as well
as secretary and treasurer of a modern creamery
and butter factory. This work I preferred, be-
cause it was along my chosen line, and of a very
high grade.

For one year I worked in this establishment,
193

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

and was not absent from duty even one day. My
employer once said to me that he had heard and
also read that Negroes were lazy, shiftless, and un-
trustworthy. He had not come into contact with
enough Negroes to draw his own conclusions, so
he asked me if there were more like me. I told
him that I did not consider myself an exception,
but that I had had the advantages of superior
training at Tuskegee. He did not know before
that I was a Tuskegee graduate. He seemed sur-
prised to know that a graduate would work as a
common farm-hand. He said he had found no
white ones who would. I then explained to him
that I was seeking a comprehensive knowledge of
farming conditions North and South. I value that
year on those Western farms next to my training
at Tuskegee.

I was planning to return to the South and start
a farm of my own, when I was asked by Mr. Wash-
ington to join a company of Tuskegee young men
who were wanted to go to Africa for the purpose
of experimenting in cotton-growing under the
German Government. It was a call I could not
resist. Here was a chance for the largest possible
usefulness. Here I could have a part in a monu-
mental undertaking, and I gladly agreed to go.

194

COTTON-GROWING IN AFRICA

The wages off ered were flattering, and all expenses
in connection with the trip were borne by the Ko-
lonial Komittee of the German Government. The
Executive Council of the Institute selected Shep-
herd L. Harris, Allen L. Burks, and myself, all
graduates of the school, and Mr. James N. Callo-
way, a member of the Faculty, who had had charge
of the school's largest farm, and who was selected
to head the expedition. We sailed from New York
on November 3, 1900, and reached Togo by way
of Hamburg on December 31, 1900. Later five
additional Tuskegee students joined us, but of the
original party I am the only one left. A report
of the beginnings of our work was published after
two years, with elaborate illustrations to com-
memorate what we had been able to accomplish.
Samples of the cotton made into hose and various
other articles were distributed among those inter-
ested in the success of the experiment. That re-
port may be secured from the Kolonial-Wirtschaft-
liches Komittee, Berlin, Germany.

Not long since I sent to Principal Washington
a summary of the work we have been trying to do.
He regularly insists that Tuskegee graduates shall
send him reports of what they are doing, and my
letter to him was in response to that request. We
14 195

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

keep in touch with Tuskegee and its work after
leaving the institution through a correspondence
prized by every graduate of the school. The sum-
mary I include here, as it may be of interest to the
reader:

At the outset it was very difficult to excite any
interest at all in our work on the part of the
natives. For some reason they mistrust every
proposition made them by a foreigner, and in the
beginning they would not e\cn accept the gift of
cotton-seeds from us. They claimed that if they
should accept our seeds we would come again and
claim our own with usury. Many of the Europe-
ans here said that the natives would never become
interested in the movement. But we worked on,
and now already in the farming districts are hun-
dreds of native cotton farms. Now they no longer
mistrust us, but they come and ask for cotton-seeds,
and a conservative estimate places the incoming
native harvest near the thousand-bale mark. Of
course the native methods are very irrational.
They cultivate their cotton altogether as a sec-
ondary crop. But we are content, at the begin-
ning, to let them cultivate in their own way.

We find distributed through the colony not
less than three distinct species of cotton, with some
hybrids and varieties; but none of these are indi-
genous, and, having been left in a neglected state

196

COTTON-GROWING IN AFRICA

for centuries, are consequently not far removed
from nature and are not so remunerative when
put under even the best culture. The seeds im-
ported from America are not able to survive the
greatly changed conditions of climate. Here is
our greatest obstacle. Our course was plain. If
we did not have a plant that exactly suited us, we
had to make it.

The production of a commercial plant is very
important. Our present domestic seeds will yield
about four hundred pounds of seed-cotton per acre,
and the character of the fruit and the arrangement
upon the stalk make it very expensive to harvest.
Besides, the stalk grows too much to a tree and
is not prolific proportionately, and the quality of
the lint is equal to American " middling." We
are trying to develop a plant that will yield 1,000
pounds of seed-cotton to the acre, with a lint equal
in quality to fully good " middling " or to Allen's
1%-inch staple.

Now suppose we succeed in making this plant
as I have above outlined; the 4,000 acres under
cultivation would then at least produce 2,000 bales
of seed-cotton where they now produce but 1,000
bales. We can see how greatly the annual income
of the natives will be increased. Such a plant is
forthcoming.

Through selection and crossing of American
and native cottons we have obtained a new variety,
which is satisfactory in every primary respect. It

197

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

is more hardy than the average American plant and
fifty per cent more productive than the average na-
tive plant. A sample of the lint of this new, would-
be variety was submitted to the Chamber of Com-
merce in Berlin, and it was pronounced good in
every way, and brought in January, 1904, about
twenty cents a pound.

There is one feature that I would like to speak
about before I have done with the subject, be-
cause I know it will please you. In one of the
letters you wrote me some time ago you advised
me to " labor earnestly, quietly, and soberly, dis-
charging my duty in the way that would eventu-
ally make me one of the most influential persons
in the community." Being faithful in small things
is one of the fundamental principles of Tuskegee,
and is what I am able to do without even striving.
It has become natural for me to be faithful, it
matters not how small or insignificant the service.
I find myself to-day possessing much influence in
the work in which I am now engaged.

In order to make secure the work begun and to
insure a normal and well-balanced progress for
the future, it was recommended to institute, along
with the present undertaking, what I am pleased
to call " A Cotton-School and Plant-Breeding Sta-
tion." At this school are gathered young men
from all over the colony, who come for a two-years'
course in modern methods of farming. The
boys are to be taught some of the simple rules

198

COTTON-GROWING IN AFRICA

and practises of agriculture. The boys are 45
in number, representing the most intelhgent classes ;
the station consists of 250 acres of land, 8 oxen,
2 asses, 1 horse, farm implements, cotton-gin, press,
etc. Such an institution appeared to me necessary
to the healthy progress of the undertaking. There
will soon be in operation 3 ginning- and pressing-
stations run by steam-power, besides a dozen or
more hand-gins. This, I believe, tells the whole
story. My health is very good. I hope you will
write me often, because your letters are always so
interesting and helpful.

That my life has been as useful and successful
as it has is due to the training and inspiration re-
ceived at Tuskegee Institute, perhaps not so much
to the agricultural department, for I did not finish
that course, but to the general awakening and
stimulating influence which permeates and is a part
of the training of Tuskegee students.

And now^ while I write, and daily as I work,
I am prompted on to better and stronger efforts
because of the Tuskegee in embryo that looms
before me. And as I think, and work, and WTite,
I am gratified because of the assurance that I
am only one of that increasing host whose loyal
hearts and useful lives shall make Tuskegee live
forever.

199

THE STORY OF A TEACHER OF
COOKIXG

By ]Mary L. Dotsox

I GRADUATED ^^^th the Class of 1900, Tuskegee
Institute. It was the cuhiiination of an event to
which my mother and I had long looked forward.

I was born in 1879, in a small country village
in the southwestern part of Alabama. ]\Iy mother
was the exceptional colored woman of our com-
munity. She was a dressmaker and tailoress and
had all the work she could do. She owned her own
home, a quite comfortable one, and earned con-
tinuously from her work a tidy sum of money.

I have always counted myself fortunate to
have had such a home and such a mother. Very
few of the colored people about us owned their
own homes; the village school was a j^oor make-
shift, and it was in session only two to four months
in a year — that is, when some one could be secured
to teach it for the very small salary paid. Both
my father and mother had great respect for educa-

200

A TEACHER OF COOKING

tionally equipped people, and desired that their
children should have the opportunity to secure edu-
cational advantages. They tried in every possible
way to interest the people in their own welfare,
at least to the extent of supplementing the meager
public-school fund, so as to provide decent edu-
cational facilities for the children. This effort
failed. JNIy mother had a room added to her home,
and in it conducted, with my sister's help, a school
for the children of the community. Two of my
sisters had been sent away to school, one to Selma
and the other to Talladega. In addition to the
school conducted at our home, my mother was able
to get the cooperation of some of the people in
other parts of the county, and two other schools
were started. These schools were afterward taken
up, and have since become helpful factors in the
life of the people.

INIy first lessons were given in the home, and
my mother always claimed that I learned quite
rapidly. As soon as I was old enough she also
made me take lessons in sewing. Sewing made
no appeal to me, however, but cooking did, and
whenever possible I would steal away to my grand-
mother's to cook wuth her. Most of the time I was
only permitted to wash dishes, but after a while

201

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

I was permitted to help with her cooking. Soon I
was able to make cakes for my father's store. He
was always very proud that his " little " daughter
was able to replenish his stock when it was ex-
hausted.

At eight years of age I was sent to Meridian,
Miss., to stay with an older sister and attend
school. The advantages there were far superior
to those provided for me at my home. After re-
maining two years at Meridian I went to Mem-
phis, again in search of better school facilities.
I have said that even at my age I had a fondness
for cooking. At Memphis I had my first cooking
lesson, this lesson being given along with the eighth
grade work of the public school. I was delighted,
but my aunt refused to allow me to practise in the
home, however, and so all the practise I got was
at school.

While in Memphis, a Tuskegee Institute grad-
uate came there to teach in the colored public
schools. Though we had lived in Alabama, we had
not, until that time, heard of the Tuskegee Insti-
tute. The loyalty of that graduate to the school,
the stories of the opportunities provided, and all,
delighted my mother, my aunt, and myself, and
it was decided that I should be sent there.

202

A TEACHER OF COOKING

I entered the Tuskegee Institute in Decem-
ber, 1894, and was assigned, after examination, to
the Junior class, the first class of the normal de-
partment. I remained at Tuskegee during the
following summer and worked in the students'
dining-room as a waitress. The next year I was
compelled to enter the night-school so as to help
lighten my mother's burden. I knew nothing of
the science of foods; nothing at all, at that time,
of anything that indicated that cooking is a real
science. None but girls of the Senior class were
then permitted to take cooking lessons, but I was
often able to provide some excuse for visiting the
very small and incompletely furnished room used
for that purpose. I picked up much useful in-
formation in that way.

When I reached the A Middle class, next to
the Senior class, the young women of that class
were permitted to take cooking lessons.

Now I was to learn cooking. I had long de-
sired the opportunity, and the chance had come at
last. The study of foods was among the first les-
sons brought to my attention. While anxious to
know all that was to be taught, I could never see
the reasons for knowing. I wanted to cook food,
and that, with me, was the end.

203

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

I began to study chemistry in the academic
department, and when it was appHed in my cook-
ing lessons my eyes were opened. I now saw much
that I had not dreamed of. A cooking teacher,
a noted expert from Wisconsin, came to the school
about that time and lectured not only to the cook-
ing classes, but to the young women teachers, and
to the married women of the Institute families.
I was especially detailed to work with her, and
was put to working out a diet for the students'
boarding department. This instruction, with
that of my regular instructor, convinced me that
here was a real profession. I continued until
the end of my school days to carry, along with
all of my academic work, progressive work in
cooking.

I had made such progress that when I came
to graduate, Mrs. Washington, who is in charge
of the industries for girls, offered me a vacancy in
the cooking division. I did not feel that I was
adequate to the requirements of the place, and so
remarked to Mrs. Washington and m}^ instructor.
They recommended that I spend the summer at
the Chautauqua Summer School, New York. I
prepared to go immediately following the Tuske-
gee commencement exercises. A scholarship was

204

A TEACHER OF COOKING

secured for me. Domestic science teachers of
proved efficiency are in charge there. They were
pleased with what I had already been able to ac-
complish. My work was with the classes taking
courses in chemistry, physiology, bacteriology,
management of classes, and cooking demonstra-
tion.

At the end of the summer I felt stronger than
ever, and returned to Tuskegee in the fall with real
enthusiasm. I first began my work in the little
room in which I had been taught. Another aca-
demic class of girls had now been admitted to the
cooking classes, the three upper ones.

When Dorothy Hall, the building in which all
of the industries for girls are located, was com-
pleted, my division was given a suite of rooms,
an assistant was provided, and the work broadened
and made more useful than ever. Under this di-
vision we now have a model kitchen, a regular
kitchen in which the practise-cooking of the girls
is done, two dining-rooms, a model bedroom, a
model sitting-room, and a bathroom.

Principal Washington has insisted from year
to year that, since cooking is so fundamental, every
young woman, in the day-school at least, shall
take lessons in cooking. For the current school

205

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

year, 1904-'05, 458 young women are receiving
instruction.

The course covers, in its entirety, four years,
but is so comprehensive that even one and two
years fit young women for the cooking of ordinary
foods. Each of these girls is required to attend
upon the outUned catalogue course of instruction,
and in addition, from time to time, upon lectures
bearing upon the several subjects comprehended
under domestic science. The furnishing of the
rooms is simple, but ample; the furniture, in the
main, being made by the young women in the up-
holstering division. It has been widely praised by
all who have seen it.

After teaching for two years, I requested leave
of absence for one year so as to attend the Do-
mestic-Science School of the Young Women's
Christian Association, Boston. This additional
study, of course, helped me very much. My
studies were of foods, of the home, the teaching
of demonstration and settlement classes, etc. Much
other useful information also came my way.

When I returned to Tuskegee the next year
I felt more able than ever to be of assistance to
the girls who come to us. I was better able to out-
line my course of study. The thing that pleased

206

A TEACHER OF COOKING

me greatly, however, both at Chautauqua and at
Boston, was the fact that my former Tuskegee
training was commented on so favorably, as having
been planned along ^^roperly comprehensive lines.

No part of the Tuskegee Institute work is more
valuable than that of the domestic training. It
is the policy of the institution to give special at-
tention to the training of girls in all that pertains
to dress, health, physical culture, and general
housekeeping.

The girls are constantly under the strict and
watchful care of the dean of the woman's de-
partment, iliss Jane E. Clark, a graduate of
Oberlin College, a woman of liberal attainments
and culture, and an example to them in all that
makes for the development of character; of ]Mrs.
Booker T. Washington, the director of industries
for girls, and of the women teachers, a body in
every way representative of the qualities the girls
are besought to seek to attain. A corps of matrons,
four in number, specially assist the dean of the
woman's department and keep in close individual
touch with the girls.

My own connection with the girls is in the cook-
ing classes, as I have indicated, and in the Parker
Model Home and the Practise Cottage. The

207

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

Parker ]\Iodel Home is the home of the young
women who each year reach the Senior class.
Eight large, conveniently arranged rooms are set
apart for them, and they are taught things by
having to do them. The class, as a whole, is
required to do actual work in the line of general
housekeeping, cooking and serving food, and laun-
dering.

In order to give practical demonstration in
housekeeping and to develop the sense of respon-
sibility in the work, a four-room house has been
set aside, in which the Senior girls " keep house."
Four girls at a time live in this house and have
the entire care of it. They do all the work that
pertains to ordinary housekeeping, from the ]Mon-
day morning's washing to the Saturday's prepara-
tion for Sunday. They are also charged wth
the responsibility of purchasing the food supplies
wdiich they consume. Three dollars are allowed
as the weekly expenditure for food. In view of
the low prices that obtain for provisions here, four
girls can live comfortably on this small allowance
and have variety and plenty, and at the same time
very wholesome food. Thus the lesson of economy
is taught in the most effective way. The girls
learn to appreciate the purchasing power of money,

208

TUSKEGEE AXD ITS PEOPLE

dition to what has been enumerated: a cooking
class in the town of Tuskegee for those unable
to attend the school at all, and classes for the chil-
dren at the Children's House, the model training-
school of the institution, where they are given un-
derstandable lessons in cooking and housekeeping.
A bedroom, a dining-room, a bathroom, and a
kitchen are also provided in connection with the
Children's House.

I am happy in the thought that I have a part
in this fundamental, home-building part of the in-
struction being given the girls who come from
thirty-six States and territories of the Union, and
from Cuba and Porto Rico and other foreign
countries, to attend this famous school, of which
I am myself a graduate.

When the girls are fitted to make better homes,
a better people are the result. To have some part
in this work was a fond wish while a student, and
is a prized privilege now that I have the oppor-
tunity to render some slight service in return for
all that Tuskegee has done for me.

210

IX

A WOMAN'S WORK
By Corneija Bowen

Of myself and the work I have done there is
not a great deal to say. I was born at Tuskegee,
Ala., on a part of the very ground now occupied
by the famous Tuskegee Institute. The building
first used by the school as an industrial building for
girls was the house in which I was born. That
old building (and two others, as well) is carefully
preserved by the institution as an old landmark,
and never do I go to Tuskegee that I do not
search it out among the more imposing and pre-
tentious buildings which have come during the
later years of the school's history. This building
and the two other small ones were on the property
when it was acquired by Principal Washington.

My mother lived the greater part of her life at
this place as the slave of Colonel William Bowen,
who owned the plot of ground upon which the
Tuskegee Institute nov/ stands. The birthplace of
my mother was Baltimore, Md. She was taught
15 211

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

to read by her master's daughter in Baltimore, and
was never forbidden to read by those who owned
her in Alabama.

When a child, I could never understand whv
she read so well and could not write. I was very
sorry at times that she could read and was not
like other children's mothers whom I knew. She
always knew when I did not get my lessons, and
often the hours of play that were dear to me
were taken away until my reading lesson was
learned. Sundays, with my sisters gathered about
her knees, we would sit for hours listening as
mother would read church hymns for us. These
days were days of freedom, as I do not remember,
and know nothing of, those of slavery. My mother
always refrained from telling her children fright-
ful stories of the awful sufferings of the slave
days. She occupied the position of seamstress and
house-servant in her mistress's home, and was never
allowed to mingle with plantation slaves.

]\Iy first teacher was a good-hearted Southern
white woman, who knew my mother well and lived
in the town of Tuskegee.

She taught me to read from JNIcGuffey's First
Reader. I often read my lessons by looking at the
pictures, for I did not know one word from an-

212

A WOMAN'S WORK

other — so far as the letters were concerned. She
detected one day, however, that I was looking out
into the street and at the same time reading what
I supposed to be the lesson. From that time on
she devoted herself to teaching me so that I should
know letters, and that I should read properly.
She always claimed that I was an apt pupil. At
any rate, at a very early age I was able to both
read and write. As I grew older I was sent with
my sisters to the public schools of Tuskegee. It
was always my ambition, it is not immodest to
say, to excel in whatever I undertook. That which
brought tears to my eyes quicker than any other
one thing was to have some member of my class
recite a better lesson, or " turn me down " — that
is, go up ahead of me in the class.

Having been brought up in the Methodist Sun-
day-school, I later joined the JVIethodist Church.
Mr. Lewis Adams, a Trustee of the Tuskegee In-
stitute, was then Superintendent of the JNIethodist
Sunday-school. He was very desirous that the
young boys and girls of the Sunday-school should
take an active part in the work. I was given a
class of girls to teach much older than myself.
They tried to disgust me at times by paying no
attention to my teaching. I was not to be dis-

213

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

couraged, although I cried many times because of
their conduct. My own sister, who was a member
of the class, also rebelled because I was younger
than she; she thought that she should be teaching
me instead of having it otherwise. It was the
common opinion of the girls that even if I could
read better than any of them, they were older
and should be shown the preference. I owe much
of my interest in the study of the Bible to my
mother and to Mr. Lewis Adams, the faithful
worker and Sunday-school Superintendent. Mr.
Adams was in those early days as he is now, the
leader of the colored people of the town of Tus-
kegee in all that went to make for the uplifting
of his people. I can pay no better tribute to him
than to quote what Principal Washington him-
self says in his monumental autobiography, Up
from Slavery:

In the midst of the difficulties which I en-
countered 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 de-
pended constantly for advice and guidance; and
the success of the undertaking is largely due to
these men, from whom I have never sought any-

214

A WOMAN'S WORK

thing in vain. I mention them simply as tj^pes.
One is a white man and an ex-slaveholder, INIr.
George W. Campbell; the other is a black man
and an ex-slave, Mr. Lewis Adams. These were
the men who wrote to General Armstrong for a
teacher.

jMr. Campbell is a merchant and banker, and
had had little experience in dealing with matters
pertaining to education. Mr. Adams was a me-
chanic, and had learned the trades of shoemaking,
harness-making, and tinsmithing during the days
of slavery. He had never been to school a day
in his life, but in some way he had learned to read
and WTite while a slave. From the first, these two
men saw clearly what my plan of education was,
sympathized w^ith me, and supported me in every
effort. In the days which were darkest financially
for the school, Mr. Campbell was never appealed
to when he was not willing to extend all the aid
in his power. I do not know two men — one an
ex-slaveholder, one an ex-slave — whose advice and
judgment I would feel more like following in
everything which concerns the life and develop-
ment of the school at Tuskegee than those of these
two men.

I have always felt that ]\Ir. Adams, in a large
degree, derived his unusual powers of mind from
the training given his hands in the process of mas-
tering well three trades during the days of
slavery.

215

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

I did not graduate from the public schools as
children do nowadays in the cities. Mr. Booker T.
Washington's coming to Tuskegee and the estab-
lishment of the Tuskegee Normal School put an
end to the public-school work on " Zion Hill,"
where the Tuskegee public school for colored chil-
dren was located. I was one of the first of the
students examined for entrance in the school. Mr.
Washington gave the examination in arithmetic,
grammar, and history. I never knew what a sen-
tence was, nor that it had a subject and a predi-
cate before he said so. I doubted very seriously the
existence of such terms as these new ones men-
tioned by him. I thought I knew grammar, and
I did, so far as I had been taught, but I had no
insight into its real meaning and use. Mr. Wash-
ington decided after my examination that I would
make a good Junior pupil. It was all new to
me and I could not understand all of the new
words, even though simple they were, used by him.
He himself took charge of our classes, and I have
always been very proud that I can say that he
was my teacher. He was most particular in re-
gard to spelling and the right use of verbs. As
a history teacher he was the best I have had the
privilege of studying under. I have often said

216

A WO^IAN'S WORK

that if he could teach the classes in the beginning
of history and grammar, and give talks on spelling
at Tuskegee as he did when I was a pupil there,
many who finish at Tuskegee would be thankful
in the years to come. However, he can not do this
until he is relieved of the great burden of raising
funds for the school.

The industrial departments at Tuskegee were
not, of course, so elaborate and so many while I
was a pupil there. My four years at Tuskegee
were given wholly to class-room work. To my
class, that graduated in 1885 — the first one to grad-
uate, we proudly boast — three Peabody medals
were awarded for excellence in scholarship. Our
diplomas were also graded. We took an examina-
tion for the medals, as there were ten in the gradu-
ating class. I was awarded one of the medals.
The Class of '85 had high ideals and always re-
gretted that any member should receive a second-
grade diploma. I was very thankful to learn after
two weeks' waiting that, in the opinion of the
Faculty, I was worthy of a first-grade diploma.

After graduating, I was employed as the prin-
cipal of the training-school — now known as the
" Children's House " — of the Tuskegee Institute.
Feeling that I could be of more service to my peo-

217

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

pie, and could better teach in the outside world
the principles for which Tuskegee stands, I re-
signed my work at Tuskegee, after several terms,
for a broader field of usefulness.

A call reached Mr. Washington in 1888 for
a teacher to begin a work in the vicinity of Mt.
Meigs, Ala., similar to the work done at Tuske-
gee, but, of course, on a smaller scale. Mr. E. N.
Pierce, of Plainville, Conn., had resolved to do
something in the way of providing better school fa-
cilities for the colored people living on a large
plantation, into the possession of which he had
come. JNIr. Washington answered the call while
in Boston, and telegraphed me that he thought me
the proper person to take charge of and carry on
the settlement work Mr. Pierce and his friends
had in mind.

I found at JMt. Jleigs, after studiously investi-
gating conditions, that the outlook for support was
far from hopeful. Not one person in the whole
community owned a foot of land, and heavy crop
mortgages were the burden of every farmer. It
became evident at once that pioneer work was
very much needed. Homes were neglected, and
the sacredness of family life was unknown to most
of the people. The prospect was a gloomy one.

218

A WOMAN'S WORK

The little Baptist church in which the older
people gathered for worship two Sundays in each
month badly needed repairing.

I began first of all to connect myself with the
Sunday-school, and taught there every Sunday. I
organized a large class of the older people and en-
couraged them in every way to attend the Sunday-
school every Sunday with the children. None of
these mothers or fathers could read or write.

I taught them Scripture verses by repeating
verse after verse till they were able to recite them
for me. I also sought to teach them to read, and
quite a large number can read now because of
the opportunities provided by my Sunday-school
class. I have kept this class of older people to-
gether, and it is one of the most active ones of
all. We have studied together many other things
aside from the Sunday-school lessons, and it has
been necessary to do so, because the people have
none of the opportunities provided for those who
live in the towns and cities. I was early much en-
couraged to note that my efforts were appreciated
by the people.

I was often called upon to act as arbiter in all
kinds of difficult and unpleasant disputes involv-
ing family relations and other differences among

219

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

the people. Many and many a time did I take the
place of the minister and speak to the people when
he could not be present.

To teach the people self-help, the surest sign
of progress, we decided to plan for a main school
building which should mark the center of our ac-
tivities. This building we were able to erect at a
cost of $2,000, and it is a satisfaction to the peojDle
of the community that they alone paid every cent
of the cost, not one penny coming from the out-
side. The struggle was a long one, a hard one, with
bad crops and other hard conditions interfering
with our plans.

This building is a two-story one, well venti-
lated, roomy, and accommodates 300 pupils. From
the first we have sought to follow in the footsteps
of the parent institution, and have had the indus-
tries taught; agriculture was introduced at once.

A large Trades Building was soon erected and
teachers from Tuskegee secured to help in the
work. Blacksmithing, wheel wrighting, carpentry,
painting, and agriculture have been provided for
the young men, and cooking, laundering, house-
keeping, and sewing for the young women.

The following buildings we now have in ad-
dition to those named: a dormitory for girls, a

220

A WOMAN'S WORK

blacksmithing-shop, and a teachers' home. More
than 4,000 pupils have come under the influence
of the school.

I have continuously, for seventeen years, with
the exception of a short period, been in charge
of the school; during the absence referred to I
was studying in New York city, and afterward,
through the generosity of a friend, was able to
spend one year in Queen ^Margaret's College,
Glasgow, Scotland.

I am pleased with the progress the people have
made. ^Nlany now own their own homes, and eight
and ten persons are no longer content to sleep in
one-room log cabins, as was only too true during
the earlier years of my work. I have regularly
had " mothers' meetings," and these have raised
the home life of the people to a higher standard.
I know what I am saying when I state that sacred
family ties are respected and appreciated as never
before in this immediate region.

The emotional church life of the people no
longer prevails hereabouts, and the minister
preaches forty minutes, instead of two hours as
f ormerly .

Many farmers are out of debt, and a mortgage
upon a man's crop is as disreputable as a saloon.

221

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

The INIt. ISIeigs Institute is the first school of
its kind in Alabama to demonstrate the fact that
a school planted among the people in the rural dis-
tricts of the South will make for intelligent, honest,
thrifty citizenship. The success of this work made
possible the establishment of many similar schools
that have been planted in Alabama and other parts
of the South.

Of the young men and women who have at-
tended my school I can not speak too highly.
Sixty have graduated, and fifty-seven of the num-
ber are still living. Not only they, but many who
could not afford to stay and graduate, are at work
in an effort to help their less fortunate brethren.
Thirty-six of my graduates have taken academic or
trade courses in other schools, twenty-one of them
at Tuskegee Institute. Ten have graduated from
Tuskegee, or from other schools. Thirty-eight of
them have learned trades, and all of them are
at work and prosperous. They include dress-
makers, cooks, housekeepers, laundresses, carpen-
ters, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, painters, etc. Sev-
eral are successful farmers, and one of the girls is
a large cotton-planter and general farmer. Two
are successful merchants in Birmingham, Ala.; one
is a prominent minister, having also taken a course

222

A WOMAN'S WORK

at the Virginia Union Seminary, Richmond, Va. ;
one is in charge of an orphan asylum, and several
are teachers; one taught with me for seven years
after having also graduated from Tuskegee.
Thirty have married, fifteen have bought homes,
one has property valued at $7,000, others have
property ranging in value from $800 to $2,000.
Of the sixty, only four have failed to maintain
their moral character.

Six teachers are now employed; we really need
another. About 30 boarding pupils are regularly
enrolled, wdth 250 pupils in daily attendance from
near-by homes.

The school is conducted just as economically
as it well can be; the annual expense is about
$2,000, of Avhich sum I have insisted that the people
themselves shall annually meet one-half.

If I have been of any service to my people, I
owe it all to Mr. Washington and to one of the
noblest women that ever lived, Mrs. Booker T.
Washington, nee Davidson, both of whom indeli-
bly impressed upon me while attending the Tuske-
gee Institute those lessons w hich led me to want to
spend myself in the helping of my people.

223

X

UPLIFTING THE SUBMERGED
MASSES

By W. J. Edwards

I WAS born in Snow Hill, Wilcox County, Ala.,
in the year 1870. My mother died when I was
twelve months old. About five or six years after
this, perhaps, my father went away from Snow
Hill; the next I heard he was dead. Thus at the
age of six I was left without father or mother. I
was then placed in the care of my old grandmother,
who did all that was in her power to send me to the
school located near us. Often for weeks I would
go to school without anything but bread to eat.
Occasionally she could secure a little piece of meat.

I well remember one morning, when I had
started to school and she had given me all the
meat that we had in the house, how it worried me
that she should have nothing left for herself but
bread. Worrying over our cramped condition, I
resolved that what she did for me should not be
thrown away. I longed for the time when I could
repay her for all she had done for me.

224

UPLIFTING THE SUBMERGED

At the age of twelve it pleased the Almighty
God to take from me my grandmother, my only de-
pendence. I was now left to fight the battle of
life alone. I need not tell of the hard times and
suff erings that I experienced until I entered school
at the Tuskegee Institute. But knowing that I
was without parents, and being sick most of the
time, my hardships can be imagined.

Through a minister I heard of the Tuskegee
Normal and Industrial Institute in the early part
of 1888, and so favorably was it recommended
that I decided I would rent two acres of land
and raise a crop, and take the proceeds and go to
Tuskegee the following fall. After paying my
rents and other small debts I had $20 left with
which to buy my clothes and start for Tuskegee,
which I did, starting on the 27th of December,
1888, and arriving at Tuskegee on the first day of
January, 1889, with $10. I had walked most of
the way, I was at Tuskegee for four and one-half
years. I managed to stay there for that length of
time by working one day in the week and every
other Saturday during the term and all of the
vacations.

During my Senior year I was helped by Mr.
R. O. Simpson, the owner of the plantation on

225

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

which I was reared. I had trouble that year in
deciding just what I should do after graduation.
It had been my conviction that I must be a lawyer
or a minister. In contemplating the idea of be-
coming a lawyer, however, I could not see wherein
I could carry out the Tuskegee Idea of uplifting
the masses. The ministerial profession was very
little better, since the work of the minister in our
section of the country must be limited almost
wholly to one denomination. So I finally de-
cided to try to plant an institution similar to the
Tuskegee School, an undenominational one, in a
section of Alabama where such work should be
needed. I chose, as my field of labor, Snow Hill,
the place from which I had gone to enter school
at Tuskegee.

The school is now known as the Snow Hill
Normal and Industrial Institute, and is located in
the very center of the " Black Belt " of the State
of Alabama. This is a much-used term; it is
not applicable, however, to every Southern State,
neither does it apply to every count}^ in any one
State. It is only to certain counties in certain
States to which it may properly be applied. Wil-
cox and the seven adjoining counties constitute
one of these sections in Alabama. The latest cen-

226

UPLIFTING THE SUBMERGED

siis shows that these eight counties have a colored
population of 201,539, and a white population of
69,915.

Alabama has sixty-seven counties, with a total
colored population of 827,307. Thus it will be seen
that one-eighth of the counties contain one-fourth
of the entire colored population. Because the col-
ored people outnumber the white people in such
great proportion, this is called the " Black Belt "
of the State. These counties lie in the valley of the
Alabama River, and constitute the most fertile
section of the State.

During the early settlement of the State, white
men coming into these fertile counties not only
would settle as much land as a family of four or
five in number could cultivate, but as much as they
were able to buy Negroes to cultivate. Quite a few
families with only five or six in number would have
land enough to work from 100 to 1,000 Negroes.
One can see from this how a few white families
would, as they often did, own a whole county.
Now the Negro is not migratory in his nature;
having been brought to these counties during
slavery, he has remained here in freedom. He is
not, therefore, primarily responsible for his be-
ing here in such great numbers. These white fam-

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

ilies settled in little villages seven or eight miles
apart. The distances between were made up of
their plantations, on which were thousands of
slaves. Only a few Negroes were employed as
domestics in comparison with the great numbers
who worked on plantations. It was only these
few who, in learning to serve the white man,
properly got a glimpse of real home life. The
masses had absolutely no idea of such a life; noth-
ing was done that would lead them to secure any
such knowledge.

Since their emancipation the masses of these
people have had neither competent preachers nor
teachers ; consequently most of them have remained
hopelessly ignorant even until this day. One hear-
ing the great condemnation heaped upon the Ne-
gro in these sections for his failure to measure up
to the standards of true citizenship and to proper
standards of life would get the idea that the proud
Anglo-Saxon has spent a great deal of time in
trying to teach him the fundamental principles that
underlie life; but this is not the case. There are
exceptions to all rules, however, and here and there
one may find noble and patriotic white men laboring
for the uplift of fallen humanity without regard
to race, color, or previous condition.

228

UPLIFTING THE SUBMERGED

During the summer of 1893, after returning
from Tuskegee, being anxious to learn more of
the real condition of our people in the " Black
Belt," I visited most of the places in Wilcox
County and a few places in the counties of Mon-
roe, Butler, Dallas, and Lowndes, making the
entire journey on foot.

It was a bright and beautiful morning in June
when I started from my home, a log cabin. JNIore
than two hundred Xegroes were in the near-by
fields plowing corn, hoeing cotton, and singing
those beautiful songs often referred to as planta-
tion melodies. Notably, I am Going to Roll in my
Jesus' Arms; O Freedom! Before I'd be a Slave
I'd be Carried to My Grave, etc., may be men-
tioned. With the beautiful fields of corn and cot-
ton outstretched before me, and the shimmering
brook like a silver thread twining its way through
the golden meadows, and then through verdant
fields, giving water to thousands of creatures as it
passed, I felt that the earth was truly clothed in
His beauty and the fulness of His glory.

But I had scarcely gone beyond the limits of
the field when I came to a thick undergrowth of
pines. Here we saw old pieces of timber and two
posts.

229

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

" This marks the old cotton-gin house," said
Uncle Jim, my companion, and then his counte-
nance grew sad; after a sigh he said: " I have seen
many a Negro whipped within an inch of his life
at these posts. I have seen them whipped so badly
that they had to be carried away in wagons. Many
never did recover."

From this our road led first up-hill, then down,
and finally through a stretch of woods until we
reached Carlowville. This was once the most aris-
tocratic village of the southern part of Dallas
County. Perhaps no one who owned less than
a hundred slaves was able to secure a home within
its borders. Here still are to be seen the stately
mansions of the Lydes, the Lees, the Wrumphs,
the Bibbses, the Youngbloods, and the Reynoldses.
Many of these mansions have been partly rebuilt
and remodeled to conform to modern styles of
architecture, while others have been deserted and
are now fast decaying. Usually these mansions
are occupied by others than the original families.
The original families have sold out or have
died out.

In Carlowville stands the largest white church
in Dallas or Wilcox Counties. It has a seating
capacity of 1,000, excluding the balcony, which,

230

UPLIFTING THE SUBMERGED

during slavery, was used exclusively for the Ne-
groes of the families attending.

Our stay in Carlowville was necessarily short,
as the evening sun was low and the nearest place
for lodging was two miles ahead. Before reach-
ing this place we came to a large one-room log
cabin, 30 feet by 36 feet, on the road-side, with a
double door and three holes f or windows cut in the
sides. There was no chimney nor anything to show
that the room could be heated in cold weather.
This was the Hope-well Baptist Church. Here
500 members congregated one Sunday in each
month and spent the entire day in eating, shouting,
and " praising God for His goodness toward the
children of men." Here also the three months'
school was taught during the winter. A few hun-
dred yards beyond this church brought us to the
home of a Deacon Jones.

He was living in the house occupied by the
overseer of the plantation during slavery. It was
customary for Deacon Jones to care for strangers
who chanced to come into the community, espe-
cially for the preachers and teachers. So here we
found rest.

His family consisted of himself, his wife, and
six children — two boys and four girls. Mrs. Jones

231

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

was noted for her ability to prepare food well,
and in a short while invited us to a delicious supper
of fried chicken, fried ham, some very fine home-
made sugar-cane sirup, and an abundance of milk
and butter. At supper Deacon Jones told of the
many preachers he had entertained and their fond-
ness for chicken.

After supper I spent some time in trying to
find out the real condition of the people in this
section. Mr. Jones told me how, for ten years, he
had been trying to buy some land, and had been
kept from it more than once, but that he was still
hopeful of getting the right deeds for the land
for which he had paid. He also told of many
families who had recently moved into this com-
munity. These newcomers had made a good start
for the year and had promising crops, but they
were compelled to mortgage their growing crops
in order to get " advances "for the year.

When asked of the schools, he said that there
were more than five hundred children of school age
in his township, but not more than two hundred of
these had attended school the previous winter, and
most of these for a period not longer than six weeks.
He also said that the people were very indifferent
as to the necessity of schoolhouses and churches.

232

UPLIFTING THE SUBMERGED

Quite a few who cleared a little money the previ-
ous year had spent it all in buying whisky, in gamb-
ling, in buying cheap jewelry, and for other use-
less articles. After spending two hours in such
talk I retired for the evening. Thus ended the
first day of my search for first-hand information.

We had a fine night's rest. Mr. Jones was up
at early dawn to feed his horses and cattle, and
before the sun was up he was out on his farm.
JNIrs. Jones and one of the daughters were left to
prepare breakfast, and soon they, too, were ready
to join the others on the farm. We took advan-
tage of this early rising and were soon off on our
journey.

Instead of going farther northward, we turned
our course westward for the town of Tilden, which
is only eight miles west of Snow Hill. The road
from Carlo wviUe to Tilden is somewhat hilly, but a
very pleasant one, and for miles the large oak-
trees formed an almost perfect arch.

On reaching Tilden we learned that there
would be a union meeting of two of the churches
that night. I decided that this would give me an
opportunity to study the religious life of these peo-
ple for myself. The members of churches No. 1
and No. 2 assembled at their respective places at

233

TUSKEGEE AXD ITS PEOPLE

eight o'clock. The members of church Xo. 2 had a
short praise-service, and formed a hne of procession
to march to church Xo. 1. All the women of
the congregation had their heads bound in pieces
of white cloth, and they sang their peculiar songs
as they marched. When the members of church
No. 2 were within a few hundred yards of church
X^o. 1, the singing then alternated, and finally, when
the members of church Xo. 2 came to church Xo.
1, thev marched around this church three times
before entering it. After entering, six sermons
were preached to the two congregations by six dif-
ferent ministers, and at least three of these could
not read a word in the Bible. Each minister oc-
cupied at least one hour. Their texts were as often
taken from Webster's blue-back speller as from
the Bible, and sometimes this would be held upside
doAvn. It was about two o'clock in the morning
when the services were concluded.

Here, again, we found no schoolhouses, and the
three months' school had been taught in one of
the little churches.

The next day we started for Camden, a dis-
tance of sixteen miles. This section between Til-
den and Camden is perhaps the most fertile sec-
tion of land in the State of Alabama. Taking a

234*

UPLIFTING THE SUBMERGED

southwest course from Tilden, I crossed into Wil-
cox County again, where I saw acres of corn and
miles of cotton, all being cultivated by Negroes.

The evening was far advanced when we reached
Camden, but having been there before, we had
no difficulty in securing lodging. Camden is the
seat of Wilcox County, and has a population of
about three thousand inhabitants.

The most costly buildings of the town were
the court-house and jail, and these occupied the
most conspicuous places.

Here great crowds of Negroes would gather
on Saturdays to spend their earnings of the week
for a fine breakfast or dinner on the following
Sunday, or for useless trivialities.

On Saturday evenings, on the roads leading to
and from Camden, as from other towns, could be
seen groups of Negroes gambling here and there,
and buying and selling w^hisky. As the county
had voted against licensing whisky-selling, this
was a violation of the law, and often the com-
mission merchant, a Negro, was imprisoned for the
offense, while those who supplied him went free.

In Camden I found one Negro schoolhouse ;
this was a box-like cottage, 20 by 16 feet, and was
supposed to seat more than one hundred students.

235

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

This school, Hke those taught in the churches, was
open only three months in the year.

After a two days' stay in Camden I next
visited Miller's Ferry ; this is on the Alabama River,
twelve miles west of Camden. The road from
Camden is one of the best roads in the State, and
for miles and miles one could see nothing but cot-
ton and corn.

At Miller's Ferry a Negro schoolhouse of am-
ple proportions had been built on Judge Hender-
son's plantation. Here the school ran seven
months in the year, and the colored people in the
community were prosperous and showed a remark-
able degree of intelligence. Their church was
equally as attractive as their schoolhouse.

Judge Henderson was for twelve years Pro-
bate Judge of Wilcox County. He proved to be
one of the best judges this county has ever had,
and even unto this day he is admired by all, both
white and black, rich and poor, for his honesty, in-
tegrity, and high sense of justice. From Judge
Henderson's place we traveled southward to Rock-
west, a distance of more than fifteen miles. Dur-
ing this journey hundreds of Negroes were seen at
work in the corn- and cotton-fields. These people
were almost wholly ignorant, as they had neither

236

UPLIFTING THE SUBMERGED

schools nor teachers, and their ministers were al-
most wholly illiterate.

At Rock-west I found a very intelligent col-
ored man who had attended school at Selma, Ala.,
for a few years. He owned his home and ran
a small grocery. He told of the hardships with
which he had to contend in building up his busi-
ness, and of the almost hopeless condition of the
Negroes about there. He said that they usually
made money each year, but that they did not know
how to keep it. The merchants would induce them
to buy buggies, machines, clocks, etc., but would
never encourage them to buy homes. We were
very much pleased with the reception which INIr.
Darrington gave us, and felt very much like put-
ting into practise our State motto, " Here We
Rest," at his home, but our objective point for the
day was Fatama, sixteen miles away.

On our journey that afternoon we saw hun-
dreds of Negro one-room log cabins. Some of these
were located in the dense swamps and some on the
hills, while others were miles away from the pub-
lic road. Most of these people had never seen
a locomotive. We reached Fatama about seven
o'clock that night, and here for the first time we
were compelled to divide our crowd in order to

237

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

get a night's lodging. Each of us had to spend
the night in a one-room cabin. It was my privi-
lege to spend the night with Uncle Jake, a jovial
old man, a local celebrity. After telling him of
our weary journey, he immediately made prepara-
tion for me to retire. This was done by cutting
off my bed from the remainder of the cabin by
hanging up a sheet on a screen. While somewhat
inconvenient, my rest that night was pleasant, and
the next morning found me very much refreshed
and ready for another day's journey. Our com-
pany assembled at Uncle Jake's for breakfast,
after which we started for Pineapple.

We found the condition of the Negroes be-
tween Fatama and Pineapple much the same as
that of those we had seen the previous day. No
schoolhouse was to be seen, but occasionally we
would see a church at the cross-roads. We reached
Pineapple late in the afternoon.

From Pineapple we went to Greenville, and
from Greenville to Fort Deposit, and from Fort
Deposit we returned to Snow Hill, after having
traveled a distance of 157 miles and visiting four
counties.

In three of these counties there is a colored
population of 42,810 between the ages of five and

238

UPLIFTING THE SUBMERGED

twenty years, and a white population of 7,608 of
the same ages. In fact, the Negro school popula-
tion of Wilcox and the seven adjoining counties
is as follows: Wilcox, 11,G23; Dallas, 18,292;
Lowndes, 13,044; Monroe, 5,615; Butler, 5,924;
Marengo, 12,362; Clark, 6,898; Perry, 10,723;
making a total of 85,499. Speaking of public
schools in the sense that educators use the term,
the colored people in this section have none. Of
course, there are so-called public schools here and
there, running from three to five months in the
year and paying the teachers from $7.50 to $18
per month; but the teachers are incompetent, and
the schools are usually in the hands of those not
too much interested in the cause of education.
JMany of these trustees do not visit the schools once
in ten years, and they know absolutely nothing of
the methods of discipline even used by the teachers.

Our trip through this section revealed the fol-
lowing facts: (1) That while many opportunities
were denied our people, they abused many privi-
leges; (2) that there was a colored population, in
this section visited, of more than 200,000, and a
school population of 85,499; (3) that the people
were ignorant and superstitious ; ( 4 ) that the teach-
ers and preachers for the most part were of the

239

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

same condition; (5) that there were no pubhc or
private hbraries and reading-rooms to which they
had access; (6) that, strictly speaking, there were
no pubHc schools and only one private one. Now
what can be expected of any people in such a
condition? Can the blind lead the blind? They
could not in the days of old, and it is not likely
that they can now.

After this trip through the " Black Belt " I was
more convinced than ever before of the great need
of an industrial school in the very midst of these
people; a school that would correct the erroneous
ideas the people held of education; a school that
would put most stress upon the things which the
people were most likely to have to do with through
life; a school that would endeavor to make educa-
tion practical rather than theoretical; a school that
would train men and women to be good workers,
good leaders, good husbands, good wives, and
finally train them to be fit citizens of the State,
and proper subjects for the kingdom of God.

With this idea the Snow Hill Normal and In-
dustrial Institute was started ten years ago in an
old, dilapidated, one-room log cabin with one
teacher, three students, and no State appropria-
tion, and without any church or society resj)onsible

240

UPLIFTING THE SUBMERGED

for one dollar of its expenses. Aside from this
unfortunate state of affairs, the condition of the
people was most miserable. This was due partly
to poor crops and partly to bad management on
their part.

In many instances the tenants were not only
unable to pay their debts, but were also unable to
pay their rents. In a few cases the landlords had
to provide, at their own expense, provisions for
their tenants. This was simply another way of
establishing soup-houses on the plantations. The
idea of buying land was foreign to all of them,
and thei^e were not more than twenty acres of land
owned by the colored people in this whole neigh-
borhood. The churches and schools were practi-
cally closed, while crime and immorality were ram-
pant. The carrying of men and women to the
chain-gang was a frequent occurrence. Aside
from all this, these people believed that the end
of education was to free their children from man-
ual labor rather than prepare them for more and
better work. They were very much opposed to
industrial education. When the school was started,
many of the parents came to the school and for-
bade our " working " their children, stating as their
objection that their children had been working all

241

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

their lives, and they did not mean to send them
to school to learn to work. Not only did they for-
bid our having their children work, but many took
their children out of school rather than have them
do so. A good deal of this opposition was kept up
by illiterate preachers and incompetent teachers,
here and there, who had not had any particular
training for their profession. In fact, ninety-eight
per cent of them had attended no school. We con-
tinued, however, to keep the " industrial plank " in
our platform, and year after year some additional
industry was added until we now have thirteen in-
dustries in constant operation. Agriculture is the
foremost and basic industry of the institution.
We do this because we are in a farming section
and ninety-five per cent of the people in this sec-
tion depend upon some form of agriculture for a
livelihood. How changed are the conditions now
as regards our work ! From the little one-room log
cabin, the school has grown so that it now owns
100 acres of land, 14 buildings, counting large and
small, with property valued at $37,000. From
three students, it has grown so that we now have
a school with more than four hundred students
annually in attendance, representing more than a
dozen Alabama counties and seven States. It has

242

UPLIFTING THE SUBMERGED

also grown from one to twenty teachers and offi-
cers. Including the class that graduated last term,
thirty-seven have finished the course. All are liv-
ing but one. No charge of criminal wrong-doing
has been brought against even one of them. One
of the young women is married to the head teacher,
another to the superintendent of industries, and
seven other graduates are employed in responsible
positions by the school. One of these has taken a
special course at Harvard University, three have
taken additional courses at Tuskegee, one is in
charge of the woman's department of a large
school in JNIississippi, two have founded schools
of their ow^n, one at Tilden, Ala., the other at
Greensboro, Ala. All have remained in the coun-
try among the masses whom they are helping to
uplift, and most of them in Wilcox County, the
county in which the school is located. Of the
thirty-seven graduates, twenty-seven own their
own homes. Aside from the graduates, about
five hundred others have been under the influ-
ence of the school for a longer or shorter period;
many of these are making exceptionally good
records.

The grow^th on the part of the people has kept
corresponding pace with the growth of the insti-
ll 243

TUSKEGEE AXD ITS PEOPLE

tution. The farmers, who ten years ago depended
wholly on the landlords for food supphes, have
gro^ra to be independent, raising most of their
own supplies. They are rapidly passing from the
renters' class to the owners' class; they are pos-
sessing themselves of the soil. This may be seen
from the fact that ten years ago they o^raed in tliis
county but twenty acres of land; to-day they own
4,000 acres of land. [Many of the most prosperous
farmers have opened bank-accounts. The people
no longer oppose industrial education; they now
refuse to send their children to any school where
they can not secure some industrial education.

For our part we find it wholly impossible to ac-
commodate all who come to us from time to time
to take the trades' instmction. The chmxhes here-
about have been revived, new and better school-
houses have been built, and the county school terms
extended in many cases from two and tliree to five
and six months ; competent teachers and preachers,
both intellectually and morally, have been em-
ployed. Crime and immorality are being uprooted,
and virtue and civic righteousness are being
planted in their stead. The conmiercial and eco-
nomic conditions have improved in every way, and
there was never a more cordial relation existing be-

244.

UPLIFTING THE SUBMERGED

tween the races in this section than now. With
these things true, the one-room log cabin can not
survive, and is rapidly giving way to houses having
three, four, and, in some places, six and seven
rooms.

After having been here at Snow Hill for a few
years, we felt that while we were helping the chil-
dren in the class-room, something should be done
to help the parents; so we organized what we call
the Snow Hill Xegro Conference, on January 13,
1897. This conference is modeled after the fa-
mous Tuskegee Xegro Conferences, and meets once
a year. At this conference the farmers from this
and the adjoining counties come together. There
were 500 at our last conference. The school is
almost wholly given up to farmers on Conference
day. Here we listen to educational, religious,
moral, and financial reports from many sections.
Those who have succeeded, tell the others how they
have done so, and those who have not succeeded tell
how they are trying to succeed. From these annual
meetings the farmers get new ideas, new informa-
tion, and take fresh courage; they return to their
farms more determined to succeed than ever before.
When we commenced these meetings the reports
were discouraging, and from many sections the

245

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

condition of the race thereabout seemed hopeless.
Many said that in the same section they could not
buy land at any price. There were only twenty
acres of land reported at the first conference. At
the last one, reports showed that the people had
purchased more than four thousand acres since the
beginning of these conferences seven years ago.
At our first meeting the reports showed that the
one-room log-cabin home was the rule; at our last
meeting it had become the exception. These con-
ferences have tried all along to induce the people
to raise more of their own food-supplies. We also
waged a ceaseless war upon the one-room log-cabin
home, which has resulted in almost annihilating
them. This war shall never cease until there is not
a one-room log cabin left in all this section. The
one-room log cabin is a pestilent menace to decent
living.

Following the farmers' conference, we have
the workers' conference during vacation. This
conference is chiefly composed of teachers and
preachers, and represents an idea got from
Tuskegee. In this conference we get a clear idea
of what the teachers and preachers are doing, the
methods they are pursuing, and the results being
achieved. The teachers are encouraged to make

246

UPLIFTING THE SUBMERGED

education less theoretical and more practical; the
preachers are urged to preach to our people less
of the dying religion and more of the living re-
ligion. While they are encouraged to build better
schoolhouses and churches, they are also reminded
of the fact that these are not the ends, but only
the means to an end; that they are only of value
in proportion as they can be used to build up a
hopeful and noble life in the communities where
they are located. However much the material side
may be held up to them, they are told that in
the last analysis the spiritual is always the end.
The reports at our last Workers' Conference
were most encouraging. Wherever the intelligent
teacher and preacher have gone, the condition of
the people has been improved. To my mind this
demonstrates most clearly that the great need of
our people is intelligent leaders, and it is this that
we ask for; it is this for which Snow Hill is stri-
ving. While much good is being accomplished
through the Workers' Conference, the " Black Belt
Improvement Society," which I have organized,
deals more directly with the people in our immedi-
ate neighborhood. The aim of this society is clearly
set forth in its constitution, a part of which is as
follows:

247

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

1. This society shall be known as the Black Belt
Improvement Society. Its object shall be the gen-
eral uplift of the people of the Black Belt of
Alabama; to make them better morally, mentally,
spiritually, and financially.

2. It shall be the object of the Black Belt Im-
provement Society to, as far as possible, eliminate
the credit system from our social fabric; to stimu-
late in all members the desire to raise, as far as
possible, all their food supplies at home, and pay
cash for whatever may be purchased at the
stores.

3. To bring about a system of cooperation in
the purchase of what supplies can not be raised at
home wherever it can be done to advantage.

4. To discuss topics of interest to the com-
munities in which the various societies may be or-
ganized, and topics relating to the general welfare
of the race, and especially to farmers.

5. To teach the people to practise the strictest
economy, and especially to obtain and diffuse such
information among farmers as shall lead to the
improvement and diversification of crops, in order
to create in farmers a desire for homes and better
home conditions, and to stimulate a love for labor
in both old and young. Each local organization
may offer small prizes for the cleanest and best-
kept house, the best pea-patch, and the best ear of
corn, etc.

6. To aid each other in sickness and in death;

248

UPLIFTING THE SUBMERGED

for this purpose a fee of ten cents will be collected
from each member every month and held sacred,
to be used for no other purpose whatever.

7. It shall be one of the great objects of this
society to stimulate its members to acquire homes,
and urge those who already possess homes to im-
prove and beautify them.

8. To urge our members to purchase only the
things that are absolutely necessary.

9. To exert our every effort to obliterate those
evils which tend to destroy our character and our
homes, such as intemperance, gambling, and so-
cial impurity.

10. To refrain from spending money and time
foolishly or in unprofitable ways; to take an in-
terest in the care of our highways, in the paying
of our taxes, and the education of our children;
to plant shade trees, repair our yard fences, and
in general, as far as possible, bring our home
life up to the highest standards of civilization.

This society has several standing committees,
as follows: on government, on education, on busi-
ness, on housekeeping, on labor, and on farming.
The chairman of these respective committees holds
monthly meetings in the various communities, at
which time various topics pertaining to the welfare
and uplift of the people are discussed. As a result

249

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

of these meetings the people return to their homes
with new inspiration. These meetings are doing
good in the communities where they are being held,
and our sincere hope is that such meetings may
be extended. The ills that most retard the Negroes
of the rural South are sought to be reached by the
school and by the several organizations which have
been organized by it. These articles of the simple
constitution go to the very bottom of the con-
ditions.

If one would again take the trip which I made
in the summer of 1893, he would find that two-
thirds of the land lying between Snow Hill and
Carlowville, a distance of seven miles, is now owned
and controlled entirely by Negroes. In Carlow-
ville, instead of the old one-room-cabin church,
there is a beautiful church with glass windows. An
acre of land has been bought, and a neat and com-
fortable schoolhouse with glass windows has been
erected, and a graduate of my school is the teacher.
Many families in that section are now owning
homes. A great revolution is also taking place in
Tilden. John Thomas, one of our graduates. Class
of '01, has gone into this place, induced the people
to buy thirty acres of land, on which they have
erected a splendid building having two rooms, and

250

UPLIFTING THE SUBMERGED

the school is being conducted seven months in the
year. INIany farmers in this section are now own-
ing homes, some of them owning as much as 400
acres of land. This improvement is steadily going
on in all sections where the influence of our school
has reached.

Thus it will be seen that the work in the class-
room is only a small part of what w^e are trying
to do for the uplift of the Negro people in the
Black Belt.

In order that this good work may be pushed
more rapidly, it is necessary that we give some
time to this particular movement. This can only
be done by our having here a strong and healthy
institution with an endowment sufficiently large to
relieve us of our great financial burden. An
adequate endowment would meet this need. While
we are anxious to raise an endowment fund, our
burden could be partially relieved by the school
securing possession of a large plantation in the
neighborhood which is now, and has been for three
years, offered to us. This plantation contains be-
tw^een three thousand and four thousand acres of
land, and can be bought for $30,000, and would
afford us unbounded opportunity for the exten-
sion of the agricultural features of our work, which

251

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

would enable us to raise more, if not all, of our
food supplies.

I have tried as simply as possible in this article
to state the real condition of the people in the
Black Belt section of this State, and to tell how
we are trying to cope with these conditions. Our
constant feehng is that there is so much to be done,
and that so httle has been accomplished.

In closing: The inspiration derived at Tuske-
gee ; the instruction given in shop, and field, and
class-room; the guiding hand of its illustrious
Principal — all of these have had their impress upon
me and have urged me to dedicate myself unre-
servedly to these people, among whom I was
reared, among whom I shall continue to labor,
among whom I shall at the last be buried.

252

XI

A DAIRYMAN'S STORY
By Lewis A. Smith

In any attempt to write a story of my life
and work, the " work " feature must predominate.

I was born INIarch 27, 1877, at Louisville, Ky.
My father and mother were slaves of old Georgia
stock. INIy father, after freedom, was for a time
permitted to attend Howard University, Wash-
ington, D. C. He was a candy-maker. My mother
attended Atlanta University.

In 1878 my parents left Atlanta, where my
two brothers were born, and located in Louisville.
Leaving Louisville in 1881, the family moved to
Chicago, 111., where I lived until I entered Tuske-
gee Institute, of which my mother and I had heard
much.

After reaching Chicago, my parents established
a confectionery store. INIy earlier days were mostly
spent behind the counter in the store, not as a clerk
helping to earn profits, but in an endeavor to make

253

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

profits disappear. I was much in love with the
nice things we had for sale.

An unfortunate family " incident " in 1882
resulted in placing my two brothers and me in
the custody of my mother. Our childhood pleas-
ures were marred by this affair. Although I was
too young to fully understand the situation, I re-
alized that I lacked the pleasures that other chil-
dren had; I realized the absence of that paternal
care and affection that other children enjoyed —
the home was not complete. I can not recall my
childhood with any special pleasure.

I entered the public schools of Chicago when
I was seven years of age. I made a very good
record in my studies, attested by the fact that I
made two grades the first year, and one grade
with excellent marks each succeeding year there-
after. My deportment was not exemplary. I
can remember occasions when I was severely repri-
manded for being absent from school without an
excuse, having gone fishing, or bathing in Lake
Michigan, or skating in the parks in winter.

That was before the compulsory school law
went into effect, or at least before it affected me.
I was not, however, a bad boy. I was neither
rough nor tough; I had no bad habits other than

254.

A DAIRYMAN'S STORY

smoking corn-silk cigarettes, and I soon stopped
that as the novelty of the thing wore off. jNIy
young mind and body required recreation. Unlike
the children of the South, who had three months of
school and nine months of play or work in the fields,
I had nine months of school and three months of
play. I thought the ratio was in the wrong propor-
tion. But as I grew older I became more settled
and more interested in my studies.

Although during the greater portion of my
school life in Chicago I was the sole Negro pupil
in my classes, yet I do not remember a single oc-
casion when prejudice was leveled at me by teacher
or schoolmate.

Early, after throwing off my wildness, I re-
alized the need and the advantage of possessing an
education, and, having such excellent facilities at
hand, determined to become educated, and dili-
gently pursued that object. Just as I was about
to enter the eighth grade, however, I had to give
up going to school, and go to work.

I secured employment with a wood-engraving
firm as general office- and errand-boy. My wages
were $2.50 a week. About fifty cents of this sum I
spent each week for car- fare and incidentals. As I
lived three miles from my w^ork it would have been

255

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

necessary for me to spend my whole allowance for
car-fare had I not stolen rides on railroad trains. I
often wonder now how I could have jumped on and
off swift-moving trains, day after day, without re-
ceiving some serious injury. Surely Providence
must have protected me in my endeavor to save my
scanty earnings. My clothing did not cost much,
as I was the " happy " recipient of the cast-off
clothes of the older members of the family.

My work was agreeable and my employer was
generously sympathetic. Realizing that wood-
engraving and illustrating would offer remu-
nerative employment, I sought to learn the trade,
but was told that I would have to serve an ap-
prenticeship of six months Avithout pay; that pre-
cluded all hope of learning that trade.

Manhood approached before I was prepared
to do anything. I did not earn much in my youth,
and could not expect to earn much in manhood
without preparation. I then resolved to enter
school again, but the expense of a thorough course
was an apparently insurmountable obstacle. I had
been unable to save much from my meager allow-
ance. I had heard of the Tuskegee Institute and
of the opportunities there offered to poor young
men and women. I decided to enter that school.

256

A DAIRYMAN'S STORY

A friend helped me to purchase an excursion ticket
to Atlanta, Ga., where was being held the Cotton-
States and International Exposition. I left Chi-
cago in November, and after two days spent in
Atlanta with relatives and in seeing the sights,
I exchanged my return coupon for a ticket to
Tuskegee.

I arrived at Chehaw, the station where passen-
gers transfer for Tuskegee, and taking passage
in a wagonette, a crude substitute for our modern
means of interurban transit — the little train was
not running on that day — we drove through a pic-
turesque country abounding in woods, vales, and
cultivated fields, occasionally coming across land-
marks of antebellum days. Here one was really
in communion with Nature, so different it was
from the massive specimens of architecture, the
clatter of horses on the cobblestone pavement, the
rattle of elevated trains, and the activitj^ of com-
mercial life of the Western metropolis from which
I had come. As we reached high elevations
glimpses of the institution came into view.

Tuskegee was a surprise to me ; it surpassed my
fondest hope. The majestic buildings, the monu-
ments to the fidelity and building skill of past
classes, the well-designed landscape architecture,

257

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

made me feel that I had at last found the place
where I could be prepared for real life. I re-
ceived a cordial welcome from the teachers; also
from the students, especially from those connected
with the religious and literary organizations, of
which there are quite a number.

When asked the industry I wished to learn, I
chose that of agriculture. Like hundreds of boys
confined to city environment, I had a craving for
Nature, a fondness for live stock, and for all that
I should come in contact with while taking that
course. I worked during the daytime the first
year and attended school at night, thereby acquir-
ing experience and accumulating a credit to apply
to my board when I should enter the day-school.
Soon after entering the agricultural department
I had made such progress that I was placed in charge
of the hotbeds and grew vegetables all winter.
It was a marvelous accomplishment with me, for
I could not have grown them even in the summer
before I entered that department. The care of
the various seeds used on the farm was also in my
charge.

This privilege afforded me opportunities for
seed-testing and for observing plant development; it
was all very instructive. While attending the aca-

258

A DAIRYMAN'S STORY

demic classes at night, the daytime was devoted
entirely to study in the various divisions of the
agricultural department.

At the expiration of my first year as a night-
school student, I entered day-school, devoting
about equal time to academic and agricultural
classes, and a small portion of the time to tlie
study of music, being a member of the Institute
brass band, and in my last year a member of the
orchestra.

During my second summer's vacation I went
into the southern part of Montgomery County,
Ala., in search of a school to teach. There was no
schoolhouse, no school fund, nor any appropriation
available except for a three months' term during
the winter. After further canvass I was per-
mitted to open a school in the little church at
Strata, Ala. The large attendance of pupils and
their eagerness to learn won my sympathy and I
would gladly have planted a sprig of Tuskegee
there had I not had strong inclinations for a com-
mercial life. I conducted a class in agriculture
for the benefit of the farmers. I believe it was
helpful to them. My spare time was spent in going
through the country noting the waste of the land
and the lack of enterprise among the owners and
18 259

TUSKEGEE AXD ITS PEOPLE

tenants, due in large measure, I am sure, to the
mortgage system and the deep ignorance of the
people. Most of the evenings I spent listening
to the terrible stories of slavery days from the lips
of those who had passed through them.

In the midst of this service I received a tele-
gram announcing the death of my mother. I was
too far from home to return in time to see the
last of her, even if I had had the means to do so.
I was in grief; I had sustained a great loss; she
was my all, my mother.

I returned to Tuskegee and graduated with
the Class of '98.

I am grateful to Tuskegee Institute, to the
genius of ilr. Washington, for the opportunities I
had to acquire an education ; to the members of the
Faculty for their assistance, and to my father, who
gave me much of material aid and encouragement.

After graduating, I spent two months at
special work in the school dairy; then, with the
assistance of my father, I secured a position with
the Forest City Creamery Company of Rockford,
111. Entering this company's employ about the
15th of August, 1898, I have been employed ever
since at the same place. .

The Forest City Creamery is one of the largest

260

A DAIRYMAN'S STORY

butter-making concerns in the United States, aver-
aging twenty thousand pounds of butter per day.
We make two grades of butter, known as process,
or renovated, and creamery butter. There are em-
ployed at this plant about seventy-five persons.

My work consists in w^hat is known to the trade
as " starter-making " and preparing the flavor for
the butter. The work is bacteriological, propa-
gating a species of bacteria which produces the
pleasant aroma and flavor of good butter. It
requires not only an understanding of bacteriology,
but skilled workmanship and earnest attention to
details. The secret processes of this company are
known to a close group only, of which I am one.
My work here has been entirely successful and
satisfactory to my employers, if I may judge from
a highly complimentary interview with one of the
officers of the company regarding my work, pub-
lished in one of the leading daily newspapers of
Rockford, and the fact that I am now receiving
double my initial wages.

I have a record not surpassed by any other
employee of this company. Between June 24,
1901, following a wedding-trip to Tuskegee, and
August 15, 1904, when we visited the St. Louis
Exposition, I have w^orked each day at the Cream-

261

TUSKEGEE AXD ITS PEOPLE

eiy, including Sundays and holidays, my work re-
quiring that I do so. These 1,155 consecutive days
of labor were made possible by a total abstinence
from all intoxicating liquors and tobacco. My suc-
cess here can be credited to the efficient training I
received at Tuskegee.

" It is not well for man to live alone." Fol-
lowing this injunction I have taken unto myself
a helpmeet, who is all that the word implies, loving,
economical, and well trained in domestic arts.
Shortly after our marriage we began paying for
a home of eleven rooms located in a good resi-
dence portion of the city. The lower part of the
house, containing six rooms, we occupy, and have
comfortably furnished; the up-stairs portion, con-
taining five rooms, we rent to a family of white
people; the rent we receive equals the interest on
the investment.

We have one child, a little girl two years old,
who furnishes sunshine to an already happy home.

Our house is surrounded by a lawn with shade-
and fruit-trees, and many flower-beds. The back
yard contains a garden with berry plants, a well-
built and well-arranged poultry-house, a j^ard con-
taining a flock of pure-bred fowls, the nucleus
of a future enterprise, and a barn with a good

262

A DAIRYMAN'S STORY

horse, a buggy, etc., for our pleasure and con-
venience.

My ambition when leaving school was first to
endeavor to become independent financially, so that
I might enjoy my old age; then, if it were possible,
to gain that independence early in life by economy,
by earning for myself what I earn for my em-
ployer; to try to make it possible for the Negro
farmer to sell his produce to the Negro gin, the
Negro cotton-mill, or creamery, as the case might
be ; my idea being, by this community of interest, to
help the Negro people about me to help themselves
and their fellows. I believe, in the words of the
motto of the Class of '98 — my class — that " we
rise upon the structure we ourselves have builded."
I have tried to live with this thought ever be-
fore me.

263

XII

THE STORY OF A WHEELWRIGHT

By Edward Lomax

I WAS bom in the small town of Demopolis, in
the western part of the State of Alabama, January
17, 1877. JNIy uncle was a wheelwright, and I, at
an early age, was led to desire to become an ar-
tisan such as my uncle was. I interceded with him
and became the " handy boy " around the shop in
which he worked, and picked up much useful in-
formation; but there was nothing progressive or
directly helpful in the work I was permitted to do.
I also did some little work in blacksmithing while
in the shop.

What to me was a fortunate circumstance was
the meeting with a chance acquaintance who was
returning from Tuskegee Institute for his vaca-
tion. This young man told me most glowing
stories of the Tuskegee Institute. He was so en-
thusiastic that he imparted much of his enthusiasm
to me. He himself was taking instruction in the
wheelwrighting division, and could give at first-
hand the information I most desired. The whole

264

THE STORY OF A WHEELWRIGHT

Tuskegee plan was outlined to me: how I could
learn my trade, and at the same time get book
instruction; how I could earn by labor enough to
carry me through school while securing to myself
the advantages mentioned. I had had to learn
by seeing others do, and it was now pointed out to
me how I could " learn by doing," and that was
the thing I wanted. I had been used to being
kept from the use of tools and everything that
would really help me to learn wheelwrighting ; the
only chances I ever had being to " knock about "
the shop, occasionally having some worthless job,
with cast-ofF tools to work with, entrusted to me.

The upshot of it was that I decided to go to
Tuskegee, and carefully saved as much of my wages
of $2.50 per week as I possibly could, so as to pur-
chase clothing, books, and those incidentals insisted
upon by the school that each student must have. I
wrote to the school, and received a letter from Prin-
cipal Washington admitting me should I find my-
self able to meet the requirements stated as follows :

No person will be admitted to the school as
a student who can not pass the examination for
the C Preparatory class. To enter this class one
must be able to read, write, and understand ad-
dition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

265

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

Applicants for admission must be of good moral
character and must bring at least two letters of
recommendation as to their moral character from
reliable persons of their communities.

The Day-SchooL — The Day-School is intended
for those who are able to pay all or the greater
part of their expenses in cash. Students attend-
ing the Day-School are required to work one day
in each week and every other Saturday.

They must also be fourteen years of age, of
good physique, and able to pass the examination
for the C Preparatory class, as stated above.

The Nights chooL — The requirements for en-
tering the Night- School are the same as for enter-
ing the Day-School, with the additional requisites:
Applicants must be fully sixteen years of age in-
stead of fourteen, and physically able to perform
an adult's labor. Cripples are under no circum-
stances admitted to this department.

The Night-School is designed for young men
and women who earnestly desire to educate them-
selves, but who are too poor to pay even the small
charge made in the Day-School. Students will
not be admitted to the Night-School who are
known to be able to enter the Day-School; and
when a student has fraudulently gained admission,
upon discovery of the deception, must either enter
the Day-School or leave the institution.

Trades are assigned as nearly as possible in
accordance with the students' desires. In assign-

266

THE STORY OF A WHEELWRIGHT

ing young men and women to a trade, their mental
abilit}^ and intelligence to grasp it, and physical
ability to perform the duties required, are all care-
fully considered. At the beginning of the school
year it often happens that certain of the industries
are quickly filled; and when this happens, appli-
cants for this particular industry are assigned to
some other division until a vacancy occurs.

The school authorities also sent me a card noti-
fying me as to the school's requirements in the way
of discipline. These seemed to me to be rather
overexacting, but I resolved to try to live up to
them if I should be admitted. Among these were
the following:

The rules governing the school are aimed to
be those which best promote the welf are and happi-
ness of all.

Each student is required to have a Bible.

Regular habits of rest and recreation are re-
quired.

No student is allowed to leave the grounds
without permission.

Male students w-hen permitted to leave the
grounds must wear the regulation cap.

No young woman is permitted to leave the
grounds of the institution unless accompanied by
a teacher.

The Institute has adequate facilities for ba-
267

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

thing, and all students are required to bathe at
stated periods. Bath-houses for young men and
young women, with swimming-pools and shower-
bath appointments, afford every facility in this re-
gard.

The use of intoxicating drinks and the use of
tobacco are strictly forbidden.

Dice -playing and card-playing are strictly pro-
hibited.

Students are liable to be dropped for inability
to master their studies, irregularity of attendance,
or for failure to comply with the regulations of
the school after due notice.

The demeriting system has been adopted by
the school as the principal method of discipline
for misconduct: 33^ demerit marks constitute a
" warning," and upon receiving three warnings
a student is liable to suspension or expulsion, ac-
cording as the Executive Council may determine.

All non-resident students are expected to board
on the school-grounds, unless there is some good
reason for a contrary arrangement.

Students are not registered for a shorter period
than one month; those who leave before the end
of a month are charged for a full month's board.

When students desire to leave the school they
are required to have parents or guardian write di-
rectly to the Principal for permission to do so.

The Dean of the Woman's Department meets
all the young women of the school each Friday

268

THE STORY OF A WHEELWRIGHT

afternoon, and the Commandant all of the young
men every Saturday evening, at which times talks,
both instructive and corrective, are given. No stu-
dent is excused from these meetings except by
special permission.

Students who sign a contract to work a speci-
fied time at some trade or other work must be re-
leased from their contract before application for
an excuse from school will be considered. Any
student leaving without a written excuse will not
be allowed to return, and students under contract
will not only be dismissed, but will forfeit what-
ever cash there may be to their credit in the school
treasury. Students must settle their accounts be-
fore leaving.

Remittances in payment of bills should be made
to the Principal or Treasurer (and not to the stu-
dent) by post-office money-order, registered let-
ter, or check.

Students are not allowed to retain firearms in
their possession. The Commandant of Cadets will
retain and give receipts for any brought.

Low or profane language will subject students
to severe discipline. Students are liable to repri-
mand, confinement, or other punishment.

Letter- writing is subject to regulation, and all
mail- and express-packages are inspected and con-
tents noted. Students are urged to write their par-
ents at least once a week.

Wardrobes and rooms of students are subject
269

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

to inspection and regulation by proper officers at
all times, and regular and thorough inspection of
same are made from time to time.

I was admitted in due course of time.

I reached Tuskegee on the 5th of September,
1896, and after purchasing books, etc., my " cash
assets," $12, were about exhausted. I could not en-
ter as a day-school student, as I did not have the
money to do so. In the night-school I found a
chance which I gladly embraced. As I had desired,
I was assigned to the wheelwright division for two
years, signing a formal contract to that effect. I
spent the whole of each day in the shop, attended in-
dustrial or theory classes two afternoons in each
week, besides taking mechanical drawing (as all
trades students are required to do), and attended
evening classes.

I applied myself as earnestly as I possibly
could, and lost no time in getting right down to
business. So well had I done that, that when a
call reached the school during the sj)ring of 1897
for a competent blacksmith, I was sent to do the
work. I was excused from school on April 15th
of that year and went to Shorter's, Ala., a set-
tlement about eighteen miles from Tuskegee. I
remained there until October.

270

THE STORY OF A WHEELWRIGHT

In a way, I regarded that period somewhat as
a vacation period, as I did not lose much time
from my classes. The surroundings were pleasant
and profitable, and I had a chance to enter into
the life of the people and help them a great deal.
While there I earned enough money to send for
my brother and enter him in Tuskegee, that he
might have the same chance I was enjoying to
get an education. I wanted my brother to enter
the blacksmith-shop, as I saw visions of a black-
smithing and wheelwrighting business to be owned
and conducted by Lomax Brothers some time in
the future. I also provided clothing out of what
I had earned for both my brother and myself.

At close of the school term in 1898 I w^as
able to secure employment at Uniontown, Ala.,
with Messrs. J. L. Dykes and Company, doing a
general wheelwrighting and blacksmithing busi-
ness— the largest business of its kind in the town.
I remained at Uniontown, working for the firm
until October, when I again returned to Tuskegee.
The sum per day I received was a most flattering
tribute to Tuskegee's ability to take a stiff country
lad like myself, and turn him, in a few months, into
a workman commanding decent wages.

What this means to the masses of the students
271

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

who go to Tuskegee the general pubhc can have no
idea. It is a great thing for a boy who never
earned more than the merest pittance a day to go
to a school where he can secure an education by
working for it, and at the same time be fitted
to earn wages, as many of them do, three and
even five times as high as before going there.
This accounts, in a large measure I am sure, for
the fact that so large a number refuse to remain
and go through the full courses of academic
study.

Many of them, finding themselves able in a
few months to earn sums far beyond any previous
hope, decide to take advantage at once of this in-
creased earning capacity; but since the work is so
well graded, no boy can get his trade without get-
ting, at the same time, academic instruction, and in-
struction in those character- forming things all about
the student at Tuskegee.

I began the new term with $50, which sum was
to my credit in the school treasury, having been
earned by my labor.

During the summer of 1899 I was again
offered work at Uniontown by ]\Iessrs. J. L.
Dykes and Company. I remained with them
only two months, however. Afterward I worked at

272

THE STORY OF A WHEELWRIGHT

the IMcKinley Brothers' Wagon Factory at De-
mopoHs, Ala. ; as a journeyman workman at Tuske-
gee, in the Institute's Wheelwrighting Shop, and
with the Nack Carriage Company at ^lobile, Ala.,
the largest shop of its kind in that city and one of
the largest in the whole South, a firm doing strictly
high-grade work. In all of these positions I have
every reason to believe that I gave full and com-
plete satisfaction. While with the last-named
company I won the personal favor and interest
of the manager and continued to study. He
recommended that I add to my Tuskegee train-
ing by taking the correspondence course of the
Technical School for Carriage Draftsmen and
JMechanics, New York. I remained with this firm
until I was offered a position by ]Mr. R. R. Tay-
lor, the present director of mechanical industries
of the Tuskegee Institute, three years ago. I
w^as greatly pleased and flattered when I was
called to take charge of the division in which I
had received my own instruction. Since being
at Tuskegee I have continued to study, and
am satisfied that I have well used my oppor-
tunities.

This division over which I preside is located on
the first floor of the Trades Building. It is well

273

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

fitted for work in general wheelwrighting and re-
pairing.

Included in the equipment are ten woodwork-
ers' benches 32 inches high, 42 inches wide, and 8
feet long. Each bench is divided into two parts,
making it possible for two persons to work at the
same bench without interference. The benches have
three drawers and one closet on each side, in which
tools used by the students are kept.

Each pupil is provided with the following
tools: One coach-maker's vise, one 26-inch Xo. 6
cross-cut saw, one 12 -inch back saw, one set of
planes, one set of chisels, one set of auger-bits,
one set of gimlet-bits, one ratchet-brace, one
coach-maker's drawing-knife, one spoke-shave, one
thumb-gauge, one try-square, one bevel, one ham-
mer, and one mallet. Other tools are kept in re-
serve by the instructor and are used only when
needed.

The division is constantly building new work,
such as wagons, drays, horse- and hand-carts,
wheelbarrows, buggies, and road-carts. The work
of repairing vehicles and farm implements for the
school, and a large amount of repairing for the
locality, is done by my students. The course is
as follows:

274

THE STORY OF A WHEELWRIGHT

The First Year, — Care of shop, names anrl
care of tools, general measurements; elementary
work with saw, plane, drawing-knife, chisel, and
spoke-shave; practise in the making and applica-
tion of joints, i. e., splices, mortises, tenons, and
miters; kinds of wood used and how to select;
practise-work on parts of wagons and bodies; In-
dustrial Classes and Mechanical Drawing during
the year.

The Second Year, — Pattern-making, working
by patterns, practise-work on parts of wagons con-
tinued; making wheelbarrows and hand-carts, re-
pairing wagons; practise in wheel-building; con-
struction of wagons, carts, and drays; practise on
parts of buggies and wagons; industrial classes
and Mechanical Drawing during the year.

The Third Year, — Building wheels ; general re-
pairs on buggies and wagons continued; practise-
work on parts of buggies, phaetons, farm- and
business-wagons; shop economics, estimates, bills
of material; industrial classes and Mechanical
Drawing during the year.

The student in wheelwrighting receives instruc-
tion in wood-turning ; the course is the same as that
given to students in carpentry.

I was married late last summer, 1904, and am
now living at Tuskegee as a member of the Faculty
of the school I entered as a raw recruit.

19

275

XIII

THE STORY OF A BLACKSMITH
By Jubie B. Bragg

Both my mother and father were compelled
to work in the field as farmers. They had four
children, all now living, of whom I am the eldest.
I was born in Twiggs County, Ga., February 17,
1876, but in 1881 the family moved to Macon, Ga.,
where they lived until 1886. The crudest possible
blow befell us when both mother and father died
in April of that year, within ten days of each other.

My parents were intelligent, and though they
had had no opportunities for securing an educa-
tion, yet they were able to teach their children the
alphabet and how to spell a few simple words.
My first lessons were in Webster's blue-back
speller, so when I started to school at six years of
age I was not the dullest boy beginning at the same
place, because of the instruction I had received. I
first went to a Miss Mary Tom, who taught in St.
Paul's Church in East Macon. I went there but
one school session. I was next sent to a Miss Carr,

276

THE STORY OF A BLACKSMITH

who taught in the basement of the Presbyterian
church on Washington Avenue, West Macon.
To her, also, I only went one term. I was next
started in Lewis' High School, now known as Bal-
lard's Normal School, but was soon compelled
to cease going there because of the death of both
parents, as already mentioned, in April of that
same term.

I was now but ten years of age. My aunt took
charge of me and of the other children. I was im-
mediately " hired out " to a family named Horton,
for my victuals and clothing. I worked for this
family about six months, all of whom were kind
to me, especially Mr. Horton, Jr., who at this time
had charge of an ice-house. Each day I carried
his meals to him and could confidently count upon
receiving from him a nickel (five cents), which was
forthwith invested in candy as I returned. It
was a real pleasure to meet and make myself
know^n to Mr. Horton, Jr., the young man who
had been so kind to me in Birmingham, Ala., in
1901, after my graduation from Tuskegee. He
was apparently glad to see me, and especially to
learn that I had been attending the Tuskegee In-
stitute. After leaving the Horton family I went
to work in a grocery store, that of a Mrs. Machold,

277

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

from whom I received $4 a month for my services.
I only remained with her a short while.

The work I liked best of all, however, was that
with the shoe firm of Bearden and Brantley. I
had my Sundays, and was off from work at six
o'clock each week-day — a great change from my
former employment.

When I was twelve years of age I went to visit
an uncle who lived in Baldwin County, Ga. I had
gone to remain two weeks; as a matter of fact I
was with him three years. I worked on the farm
every day while with him, and went to school about
two months each year. In this short time I was
only able to review the lessons I had already had.
After returning to Macon, a number of young
men who had been to Tuskegee persuaded me to
consider going there to school. The most strenu-
ous opposition came from my own relatives.
After many conversations about the matter I had
finally to go against their will. They honestly felt
that such reading and writing as I could do was
quite enough education for me, or for any other
Negro boy.

I reached the school, after being properly ad-
mitted, on the 11th of September, 1893, and
registered as a student in the night-school, as I

278

THE STORY OF A BLACKSMITH

had no money, and could pay in cash for no part
of my expenses. I was assigned, after examina-
tion, to the A Preparatory class. I v> as assigned
work at the barns, fed cows, milked, and rendered
such other service as was required by the instructor.

Soon after reaching Tuskegee and after I had
begun " working out " my expenses, I learned that
the officers of the school were contemplating a new
scheme whereby all of the students in the night-
school would work one-half of each day, go to
school one-half of each day, and pay $4 a month
in cash into the school treasury. ]Mrs. Washing-
ton, the " guardian angel " of the student body
at Tuskegee called me and several other students
into conference and asked us to frankly state how
the new schedule would afF ect us, what we thought
of the plan, how much money we were able to
pay, etc. Out of the whole number only four
declared they were able to pay the $4 a month;
the larger number, like myself, were utterly un-
able to pay anything in cash, being dependent
absolutely upon our ability to cover our expenses
by work in some of the industrial divisions. It
was finally decided to forego this contemplated
arrangement, and I, and the majority of others
situated like myself, were made very happy. My

279

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

whole future hinged on this decision, as I should
have been compelled to leave school if it had been
put in operation. I remained at the school dur-
ing the summer of 1894, the school very kindly
arranging each summer to keep a large number
of students and providing work for them. It
was to me an advantage to remain. I had no
money for railroad fare, and I was sure of se-
curing a trade, wheelwrighting, at the beginning
of the next term. I had desired to go into the
blacksmith-shop, but it was so crowded that there
was no reasonable assurance that I should be able
to secure entrance thereto.

At the beginning of the fall term, 1894, I en-
tered the wheelwright-shop, at the same time, of
course, carrying my academic work; I had been
successively each year promoted to the next higher
class. I not only worked all of that school year
in the wheelwrighting-shop, but remained the sum-
mer of 1895.

Shortly after the new school year began, my
instructor, Mr. M. T. Driver, was selected to take
charge of the school's elaborate exhibit at the Cot-
ton States and International Exposition, Atlanta,
Ga., at the opening of which Principal Washing-
ton had spoken so effectively and powerfully for

280

THE STORY OF A BLACKSMITH

the Xegro people of the country. I had made
such substantial progress that Mr. J. H. Wash-
ington, then serving as director of mechanical in-
dustries, notified me that I had been selected to
manage the shop during ]Mr. Driver's six months'
absence.

I was not very much inclined to take the re-
sponsibility, but at Tuskegee polite notification of
selection to do a thing is a command. I accepted
the work and did my very best. There were about
twenty young men in the shop when I took charge,
some older, some younger than I, but most of
whom had been there longer than I had. I had
no serious complaints as to the quality of work
turned out by me during the instructor's absence.

I now had to my credit more than enough
money to carry me through the remaining two
years. The next year I entered the day-school. I
had become in most respects a new person. I had
gone to Tuskegee country-bred, raw, ignorant.
The school's transforming influence I was able to
note in my carriage, and, of course, in my conversa-
tion, in my care for neatness and order, and in the
ideals I was forming and trying to live up to.
During the summer I returned home for the first
time. I worked at my trade during the vacation

281

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

and earned enough money to buy clothing and
other necessaries. I did not return to school until
December 28, 1897, as I needed the money I was
earning at my trade. I had never earned in money
more than the small amounts referred to in the
first part of this paper, and so was delighted with
my earning capacity.

I then sought work in the blacksmithing-shop,
the shop I had first desired to enter, so that I might
become a first-class blacksmith in addition to hav-
ing a working knowledge of wheelwrighting. Af -
ter completing the school term I went to Mont-
gomery, Ala., and worked as a wheelwright and
blacksmith. This outside experience was most
helpful to me. JNIy last school year was that of
1899-1900. I was very happy to receive, along
with my academic diploma, a certificate also from
the blacksmithing division. I was now fitted to
begin my life in the great outside world.

]My first work was as instructor in blacksmith-
ing and wheelwrighting in the Hungerford In-
dustrial School at Eatonville, Fla. I then secured
work at my trades in Birmingham until August,
1901, when three of us who had been classmates
at Tuskegee decided to form a partnership and
conduct on a large scale a general blacksmithing

282

THE STORY OF A BLACKSMITH

and wheeh\Tighting business. I was deputed to
select the place where we should locate. After
interviewing a number of persons, Anniston, Ala.,
was suggested, and I decided to go there to per-
sonally investigate conditions. After getting
there and going about the town, I agreed that
at Anniston we should find a place that would
properly support our business. There w^as no
place vacant that we could rent, so after some
further consideration we decided to purchase a
place. This we were fortunate enough to do, and
came into possession of a building for our shop,
50 by 60 feet. We met all obligations after open-
ing the shop and secured the most flattering sup-
port. Our work met the most exacting require-
ments, and I was very much disinclined to accept
an offer which reached me from ]Mr. ?»J'athan B.
Young, who had had charge of the academic work
at Tuskegee during a part of my stay there. JNlr.
Young, however, represented that I could render
much more effective racial service by reaching a
large number of persons, young men, daily. After
much hesitation I went to the Florida State Nor-
mal and Industrial School, to which Mr. Young
had been called as President, as instructor in black-
smithing and wheelwrighting, where I have since

283

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

been employed. I have done well, and am proud
that I can say so.

Of my stay at Tuskegee, what shall I say? It
was all in all to me. The lessons in shop and
class-room, the lessons not at all catalogued that go
into character-forming — all of these I found most
helpful and invaluable, in making me a man who
" thinks and feels." I should be tempted to eulogy
should I try to tell how much I owe to Dr. Wash-
ington, to his teachers, and to all of the influences
that assist the student at Tuskegee.

284

XIV

A DRUGGIST'S STORY

By Datid L. Johnston

Shortly after the smoke had cleared away
from the battle-fields of the Civil War, I was
ushered into the world in a one-room log cabin in
Alabama, county of Macon, and near the little
town of Tuskegee, afterward made famous by
virtue of the fact that there was established near
it, by Booker T. Washington, July 4, 1881, the
Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute. That
I have the honor of being an alumnus of that
school is one of the best things of which I can
boast.

Because I have said that I was born in a one-
room log cabin, the reader will readily imagine that
my parentage was humble. My mother and father
both have gone to the Great Beyond. I bless and
revere their memory, for two more noble souls
never lived, hampered as they were by slavery and
its terrible environments.

My parents continued to live in the one-room
285

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

cabin until three other childi^en, making nine in
all, had come to them. Another room was added
about this time. The biting poverty of it all led
my father, with his family, to move to one of
the famous cotton plantations of Dallas County,
Ala. I seem to recall taking an interest in the
world about me quite early. Especially do I re-
call, as one of my earliest recollections, the death
of Garfield, so cruelly slain by the madman Gui-
teau. My father was greatly distressed, I remem-
ber, by his death.

For five successive years my life was spent
working each year on the farms for and with my
aged father and other members of the family,
and spending the time, when not so employed, in
near-by public schools, which at that time, as is
true in large part now, were conducted only about
three months in each year. After having acquired
a slight knowledge of mathematics, it was a great
pleasure to me to go up each fall to the market
at Selma, Ala., with my father, to dispose of the
products of the farm. On one occasion there was
an apparent interest manifested in me by one of
the commission merchants, a white man. He per-
suaded me to return to Selma, after I had accom-
panied my father home, and to accept a position

286

A DRUGGIST S STORY

with him as office-boy. I returned as agreed, to
find either that his promise was a stroke to induce
my father to trade with him, or that my stay at
home had been too extended — although it was only
for three or four days. The position, meanwhile,
he said, had been filled by another. Thus, I found
myself, a raw country lad, twenty-seven miles from
home, without employment and among strangers.
Next morning, without the knowledge of my par-
ents, I applied for admittance as a student to the
Knox Academy at Selma, and without recommen-
dations, which were immediately demanded of me.
I was turned away, but not discouraged, for the
next morning, accompanied by a white friend of
my father, I again applied and was admitted on
his recommendation. An examination entitled me
to begin with the fifth-grade class.

I also secured employment at this white man's
home. The money thus received paid for my
board. By doing odd jobs I managed to make
sufficient money to pay for lodging with a good
family. I was thus enabled to spend the fall of
1883 and the spring of 1884 in school, to my
very great benefit. I was compelled to return
home, however, before the term ended, because my
father's health completely failed him, to take

287

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

charge of the farm, as I was the senior male child
in the family at that time. My juvenile mind
had been awakened by this short school experience
in Selma, and from that time forth I had a thirst
for more knowledge.

I was absorbed by this longing, but I took up
the various other duties which fell to my lot, with
the earnest purpose of doing my very best. As
a result, with the aid of other members of the
family I succeeded in turning over to my invalid
father, the succeeding fall, eleven bales of cotton
and other farm products in like proportion. My
father's health having completely failed, and be-
cause of a constantly increasing desire for more
knowledge, I conceived the idea of returning to
our old home near Tuskegee again.

January, 1885, found us again living in close
proximity to the old log cabin in which I was
born. Not four years before the Tuskegee Nor-
mal and Industrial Institute had been established.
The height of my ambition was to be enrolled as
a student there, but not having sufficient money
to care for the family and remain in school at
the same time, and since the term for that year
was half spent, I sought employment for the re-
maining winter months, doing such odd jobs in

288

A DRUGGIST'S STORY

and around the little town as I could find to do.
When spring came, having a fair knowledge of
farming, I found ready employment with the
planters of that community. With an ambition
to enter school the coming fall, I then and there
began to study every possible method of economy,
and when summer had passed and school-time had
come again, with the aid of a younger brother I
had cared for the family, and had to my credit
my first sa^^ngs of $85.

Now began the most memorable and the most
pleasant days in my life. On the 15th day of Sep-
tember, 1885, I matriculated as a student at Tus-
kegee, and, after what was then considered a rigid
examination, succeeded in entering the Junior
class, the lowest class of the normal grade. There
was yet before me the task of caring for an aged
father and mother. That task I considered a
sacred duty, and, with my limited savings in hand,
made such purchases as would best give them or-
dinary comforts through the winter months, and
on the 22d day of the same month, after having
made such expenditures as I thought necessary, I
found that my little pile had been reduced from
$85 to $14.50, with which sum I paid my tuition
and board at the normal school.

289

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

I was permitted by the school authorities to
work on the school farm the entire term. On the
26th day of May, when the school closed, there yet
remained to my credit a sufficient amount to pur-
chase a ticket to Birmingham, and thence out to
Pratt City, a near-by suburb. At Pratt City I
learned to dig coal, and at the end of every month
they paid me in gold. These shining pieces were
precious possessions. For four successive sum-
mers, in order to get sufficient money to care for
my mother and f ather and make my way in school,
I went to Pratt City and worked in the mines,
at the furnaces, on the railroads, and around the
coke-ovens, enduring hardships which language
can hardly describe. But it all paid. The summer
of 1888 was a trying one, but when the time came
for me to leave for school I had saved $200.

On the 30th day of May, 1889, a new epoch
in my life began. I was ushered into the busy
world as a graduate of Tuskegee, being in a class
of twenty-two. I had looked forward to this event
with pride and was very happy.

So imbued was I with the pleasant thought
that I was a graduate of Tuskegee, that I little
thought of the great responsibilities that awaited
me, but when my more sober thought came I

290

A DRUGGIST'S STORY

realized that I was going from most pleasant sur-
roundings not to return the next year; that I
was going out not to return and meet indulgent
and persuasive teachers, loving classmates, and de-
voted friends. I then realized the full meaning of
the phrase we had selected that year as our class
motto, " Finished, yet just begun." Finished I
had at Tuskegee, but I had to begin work and life
in the great busy world, with confidence alone as
an asset. The Commencement exercises on this
particular occasion were most impressive to me,
made so in part, I suspect, because I was to
be the happy recipient of a coreted diploma. The
Commencement speaker was the late Joseph C.
Price,^ of North Carolina, and he was at his
best.

Knowing no other field more inviting, I re-
turned to Pratt City, where I had worked success-
fully. On the 6th of June, 1889, I ahghted from
the cars, and after spending a few days visiting
relatives and friends, applied at No. Four (4)
Slope for a set of checks to dig coal. The checks

^ Said to be one of the most eloquent speakers of the Negro people.
He died in the prime of life. He was President of Livingston College,
which is mainly supported by the African Methodist Episcopal Zion
Church, and has a large membership among the colored people.

20 291

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

were readily given me because of my previous
record as a miner. After working there during
the summer months, and with the same success
as had attended me previously, I had secured suf-
ficient money to straighten out my little financial
affairs and move my parents and a widowed sis-
ter with six small children from Tuskegee to Pratt
City, where I had decided permanently to live.

About this time Pratt City was made, by act
of the Alabama Legislature, a separate and inde-
pendent school district, and I had the honor of
being elected to the principalship of the Negro
school. There I had my first experience as a
teacher. I put my whole soul into the work. I
had before me the example of the Tuskegee
teachers, and the lessons so thoroughly taught
there. That I must serve my fellows earnestly and
unselfishly was never forgotten.

So pleased was the Board of Education with my
work that my salary was soon advanced to $110
per month. This salary was somewhat extraordi-
nary, but Pratt City, Birmingham, Ensley, etc.,
are in one of the richest mining sections in the
world, and the money earned by blacks and whites
is greatly in excess of that earned in other parts
of the State. I held this position for four years,

292

A DRUGGIST'S STORY

teaching eight and nine months in the year, and
spending the remaining three or four months of
the time working in the mines.

After a time my physical system had begun
so completely to run down, that I was reluctantly
compelled to resign the position of teacher. In the
meantime I had purchased a home at Pratt City.
Leaving my parents there, I went to Milldale,
Ala., to take up new work that offered a change
of climate. I returned every fifteen or thirty
days, however, to look after the needs of my par-
ents. The entire expense of caring for them, my
sister and her children, was quite $60 a month. My
work at INIilldale made good returns. I was with
the Standard Coal Company, and after I had been
there fifteen months I had to my credit $1,000,
an amount I had long striven to save.

During this time my mother was stricken with
fever, and after lingering three months (one of
which I spent at her bedside) she died. Our little
home was cast in deep sorrow. I returned to
Milldale and resumed work there. After two years
had expired I had to my credit, I am glad to
say, $1,460. With this sum in hand I concluded
I would take a course in pharmacy. On October
15, 1894, I entered the Meharry Medical College

293

TUSKEGEE AXD ITS PEOPLE

at Xaslmlle, Tenn., the dean of which is that
prince of gentlemen and father of Xegro phy-
sicians, Dr. George W. Hubbard. I completed
the course February 4, 1896, graduating at the
head of the class with a general average of 94 J
per cent.

I had pleasant associations while there with
many of my former Tuskegee class- and school-
mates, among them being Dr. A. H. Kenniebrew,
now of Jacksonville, 111., and for a while Resident
Physician of the Tuskegee Institute; Dr. T. X.
Harris, of Mobile, Ala., and Dr. A. T. Braxton, of
Columbia, Tenn. Each of these is succeeding at the
places named most satisfactorily as physicians. At
jSIeharry it was our constant pleasure to refer
to our training at Tuskegee, and to acknowledge
how indelibly the lessons learned there had been
stamped upon our minds and hearts. While there
I had the opportunity to compare the instruction
received at Tuskegee — that of the academic de-
X^artment — with that of the other institutions of
learning in this and even other countries. At
^Sleharr}^ one is thrown in dii^ect contact ^^^ith edu- |
cated men and women from the leading Xegro col-
leges of this country, and with many from English
institutions of note. After careful investigation I

294

A DRUGGIST'S STORY

found that the Tuskegee-trained student, at all
times, was among the very best there. At Tuske-
gee I still consider that one of the greatest lessons
taught is that of " learning to learn."

At the close of my first year at Meharry I re-
turned to Birmingham, and after a conference with
Drs. A. M. Brown and J. B. Kye, colored gradu-
ates in medicine and pharmacy, and Mr. George
F. Martin, we decided to open a drug-store to be
located in Birmingham. About May 7, 1895, the
doors of the People's Drug Company were opened
to the public, with the above-named gentlemen and
myself as the stockholders and owners. Here I
invested my first money of consequence in a busi-
ness enterprise, putting in the greater part of the
money to open the business, which invoiced $1,600
or more in about five months after the opening.
After affairs were in good running order I left,
and returned to Milldale to resume work with the
Standard Coal Company. During the spring and
summer of that year I realized about $500 from
my mining operations.

In the fall of 1895 I returned to Meharry to
complete the course already begun. During that
fall and winter the business was encouragingly
successful under the management of Dr. Kye,

295

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

aided by Drs. Brown and Mason; for about that
time Dr. U. G. Mason, another colored physician,
had bought ^Ir. ]Martin's interest in the company
and had become a partner in the concern. My
instmctions to the management were to turn over
to my father my share of the net proceeds of the
business while I was away. ^ly share of the profits
kept the family going. ]My stay at Meharry this
last term was most pleasant. I had been promoted
to the dignified position of assistant to Dr. W. ]M.
Savier, who was, and is, Dean of the Pharmaceuti-
cal Department of the institution.

Allien I had completed my course I returned to
Alabama to begin my work as a pharmacist, and
about April 1, 1896, successfully passed the re-
quired State examination and was admitted to the
practise of pharmacy. I took the examination in
Selma, the beautiful little city on the Alabama
River where, thirteen years before, I had had my
desire for knowledge and better opportunities
awakened. I sold my interest in the People's Dmg
Company at a sacrifice, and immediately opened
business on " my own hook " at 34 South Twenti-
eth Street, Birmingham, Ala. In order to begin
business with some assurance of success, I organized
another company, and had associated with me in

296

A DRUGGIST'S STORY

this new enterprise (the Union Drug Company)
Rev. T. W. Walker, Rev. J. Q. A. Wilhite, and
Mr. C. L. ^Montgomery — all responsible and en-
terprising citizens of Birmingham.

By hard and diligent work the business proved
a success, and from time to time I bought out
the interests of the persons named, and accepted
as a partner a well-kno^vn physician and surgeon.
Dr. George H. Wilkerson. Dr. Wilkerson's con-
nection with the business caused it rapidly to in-
crease in volume. When more help was required,
as soon it was, we secured the services of ]Mr.
Jimmie James, a young pharmacist who is with
me until now. After a period of pleasant business
association. Dr. Wilkerson's interests in ]\Iobile,
his former home, demanded his presence there. I
purchased liis interest in the Union Drug Com-
pany, and the name was changed to the Union
Drug Store. We had but recently located in our
own neat little quarters at Xo. 101 South Twen-
tieth Street, a one-story brick structure, at which
place I continued to do business, supported by Drs.
W. L. Council and J. B. Goin, who sent their pre=
scriptions to my store, until February 8, 190-1. In
January, 1904, I secured a lot at No. 601 South
Eighteenth Street, Birmingham, and personally

297

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

erected there a two-story frame building, which I
now occupy.

During my short business career since gradua-
tion from the medical school, I sought out a part-
ner for life, and was fortunate to win the hand
of Miss Pearl L. Straw^bridge, of Selma, Ala., who
had come to Birmingham to make her home with
her brother, Mr. H. Strawbridge, who now holds
the honored position of secretary and general
manager of one of the largest fraternal insurance
concerns in the country owned and controlled by
Negroes. Two children, a girl and a boy, have
been added to our family since the marriage.

Whatever I have done, or whatever I may do,
that will deserve favorable comment, I largely at-
tribute to the fact that I was a student at Tuske-
gee, and came under the personal care and instruc-
tion and guidance of its distinguished Founder
and Principal, Dr. Booker T. Washington, and
that I have striven, from the first day until now,
to put into practise the lessons taught me by him
and his excellent body of teachers. At Tuskegee
we were taught the truism, "If you can not find
a way, make one." I hope I am not immodest in
saying that I think I have, in some degree, done
this.

298

XV

THE STORY OF A SUPERVISOR OF
MECHANICAL INDUSTRIES

By James M. Canty

I WAS born December 23, 1863, in Marietta,
Cobb County, Ga. My parents, James and Adella
Canty, were slaves. I am the eldest of two broth-
ers and three sisters, who are all living. My father
died in the fall of 1895. Since that time, be-
cause of circumstances and inclinations, it has been
my lot to look after the welfare of my mother,
who is still living in Marietta, Ga., a place of
about four thousand inhabitants.

At an early age I entered the public school at
my home. My father, however, soon put me to
work, so that I grew up quite ignorant of books.
He was a carpenter and butcher, and fairly skilled
in working iron. For a number of years he kept
a meat-market. At the age of sixteen I was doing
the principal part of the butchering. Some years
later, when father was appointed street "boss"
of the town, I worked as one of the street laborers.
When he changed his occupation from street

299

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

"boss" to farmer, mine likewise changed. The
rule was, a change from one occupation to another,
working day by day without attention to mental
growth, and having no thought of the future, till
I was persuaded to join several other boys who
had decided to form themselves into a night-class
for purposes of self -improvement.

About this time, in compliance with my father's
desire, and to my delight, I entered a carriage
factory as an apprentice. It was while working
there that I received a newspaper from a girl stu-
dent at Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute.
The paper contained a long descriptive article, with
cuts of buildings, class-rooms, teachers, and stu-
dents. The student who had sent the paper was
from my home, and with it came a letter from her
stating that she had spoken to Mr. Washington
in my interest, and that if I would come to Tuske-
gee I would be given a chance to get an education.
I shall never forget the impression made upon my
mind by that newspaper article and the young
woman's letter.

JNIy father was consulted, and advised against
my going away to school, saying: " You can con-
tinue night-school here at home and at the same
time learn a trade. I never went to school a day

300

THE STORY OF A SUPERVISOR

in my life." Well, I knew that my father, never-
theless, could read and write a little and do some
figuring, and that he at one time came within a
few votes of being elected to the State Legislature
of Georgia. Contrary to his advice, I concluded
to go to Tuskegee. Looking back now, and con-
necting the present with the day on which my de-
cision was made, I think that time and events have
vindicated the wisdom of my decision.

After giving my employer two weeks' notice
of my intention to give up my work, I hastened
to arrange my affairs, fearing that procrastina-
tion might allow some event to change my mind
and thus alter the whole course of my life. Two
weeks after giving notice to my employer, I started
for Tuskegee. I bought a ticket to Atlanta, where
I spent the night. The next morning I went to
the station and asked for a ticket to Tuskegee.
The agent, on looking over his guide-books, said
to me: "There is no such place as Tuskegee in
the guide-books." I walked away from the win-
dow, thinking that, after all, Tuskegee was some
place that existed only on paper.

Not wishing to give it up, I turned and ap-
proached the agent again. He got out maps and
guides, and finally found Tuskegee, but said he

301

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

could not sell me a ticket to that place as it was
not on a railroad, and that the best thing for me
to do was to purchase a ticket to Chehaw, Ala. So
my ticket read, From Atlanta to Chehaw. On
turning to leave the ticket-agent, I inquired how
I could get to Tuskegee from Chehaw. He re-
plied that he did not know. But I got there, going
from Chehaw over a narrow-gauge road. The
engine that pulled the one coach composing the
train was named the " Klu-Klux," a thing I had
heard of but had not understood. That there
should be many new things to me in the world
was not to be wondered at, when it was known
that I had never before been out of the county in
which I was born except on three occasions, when
my trips extended only to adjoining counties.

It was in the month of March, 1886, while
passing through the town of Tuskegee, that I be-
held for the first time, standing at a distance, the
institution that has, in my opinion, done more than
any other one agency to elevate the Negroes of
the South. About eight o'clock p.m. I arrived on
the campus and was assigned to a room by the
commandant, through the officer of the day.^

^ The West Point system is followed in training the young men. Ex-
cept that there are no guns, a complete battalion organization exists.

302 .

THE STORY OF A SUPERVISOR

For about thirty minutes I was alone in the room,
the student body being at devotional exercises —
the Tuskegee Institute holding its daily devotions
at night, instead of in the morning like most
schools. This is done on account of the day- and
night-school system, it being impossible to get
all the students of the school together except at
night after the night-school session.

While sitting and thinking of home, of the
past, and of the future, I took out my pocketbook
and counted $7.50. Xot one cent more had I, and
as I looked at the money with the thought that
$7.50 represented the entire savings of my life up
to that time, gloom and despondency almost over-
came me.

The next morning I went to the Principal's
office. From there I went to be examined, and
then again to see the Principal. ^Ir. Washington
explained that board vras charged for at $8 per
month, and that my books would be sold to me
at cost. He informed me further that if I entered
night-school I would be able to work out my board
and accumulate each month a balance to be used
in paying my expenses when I entered day-school.
I was made to understand that this oiFer was on
condition that my work and conduct be in every

303

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

way satisfactory. As the amount of money I
had did not justify me in entering day-school,
I matriculated as a night-school student. The
blacksmith-shop being short of students, I was
assigned to this division of industry.

During the remaining part of the year, and the
following summer, I worked in the shop ten hours
each day, except Sundays, and devoted about two
hours and a half at night to study and recitations.
It is no easy task, during warm weather in Ala-
bama, for one to work ten hours a day and spend
two and a half hours at night studying in a room
lighted by several large lamps suspended from the
ceiling. Yet this is what hundreds of poor boys
and girls have done at Tuskegee. Hundreds still
attend the night-school, but electric lights have
taken the place of the large oil-lamps. Tuskegee
is now more modern than it was when I was a
student there. Barrels and boxes are no longer
used in the raw state for furniture, as was largely
the case at that time. Day-students were required
to work one school-day each week and every other
Saturday. I was a student nearly five years,
counting the time when I was a night-student.

After I entered day-school it was necessary
that I should work not only on my regular work-

304

THE STORY OF A SUPERVISOR

days and two Saturdays each month, but whenever
there was work to be done and I could find time
in which to do it. During my entire hfe at Tuske-
gee I wwked every Saturday except three.

I was not long at Tuskegee before an inde-
scribable force began to have its influence upon me.
Whatever this power may be called, it was both
refining and energizing. People who know the
school and have been there and know of its influ-
ence, call this force " the Tuskegee spirit." This
spmt, to the student possessing a spark of man-
hood, is irresistible. The change in a student at
Tuskegee is not sudden, nor is it wrought by any
one element. Things that may seem small w^hen
taken separately, are invaluable when considered
in the aggregate.

At Tuskegee one's attention is constantly
called to little things. It w^as a habit of mine, I
regret to say, to give little or no thought to
my hat being on my head when I was in any of
the boys' dormitories, or when passing through the
halls of the buildings containing the class-rooms.
My attention was finally called to this habit by one
of the lady teachers. Passing me one day in the
haU, she said; " Canty, you have a habit of wear-
ing your hat through the halls. It is a very bad

305

TUSKEGEE AXD ITS PEOPLE

habit." When I entered Tuskegee I had not
worn a night-shirt since I was a child. Here it
was soon impressed upon me that sleeping in a
night-shirt was a sign of cleanliness, of civilization.
If there is any place where cleanhness is regarded
and practised as one of God's first laws, that place
is Tuskegee.

One day Mr. Washington sent for me to come
to his office. I received the message with fear and
trembling. I had, before this time, had but one
opportunity to speak to ]Mr. Washington, and
then only for a few minutes upon the day follow-
ing my arrival. On my way to the office I won-
dered if any rule of the institution had been vio-
lated by me. Though I had been there only three
or four weeks, I knew a request for a student
to report at the Principal's office meant that
he was to be given notice of imminent punish-
ment, or consulted upon some matter of vital
interest.

When I entered the office, ]Mr. Washington
asked me to write to two or three worthy young
men at my home and inquire if they desired a
chance to work their way through school. Several
days had passed when I received an answer from
one of the young men to whom I v» rote. It so hap-

306

THE STORY OF A SUPERVISOR

pened that on the day the letter was received I
met JNIr. Washington on his way to his office, and
said, " 3Ir. Washington [drawing the letter from
my pocket], I have received a letter from — "
Here my first sentence was cut short by ISIr. Wash-
ington forcibly gesticulating and saying, " Come
to the office; come to the office and see me
there." That one lecture on business methods
impressed me in a way that a chapter of tills length
could not have done.

One day I closed a door with considerable
force, which attracted the attention of one of
the teachers. The teacher, in my presence, again
opened the door and gently closed it, noiselessly
and without a word. I have never since forgotten
the proper way in which to open and close doors.
Little details are big essentials in the rounding
out of character. They show the influence of
the " Tuskegee spirit." But, after all, this spirit
would not be so irresistible in its influence for good
if the teachers and officers of the institution were
not the embodiment and living example of it.
Here, as elsewhere and everywhere, example is
more potent than precept.

Every institution has policies pecuHarly its
own. It is necessary that every teacher and officer
21 307

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

support that policy to make it effective. Each
instructor has a distinct individuahty that becomes
a part of the student, in smaller or greater de-
gree, and at the same time gives force and
strength to the. policies of the institution. Though
I felt the influence of every one of the thirty-odd
teachers then at Tuskegee, the individuality of
some of these made a very great impression on
me. I remember JNIr. W. D. Wilson as a very quiet
and effective disciplinarian. Mr. Warren Logan,
the treasurer, has the ability to teach the student
the value of a dollar by making him sacrifice al-
most beyond the point of endurance. At the same
time, with a smile and a cheerful disposition, he
would make the student feel that his burden
was light. Through the kindness and special in-
terest manifested in me by Mr. M. T. Driver, who
was in charge of wheelwrighting and blacksmith-
ing, I made rapid progress at my trade. Miss
Adella H. Hunt, who has since become the wife
of Treasurer Logan, was then a teacher who had
the faculty of touching a responsive chord in a
student. INIrs. Booker T. Washington, then Miss
JNIargaret J. ilurray, impressed me very much.
Strong and resourceful in dealing with students,
she always won the best that v/as in them. My

808

THE STORY OF A SUPERVISOR

student-days were almost at an end when she came
to Tuskegee.

I shall ever feel grateful to Mr. J. H. Wash-
ington for the encouragement he gave me. Being
superintendent of industries, he was then, as he
is now, in constant touch with every male student.
He is a believer in, and a firm advocate of, steady,
thorough, earnest work, and is quick to see, ap-
preciate, and encourage the smallest degree of abil-
ity shown by any student. Xo time seemed too
valuable for him to give in trying to advance a
student in his work. I might add here that the
teachers here named are, with two exceptions,
among the pioneers in the building of the school.

Mr. Booker T. Washington's personality is the
great thing at Tuskegee, and every student who
goes there feels the strength of the man's rugged
individuality. "Mr. B. T." is an affectionate
term used by the students, but it springs from an
indescribable, spontaneous feeling of love and
veneration. His Sunday evening talks to the stu-
dents are to me like the Book of Proverbs, always
timely, encouraging, and applicable to the affairs
of every-day life. It is from these family talks
that the students learn, as they never have be-
fore, the beauty that lies in real, every-day Christi-

309

TUSKEGEE AXD ITS PEOPLE

anity, and in Imng a real and simple life. It is
from these talks that the students learn so much
of the great heart and center of the institution.
!Mr. Washington still delivers Sunday evening
talks when at school, and they are published in
the school's weekly paper, The Tuskegee Student.
Graduates tlu^oughout the country eagerly read
these talks ^dth the same interest and pleasure
with which they listened to them while in school.

^Ir. Washington taught then, as he teaches
now, psychology to the Senior class. The student
has not become intimately acquainted ^sith ^Ir.
Wasliington until he becomes a Senior. It is here
that the members of the Senior class talk of their
past and future lives and receive the outpourings
of a great but smiple soul. ]Mr. Washington's
long and frequent absences from the school are no
less regretted by the teachers than by the students.

Soon after entering school I began to think of
what I should do after graduating. ]My inclina-
tion led me to feel that success would be found
along mercantile hues. In spite of this I applied
myself zealously to my trade. During my last two
years in school I did what teaching in blacksmith-
ing my literary work permitted, the school being
without an instructor in this industry for a short

310

THE STORY OF A SUPERVISOR

while. There was then no course in engineer-
ing or in machinery, so I did all the pipe-work
and kept the machinery of the school in repair.
In this way I learned something of machinery
without an instructor. With some pride I recall
the fact that I "ironed" the first farm- wagons,
the first two-seated spring-wagon, and the first
buggy made at Tuskegee. I also " piped " the
school's first bathroom for girls.

In ^lay of my Senior year I was very much
surprised to receive a note from Principal Booker
T. Washington intimating that he desired me to
connect myself with the school the following year.
Later he stated the nature of the work he wanted
me to do. I accepted the offer he made me. I
was asked to teach in the night-school and instruct
in the blacksmith-shop one-half of each week-day.

A few days after graduation I visited my
home with the intention of spending the summer
there. I was there about three weeks, when I re-
ceived a letter from ]\Ir. John H. Washington
requesting my return to Tuskegee the next week,
if I could so arrange. He at that time was both
superintendent of industries and commandant.
On my return he informed me that the Principal
had decided that since his duties as superintendent

311

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

of industries were so important, he was to be re-
lieved of all others, and that in lieu of instructing
in the blacksmith-shop, I was to be offered the
work as commandant.

At once I set about getting the boys' rooms in
order for the opening of school. During the two
previous years, even while a student, I had vir-
tually been acting as commandant, since no one
man could carry double responsibilities such as
Mr. J. H. Washington had been carrying. I was
appointed commandant, and placed in charge of
the night-school for a year. I then resigned, look-
ing forward to following my old-time inclination
of engaging in some mercantile business. I knew
that I could accumulate means for this purpose
sooner by working at my trade, as I received two
dollars per day working as a blacksmith during
vacation seasons at Birmingham, Ala.

My first marriage occurred in 1891, my wife
being JNIiss Sarah J. Harris. We were classmates
at Tuskegee four years, and graduated together.
She died in 1894 at Institute, W. Va. Our long
association and acquaintance made us understand
each other even before we were married. Having
become a Christian before myself, she had much to
do with my conversion while I was a student. She

312

THE STORY OF A SUPERVISOR

was a great help to me in many ways, and through
her economy I was able to begin the purchase
of my first property. Portia, the oldest and only
child now living of the three children born to us,
is in the Little Girls' Home at Knoxville Col-
lege, Tenn. In 1897 I was married to Miss Flor-
ence Lovett, a graduate of Storer College, Har-
pers Ferry, W. Va. She shares my burdens, and
is in every way a part of whatever success I am
able to achieve. Four children have been born
to us.

After resigning my position as commandant
and head of the night-school at Tuskegee, I spent
a few weeks visiting relatives, and then returned
to Marietta. Here I worked at my trade in a
carriage-shop, where a great deal of machine-work
was done for two furniture factories and a pla-
ning-mill. Much of my time was spent in repair-
ing machinery and making bits and knives for
the factories.

While at home I tried to make myself a part
of the people in a helpful way. I lived with my
parents about two miles from the town. On my
father's farm was a church, the ground for which
had been given by my father. I was elected su-
perintendent of the Sunday-school of this church,

813

TUSKEGEE AXD ITS PEOPLE

and filled this position as long as I remained there.
Soon after the Sunday-school was started it oc-
curred to me that the young people of the com-
munity could be greatly helped by a literary so-
ciety. With the aid of others I organized a society
and was elected its president. We met every Fri-
day night at the house of some member. It was
the custom to meet at different places, so that the
long distances necessary to walk vrould be equally
shared by aU. Even by this arrangement some
had to walk thi^ee and four miles, but the pleasure
and benefit derived from attending the society re-
paid us for the trouble.

After I had been at my home about a year, I
received a letter from ]Mr. Booker T. Washington
requestmg that I ^\Tite to ]SIr. J. Edwin Camp-
bell, Principal of the West Virginia Colored In-
stitute, then located near Farm, W. Va. En-
closed with Jlr. Washington's letter was one jSIr.
Campbell had written, asking that a Tuskegee
graduate be named to take the position of Super-
intendent of Jlechanics. This title has since been
changed to Superintendent of ]Mechanical Indus-
tries. On January 3, 1893, I arrived at the West
Virginia Colored Institute and entered upon my
duties, and have held the position ever since.

314

THE STORY OF A SUPERVISOR

In the early summer of 1898 Mr. J. H. Hill,
who was then principal, resigned to accept a Lieu-
tenancy in a company of United States Volunteers.
During the interim following the resignation of
]Mr. Hill and the appointment of ]Mr. J. INIcHenry
Jones, the present principal, I was placed in
charge of the school by the Board of Regents.
Islr. Jones was elected principal September 21,
1898.

Until the fall of 1898 my duties were many
and varied, as I had no assistance in carrying on
the industrial work of the school. I taught black-
smithing, carpentering, and mechanical drawing.
Besides this, I have had to put the sewerage system
into the institution, and the heating apparatus into
several of the school buildings. Still, a part of my
time in 1894 was devoted to teaching in the liter-
ary department. INIy w^ork now, while as exacting
as ever, is more along the line of superintend-
ing the mechanical industries and in teaching me-
chanical drawing.

The school has grown, since my coming here,
from 3 teachers and 30 students to a faculty of 18
teachers and 18T students. There are 6 instructors
in the mechanical department for boys. We give
instruction in carpentry, printing, blacksmithing,

315

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

brick masonry, plastering, wheelwrighting, and
mechanical drawing. These industries are housed
in a building— the " A. B. White Trades Build-
ing"—that cost $35,000.

In concluding this sketch, I repeat with empha-
sis what I said in the beginning : Whatever my ac-
complishments may be, the credit is due to Tuske-
gee. I do not wish in life to be regarded as a
man of chance possibilities, but rather as one who
has consistently persevered in all of his struggles.
Tuskegee teaches nothing with greater force than
that success lies in that direction. Principal Wash-
ington, among other things, has taught that it is
necessary to get property and have a bank-account.
I have complied with that teaching. I own a farm
of 100 acres within one-eighth of a mile of the
school. My first property, which I still own, con-
sists of a one-acre lot and a seven-room house.
It gives me pleasure to contribute annually $10
to Tuskegee, although this but inadequately ex-
presses my gratitude to the institution to which
I owe so much.

316

XVI

A NEGRO COMMUNITY BUILDER
By Russell C. Calhoun

I HAVE been asked to here set forth incidents
of my hfe as I remember them, especially as they
relate to my life at Tuskegee and my work since
leaving there. Though there have been quite a
number of events in my life, it is somewhat diffi-
cult for me to give them in the way they are now
desired, as it never occurred to me that they would
be worth repeating.

Concerning my ancestry, it is impossible for me
to give anything beyond my maternal grandfather,
who was about three-fourths Indian. My recol-
lections of him go back to the time when I was
about six or seven years of age. ISly mother, hav-
ing more children than she could really care for,
decided to allow one of my brothers, who was per-
haps a year and a half younger than I, and myself,
\o live with him and his second wife.

My grandfather was quite seventy-five years
of age when we went to live with him, and was too

317

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

feeble to work. He was supported from the poor-
house, which gave him a peck of meal, 2 J pounds
of bacon, 1 pound of coffee, 1 pound of brown
sugar, and once a month 25 cents' worth of flour.
That, together with the little his wife could earn
from place to place, constituted the " rations " of
all of us for a week.

Of my birth no record was kept, my mother
having been a slave. All I have been able to learn
of the date of my birth is what my mother remem-
bers connected with the close of slavery. In trying
to ascertain from her when I was born, she said,
" You was born some time just after Christmas, in
the month of January, the third year after the sur-
render."

My mother had twelve children. I was the
eighth child and the second one born after slavery.
All except two of the children were born in the
same one-room log cabin with a dirt floor, in the
town of Paulding, Jasper County, INIiss. My
mother did the cooking for her master's family and
the plantation help, did all of the milking, and
was also washer-woman.

In the summer of 1896 I again visited Pauld-
ing, just after graduating from Tuskegee. I
had to go there to move my aged mother to more

318

A NEGRO COMMUNITY BUILDER

comfortable quarters. She was quite ill, and died
soon after I reached Florida with her. When I
went to Paulding I measured the house in which
I was born, and found it to be 9 feet wide, 17
feet long, 7 feet high, with no windows, with but
one door, and a dirt chimney. The furnishing
as I remember it was composed of a chair, a stool,
a table, and my mother's bed, which was con-
structed in one corner of the house. The bed was
made by putting a post in the ground and nail-
ing two pieces of wood to the wall from this post,
then by putting in a floor, making something like
a box to hold the bedding. The children slept
in a similarly constructed place, except that the
mattress was on the ground and was filled with
straw. Our bedding, for the most part, was what
wearing apparel we possessed thrown over us at
night. Outside the house was a long bench, which
was kept for the accommodation of visitors.

A peculiar incident in our home life happened
one Sunday morning in March — one Easter Sun-
day. All of the smaller children were seated on
the floor eating their breakfasts from pans and
skillets, when a big black snake, without any re-
gard for the children, went into a hole by the fire-
place. When one of my older brothers undertook

319

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

to find him and opened this hole, he found, instead
of one, four black snakes that had been wintering
in the side of the house.

There was no church or school for us in that
whole section. A w^hite man, a Doctor Cotton, to
whom I was afterward given until I should be-
come twenty-one years of age, sent his boys to
a school which required that they walk eight miles
to it and return each day.

When I was perhaps eight years of age I re-
member that my mother and all of the children
went to Spring Hill to a camp -meeting ; that was
the first service at which I had heard a minister.
They had a Sunday-school, and I was put into a
class. The teacher gave us leaflets and asked us
to read where we found the big letter "A." This
was the first and only letter that I knew for many
years. This camp-meeting was held once a year,
though at times there would be prayer-meetings
among the different families on the plantation.

My mother, being a hard-working woman and
knowing the value of keeping children busy, com-
pelled every one of us to work in some way around
the house or on the farm. I know of no lesson
which she taught me and which has been of more
value to me than that of " doing with your might

320

A NEGRO COMMUNITY BUILDER

what your hands find to do." It was a rule of
her household that we should not go to bed with-
out having water in the house. The water had
to be brought from a spring a mile and a half
away. I remember clearly how one night one of
my brothers and myself tried to deceive her; how
we secured some not overclear water from a hole
near-by our home, and how she pitched it out and
sent us the whole distance to the spring. Al-
though this was many years ago, I now see, more
and more, what it means to go all the way to the
real spring, and I thank her memory for the lesson.

When I was about ten years of age the same
Doctor Cotton of whom I have spoken came to
my grandmother's to hire one of the boys to mind
the bars, as the teams were hauling corn to the barn
and the drivers did not want to put them up each
time. I was delighted to be the chosen one of the
two. My first chance to earn money was thus
offered.

I stayed there every day from sunrise to sun-
set for a little more than three weeks, and it was a
happy day when Doctor Cotton requested all hands
to come up and be paid off. I do not know what
the rest received; though I had boarded from the
scanty fare before mentioned at my grandmother's

321

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

home, he gave me fifteen cents, paying me in three
nickels. I had never had any money in my hands
before, and for fear I might lose it I put it in
my pocket and held the pocket with both hands,
and ran for more than two miles, carrying it home.
One nickel of the three was given me for my share.

Seemingly this Doctor Cotton was very much
impressed with the way I had performed my duty
at the bars, for in the next few weeks he again
visited my grandmother. I was quite anxious to
know what his frequent visits meant, and was very
much delighted, as well as surprised, when it was
told me, one morning when it was very cold, and
I had on only two pieces of clothing made of some
very coarse material resembling canvas, that I
was to live with Doctor Cotton until reaching man-
hood, and was to eat at his house. He told me
in my grandmother's presence that if I would
stay with him until I was twenty-one years of age
I would receive a horse, a bridle and saddle, a
suit of clothes, and $10, in addition to my " keep.''
This was such an apparently big offer that my
grandmother's and my heart leaped for joy.

When I had lived with him for a few days
I had given me the first pair of shoes, of the
copper-toe variety, I ever wore.

322

A NEGRO COMMUNITY BUILDER

I have never forgotten my first day's stay at
this new home. My whole object that first day
was to eat everything in sight. At my own home
I slept on the dirt floor; at this new home I slept
in the attic, my bed being a pile of cotton-seed with
a quilt for covering. My duty at this new home
was to attend to the horses, to bring the cows from
the pasture, sweep the yard, wait on the table,
nurse two children, etc. I stayed at this place for
two and one-half years, and as my knowledge
of things increased my duties became more and
more exacting.

During this whole time, and for two years be-
fore, I had not seen or heard from my mother. I
was twenty miles from any railroad, and had never
seen or heard of a railroad train. We lived on
the public road between Paulding and Enterprise,
and by some means I heard that my mother had
gone to the " railroad." Though I had never been
away on my own resources, I resolved to do bet-
ter than I was doing. I remember very well that
it was Monday morning when one of the doc-
tor's daughters said to me, " Russell, you go down
to 'Vina's house, tell her to come and scour for
me; come by the store and get a package of soda;
then come through the field and drive the turkeys
23 323

L

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

home." Providence never favored any one more
than it did me on that day. I went by the store
and told them to do up the soda, I went by and
told 'Vina that she was wanted, but I did not drive
the turkeys home.

I started out in search of my mother, and after
walking more than half the distance I overtook
an ox-team, and the driver allowed me to ride a
part of the way. I reached the railroad town
about night, and standing there was a freight train
of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad.

I was never so frightened in all my life as
when the whistle blew and this object moved away.
I remember asking the driver of the ox-team
where the thing's eyes were, and where the horses
were that pulled it.

The doctor, suspecting that I had gone to
Enterprise in search of my mother, made plans
to capture me and have me returned, but all of
this failed. By good fortune I found my brother,
who was married and living in this town; here
again I became a nurse, having to care for his two
children.

Afterward I went to live with a white family
which was very kind to me. The young man who
carried me to his house as a nurse put into my

324

A XEGRO COMMUNITY BUILDER

hands, after I had been there some months, the
first spelHng-book I had ever had; saying to me
that if I would stay with them for two years,
he would at the end of that time send me to
school. I stayed at this place for some months,
when my mother came from somewhere, I know not
where, and with five of the boys we joined ourselves
together to work on a plantation on " halves."
We worked very hard that year.

Our food was furnished by the owner of the
plantation. On many of those long, cold days, for
all day, we had only a " pone " of corn bread. At
the close of the year, after the owner had taken his
half, and on account of bad management on the part
of an older brother who had charge of affairs, my
mother and her younger children received nothing
for the year's work, and this, notwithstanding the
fact that we made five and one-half bales of cotton
and a large quantity of corn and peas. I received
as my " salary " for the year's work one shirt worth
thirty cents and a pair of suspenders worth about
fifteen cents. I resolved to run away again. This
trip was made at night, on foot, over newly laid
railroad-ties, for a distance of seventeen miles.

I reached Meridian, Miss., at a late hour of
the night, and took refuge in a shed used for the

325

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

storing of railroad iron. The next morning I
overheard two colored men, who were on their
way to get meat ready for the town-market two
miles away, talking. I joined these men, and
sought employment along with them, but they
soon learned that I knew nothing of " butchering."
However, the owner of the pen, w^ho had a large
garden, gave me a trial, and I remained with him
for three years.

After I was there a little more than a year
my work was to plant and care for the small seeds.
This man, Mr. Nady Sims, was a good man, and
I had no cause for leaving him except that of wish-
ing to get a place to earn more money, that I might
help care for my mother and her smaller children.

I went next to a brick-yard, where I received
fifty cents per day. There were three boys at each
" table," and we had to " off-bear " 5,500 bricks,
the task for each day. This was indeed hard work.

Drifting into hotel work, I soon acquired the
habit of most of those who are engaged in such
work: I spent all I earned for fine clothes.

During my stay on the vegetable farm I
boarded at the home of one of the young men
previously referred to, whose sister, INIary Clinton,
who has since become my wife and devoted as-

326

A NEGRO COMMUNITY BUILDER

sistant, one day heard a woman say she knew of
a school in Alabama where boys and girls could
work for their education, and that she was going
to send her boy to that school. This thought re-
mained in her mind for some months, and she
decided to go to Tuskegee, though her brothers
and sisters discouraged the idea, feeling, as they
said, that if she went to this unknown place her
whole life would be a failure.

She reached Tuskegee in September, 1885, at
a time when there was but one building. She
worked in many places while there, including the
laundry, the teachers' dining-room, the sewing
division, with Principal Washington's family, as
well as with the families of other teachers. On
account of poor health, especially because of throat
trouble, she was compelled to return home at the
end of five years without graduating.

No sooner had she reached home again than
she began a crusade for Tuskegee. I was then
twenty-one years of age, had never had a day's
schooling, and could read but very little. I pro-
posed marriage to Miss Clinton as soon as she re-
turned, but she replied: "You do not know any-
thing except about hotel work. I have been to
Tuskegee and see the need of your knowing some-

327

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

thing. I also need to know more than I do. I can
easily marry some one who knows more than you
do, but if you will go to school I will assist you in
any way that I can." This proposition I accepted,
and on September 2, 1890, I reached Tuskegee and
began my first day in school.

I had some knowledge of carpentry, and was
for that reason assigned to the carpenter-shop
for work during the day; I attended school at
night.

There were ninety-three young men and women
in the class when I entered school; of that number
only two, in addition to myself, remained through
the entire course. I can never forget my examina-
tion by Miss Maggie J. Murray, now Mrs. Booker
T. Washington. There were quite three hundred
new students in the chapel of Porter Hall, one of
the oldest buildings of the institution, taking ex-
aminations at the same time.

She gave me two slips of paper, a pencil, and
the questions, and said to me: "Write the an-
swers to these questions." She went about other
duties, and after about three hours returned to
me for my papers; then for the first time in
my life I learned the meaning of geography and
arithmetic. The slips of paper mentioned asked

328

A NEGRO COMMUNITY BUILDER

questions on those subjects. I had not put any-
thing on the paper. She asked me if I knew of
any large cities; if I had ever crossed a river or
seen a hill ; if I knew the name of the railroad over
which I had come to reach Tuskegee.

I was able to answer each of these questions
very readily; and she said, " Callioun, that is ge-
ography."

She assigned me to one of the lowest classes in
the night-school. I bought books which cost $1.70,
and had fifty-two cents left. I soon spent the
fifty cents.

For seven months during my first j^ear's stay
my only possession was represented by a two-cent
stamp. I had had many " good friends " before
going to Tuskegee, and debated long as to which
of them I should devote the two-cent stamp, trust-
ing to receive some financial aid. Finally I de-
cided on one of these " good friends." I used the
stamp, and have not heard from him from that
day to this.

While carpentry was my special trade, I found
the opportunity to get information as to the other
industries on the grounds. AH of this supplemental
study has proved most helpful to me in my present
work.

329

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

Most persons who enter school for the first
time, and especially industrial schools, get wrong
impressions at the start. Notwithstanding the
fact that I was a young man who had "knocked
about " the world quite a little, I thought I had
made a mistake in entering school, and did not
begin to see that I had done properly until I had
been there for eight or nine months. I asked for
an excuse to leave school early in the first term;
it was denied me. I tried to sell my trunk for
$7, so that I might run away. I had a penchant
for running away from disagreeable surroundings.
I was offered $6, but for the sake of the diff*erence
of $1 I decided to remain.

I do not hesitate to say that each day I live in
my heart I most heartily thank the good friends
who have made it possible for Tuskegee to be;
I am also most grateful that I was able to reach
it and receive the training which I received there.
I did nothing great while at Tuskegee, but I re-
member with pride that I gave no trouble in any
way during my sojourn.

I used my spare hours making picture-frames,
repairing window-shades, making flower-stands
and flower-boxes, and working flower-gardens for
the various Faculty families. The money received

330

A NEGRO COMMUNITY BUILDER

I saved until the end of the school term. At the
end of each term there were always a large num-
ber of students who cared nothing for their books,
and all but gave them away. Looking three
months ahead, I bought these books and sold them
to new students who entered the following year.

One year alone I cleared $40 in this way. The
second-hand book business among the students be-
gan from this effort on my part to add to my
little pile of cash money.

Having completed the course with a class
of thirty-one members, May 26, 1896, I started
straight for my home, Meridian, Miss.

For six years, as a student, I had been at Tus-
kegee and under its influences; now I had only
my conscience to dictate to me and to keep me
straight. Feeling that I could not do much good
at Meridian, I started for Texas, having had a
position promised me.

I reached Mobile, Ala., while en route, and
heard that Miss Mary Clinton, previously men-
tioned, was in Tampa, Fla. Feeling that she
still had some interest in me, I again decided to
go to her for advice.

I reached the city of Tampa with but a small
sum in my pocket. The town was undergoing a

331

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

" boom," and I was certain that it would not be
long before I would be earning something, but,
to my disappointment, I found about thirty men
looking for every job in sight. After much weary-
ing search I became thoroughly convinced that
Tampa was too large a city not to give me some-
thing to do besides " looking up into the air."
Finally, one rainy morning I secured work at a
freight-house.

It was my lot to go first up the wet, steep,
and slippery gang-plank. Not being used to such
a task, I fell, the truck with 350 pounds narrowly
escaping me. I got up and made a second at-
tempt to carry my load, and with success. I had
been there two months when the agent wanted some
new shelves built in the storehouse. He told one
of his employees to go for a carpenter. He re-
plied, " This man Calhoun can do any such work
you want done." The agent had me get my tools
and do the work. A few days afterward he wanted
a first-class cook to prepare and serve a special
Christmas dinner. The same employee told him,
" Calhoun can do it."

The motto of my class was, " We Conquer by
Labor."

On April 29, 1897, both Miss Clinton and
332

A NEGRO COMMUNITY BUILDER

myself were called to a school in South Carolina,
and in a simple way, with $50 saved, we married
and boarded the train for our new field of labor.
After giving up our work and reaching Sanford,
125 miles away, we received a letter asking us to
defer our coming until the following October.

This was a very, very sad disappointment and
trial to us. It was two weeks before the State
examinations would be held. We prepared as best
We could, and as a result of the examination we
were sent to Eatonville, Fla., to take charge of
the public school there. Eatonville is a Negro
town with colored officers, a colored postmaster,
and colored merchants. There is not a single
white person living within the incorporated city;
it promises to be a unique community. It is situ-
ated near the center of Orange county, six miles
from Orlando, the county seat, and is two miles
from the Seaboard Air-Line Railroad, and one
and one-half miles from the Atlantic Coast Line
Railroad.

It was said by the late Bishop H. B. Whipple,
of Wisconsin — whose winter home for a number
of years was a half mile from this place — who
had helped the people of this community, and who
was a constant helper and adviser to my wife and

333

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

me in our work until his death, that you might
travel the whole State over and not find a more
healthy place. We were here but a few days when
we decided that this was the place for us to begin
putting into practise the lessons taught us at Tus-
kegee. We felt that we wanted to do something
toward helping our people. We decided to cast our
lot permanently at Eatonville.

Our first " industrial " service was done with
the aid of the school children; we cleaned the
street of tin cans and other rubbish.

We found the lessons in economy which we
had received at Tuskegee very valuable to us at
this trying time. We felt that if we would prop-
erly impress the lessons most needed we should
own a home, a cow, some chickens, a horse, and
a garden; we felt that there should be tangible
o\\Tiership on the part of the people of some of
these things, at any rate.

These things we started to get as soon as pos-
sible. We wanted to teach the people by example.

After talking in a general way for some days
of the value of industrial education, coupled with
that of intelhgent class-room instmction, ]Mrs. Cal-
houn succeeded in getting four girls to come to her
home for sewing lessons. That was the first step.

33^

A NEGRO COMMUNITY BUILDER

Incidentally, we heard of the philanthropic in-
stincts of a gentleman, Mr. E. C. Hungerford,
living at Chester, Conn., who had conditionally of-
fered to another school twenty acres of land, and
whose offer was not met. I wrote to him asking
if he would give us the land. He replied that he
would be glad to give us forty acres if we would
use it for school purposes.

On February 24, 1899, having the deed in hand,
a board of trustees was selected, and, with the aid
of nine men who cleared one and one-half acres of
land while their wives furnished the dinner, we
started what is now the Robert C. Hungerford
Industrial School. The new school now owns 280
acres of land secured as follows: From Mr. and
Mrs. E. C. Hungerford, 160 acres; from Mr. and
Mrs. T. W. Cleavland, 40 acres; from Mrs. Nancy
B. Hungerford, 40 acres; by purchase, an addi-
tional 40 acres.

The school has two dormitories, Booker T.
Washington Hall, the J. W. Alfred Cluett Me-
morial Hall, and six other buildings used for shops,
barn, and dining-room. The total value of the
property, clear of all indebtedness, is $22,445. We
teach the boys blacksmithing, wheelwrighting, car-
pentry, agriculture, stock-raising, poultry-raising,

335

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

and truck-gardening; the girls receive instruction
in dressmaking, plain sewing, cooking, launder-
ing, millinery, basketry, and housekeeping. We
give no industry at the expense of the literary
work.

The academic department covers a useful
course of the English branches. The moral, re-
ligious, industrial, and financial influence of the
school upon the community, as well as upon the
students who have attended, who come from many
counties in the State, has grown steadily as the
years have come and gone. The school has at
present forty-five young people in the boarding de-
partment, including seven teachers, three of whom
have come from Tuskegee; a large enrolment of
students from the immediate community and from
the surromiding territory.

I have not said very much regarding the diffi-
culties, the struggles, to plant this work, but I
am glad to say that from the beginning we have
had the friendliest support and advice from all
the white people of this section, officials and citi-
zens alike.

I owe much of my success in the work here to
the cheerful and freely given counsel at all times
of Hon. W. L. Palmer, Representative in the

336

A NEGRO COMMUNITY BUILDER

State Legislature, and to the members of the
Board of PubHe Instruction of this (Orange)
county.

The colored people have had little to give in
cash, but have been most liberal in their contribu-
tions of labor. They have been willing to help
themselves.

My constant, my most earnest desire is to prove
myself worthy of my opportunities, that I may con-
tinue to be a worthy representative of Tuskegee.
I feel that I owe all that I am, all that I can
hope to be, to the training of my mother, to the
constant help and counsel of my wife, and to
Tuskegee, my Tuskegee, from which I have re-
ceived so many lessons that have been of incal-
culable help to me. I look back to my lessons in
carpentry, as well as to all the others, with grati-
tude for the thoroughness insisted upon in all di-
rections. I was rescued from a life of aimlessness,
and put in the way of doing something of good
for my fellows.

337

XVII

THE EVOLUTION OF A SHOE-
MAKER

By Charles L. Marshall

I WAS born in the town of Henderson, State
of Kentucky, January 1, 1867. My father and
mother were both slaves. My f ather rendered serv-
ice during the Civil War as a Union soldier.

As early as I can remember there was in Hen-
derson a public free school for colored children.
In 1872 there came to our town a young man
from Louisville, Ky., John K. Mason by name,
to take charge of the school. How he secured his
education I never learned, but that he devoted his
life to the uplift of his race is everywhere in that
section clearly in evidence. Unfortunately, I was
not permitted as a boy to go to school, but became
a factory lad instead; for, almost before I was
old enough to begin my education, I was put to
work in a tobacco factory, and there I remained.
From childhood to manhood I think I spent, all
told, not more than three years in school.

338

EVOLUTION OF A SHOEMAKER

Somehow I had a faint idea of the value of
education, and manifested a desire for learning
by securing the services of a young man, whose
country-school term had expired, to give me les-
sons at night when not otherwise engaged. He
was quite a " society " man, so that my school-
nights were few in number.

While my father did not provide for my edu-
cation, he was himself an industrious man and
provided that I should not be idle. Each year,
when the tobacco season was over, I had regular
employment in a cooper-shop with my father, and
I learned to make barrels and hogsheads. This
trade I found to be quite valuable, for before I
was twenty-one years of age I was able to demand
wages of two dollars a day as a cooper.

Quite incidentally I heard of the work being
done at Tuskegee by Principal Booker T. Wash-
ington and the opportunity offered there to get
an education. I at once applied for admission.
I received a letter from the Principal admitting
me to school in the autumn of 1889, when I was
twenty-two years of age. I did not enter the
school, however, until 1890. I registered as a
night-school student and asked to be assigned to
the carpenter-shop, as that seemed more in line
23 339

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

with coopering. This division was so crowded that
I was forced to take shoemaking instead. At
this trade I worked two years and attended night-
school. At the end of this period I resolved to
go to North Alabama and work in the coal-mines
to get money for clothing, books, and to help
me along with my expenses when the money earned
at Tuskegee should run out. Realizing that every
dollar in my school life would count, I decided
to live most cheaply, even cooking for myself.
In the end, following this method, I had more
money with which to return to school. I worked
all day and returned to work again the same night,
that I might not lose the prize of education, the
pursuit of which I kept daily before me.

Somewhere I heard this quotation, " If any-
body else can, I can, too." With this sentiment I
continued to push ahead, until in May, 1895, I
completed the course of study with the first honor
of my class.

During my stay at Tuskegee I made such a
record in the shoemaking-shop that my instructor
was anxious to have me take an assistant's place
with him. This I refused, preferring to start a
career in Texas, of which I had heard such glowing
accounts. In the months of June, July, and a

340

EVOLUTION OF A SHOEMAKER

part of August, 1895, I was employed with others
making the shoes which constituted a part of Tus-
kegee's Industrial Exhibit at the Atlanta Expo-
sition. At the solicitation of a number of persons
living at Mineola, Tex., I decided, even before
graduation, to begin my life-work at that place.
Reaching Mineola, I found a fight on hand be-
tween the teacher of the colored school and the pa-
trons of the school. Immediately on learning this
fact I withdrew from the contest, notwithstanding
the fact that my cash earnings were almost ex-
hausted and those who had invited me there seemed
unable to guarantee me the position. An incident
occurred at Mineola which I shall never forget. It
was the second meeting with Prof. H. T. Kealing,
then president of Paul Quinn College, Waco,
Tex., but now editor of the African Methodist
Episcopal Church Review, an ambitious magazine
publication of the great African Methodist Epis-
copal Church. The occasion was a Quarterly
Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal
Church at Mineola, and Professor Kealing was
there to deliver a lecture. Our first meeting was
at Tuskegee while I was a student there during
my Senior year. In that far-away country I
was very glad to see some one I knew, and after

341

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

the meeting I was not long in making myself
known to Professor Kealing. He heard my story,
praised the stand I had taken, and expressed re-
grets that he was not able to offer me a place in
Paul Quinn College. He suggested that I take
a letter of introduction to Dr. I. B. Scott, then
president of Wiley University, Marshall, Tex.,
but now a Bishop in the Methodist Episcopal
Church, the first colored man to be elected to the
episcopacy of that great church.

At Wiley I was kindly received by Bishop
Scott, and entered into a contract with him to
teach shoemaking for my board and the proceeds
of the shop. I entered into the spirit of Wiley
with such earnestness that at the close of my
first month I was made a salaried teacher at $35
a month, and before the session was half gone
my salary had been raised to $40. I completed
the year's work with perfect satisfaction to all
concerned. What I enjoyed most of all during
my year at Wiley was the esteem and personal
friendship of Bishop Scott. His letters addressed
to me upon the eve of my resignation, the esteem
he placed on my work while in the employ of the
Universit}^ and his entreaties that I should not
tender my resignation so embarrassed me that for

342

EVOLUTION OF A SHOEMAKER

a time I was unable to tell what I should do. I
felt I owed it to Tuskegee to go wherever Princi-
pal Washington thought my services were most
desired. On two occasions since I left there
Bishop Scott has taken occasion to voice his ap-
proval of my conduct while at Wiley: once before
the East Tennessee Conference of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, and in October, 1902, to my
students, when he came to visit me at the Chris-
tiansburg Institute.

About the first of May, 1896, I received a tele-
gram from Principal Washington requesting me
to allow him to present my name to the Board of
Managers of the Christiansburg Industrial Insti-
tute for the principalship then vacant. I agreed,
and was elected to the place. Before entering
upon the duties of my new position at Christians-
burg I made a visit to Tuskegee, for the purpose
of gaining information as to the scope of my work
and as to how I should best proceed.

After spending nearly two months at Tuske-
gee, I made my way to my new field of labor
in Virginia, reaching Christiansburg the 15th of
July, 1896. The appearance of things at Chris-
tiansburg did not come up to my expectations, nor
was my reception in accordance with what I had

843

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

expected. Under the conditions which then ex-
isted, one of more experience than I had would have
expected just about such a reception as I received.
The people seemed almost crazed that a Tuskegee
graduate should be planning to engraft the Tuske-
gee Idea in that section — and this, too, in spite of
Hampton. In my effort to carry out the plans
sanctioned by Dr. Washington, I soon realized I
was facing opposition well-nigh insurmountable.
This was due to their misunderstanding of Dr.
Washington, and of what Tuskegee really stands
for. As far as possible, I gathered around me
men and women who, like myself, were thoroughly
imbued with the Tuskegee Idea, and together we
pushed ahead with our plans.

From the first I was given to understand that
the desire of the Board was that there should be
at Christiansburg a school similar to Hampton
and Tuskegee; though smaller, it should be no less
perfect in what it was designed to do. To reach
this end the school had to undergo the change from
a distinctly literary school to one with both literary
and industrial branches; from a regular, ordinary
school to one with a boarding department. My
plans met the approval of all concerned, yet there
was Uttle idea on my part as to the amount of

344

EVOLUTION OF A SHOEMAKER

money and labor necessary to put them into opera-
tion. The course of study was rearranged to suit
the new conditions, and five industries were in-
stalled. A circular setting forth the purposes of
the school was published and scattered abroad. We
then thought that this was nearing the end of the
great task, when in reality we had hardly begun.

The Board of Managers did not oppose the
boarding department, yet they did not sanction it
to the extent of supporting it.

I had confidence in my plans and was willing
to start alone. This step was far more perplexing
than I had at first imagined. As the time drew
near for the opening of school, I was aware that
for the boarding department I had to find a suit-
able house and procure necessary furniture. In
the basement of the school building was some lum-
ber which had been used for a platform. With the
assistance of one of the teachers this stage-lumber
was converted into five bedsteads and three small
tables. I succeeded in getting one of the merchants
to credit us for several lamps. With this furniture,
several stools, an equal number of dry-goods boxes,
and a few kitchen utensils, the boarding depart-
ment of the institution was started. Notwith-
standing the scanty arrangement, I am glad to say

345

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

that for the most part there was but little or no
complaint.

Sufficient money was appropriated by the
Board of Managers to provide for the purchase
of necessary working tools for the added industrial
classes.

I kept our friends in the North reminded of
our need of additional land. The industrial-school
idea with a department of agriculture was not
succeeding well on a half -acre of ground. After
two years of patient toil this question of land was
recognized as a necessity, and accordingly two
friends undertook to solicit subscriptions to the
amount of $5,000 with which to purchase a farm
of 100 acres, two horses, a set of harness, a wagon,
and a plow. By this time spring was well on
and we were planning to make a crop. In a run-
away one of the school horses was badly injured.
The purchase of the farm, etc., had about ex-
hausted our Northern resources and the school
was in debt. To my credit in the Bank of Chris-
tiansburg was a small sum of money, with which I
purchased a horse. The crop that year was fairly
successful.

Before taking possession of the farm, it was
understood that instead of the proceeds of the

346

EVOLUTION OF A SHOEMAKER

farm going toward maintaining or paying teachers'
salaries, the money should go toward building up
the soil, which was well run down, and that we
should devote all possible effort in the direction
of restoring the soil to its once high state of fer-
tihzation. Owning this farm, we had the "Big
House " where the master once lived, and several
of the slave cabins, which still remain, w^here the
slaves resided. Hundreds of slaves, I have been
told, tilled this soil in the days long ago, when
its productive powder was greater than that of
any estate in this whole section.

It is a remarkable and significant fact that
where the master once lived is a recitation building
for colored boys and girls, and where the slaves
once huddled around the flickering light of a pine-
knot young Negro students are quartered daily,
preparing for the duties of the morrow.

In building up the school to its present po-
sition, five persons, almost from the very begin-
ning, have figured most prominently, viz.: E. A.
Long and his wife. Miss Willie Mae Grifiin, the
writer and his wife — aU Tuskegee graduates. It
is needless that I remark here that the burdens
borne by the men have been in no sense heavier
than those borne by these faithful women. The

347

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

road along which we have traveled has not been,
by any means, a smooth one. We all had been
toilers at Tuskegee and knew well how to face the
duties of life. This was decidedly in our favor. I
was the oldest of the company and perhaps had
seen more of hardship than the others; it therefore
fell to my lot to give courage to the others when
hope was all but gone.

Some time previous to our taking possession
of the farm, some of the occupants had sown about
half an acre in a kind of radish commonly known
hereabout as " pig radish." It must be remem-
bered that each year, after the eight months' aca-
demic work was over, we received no money from
any source whatever. Paying the salaries of teach-
ers who were to leave for the summer and meeting
other demands of the institution always exhausted
the school's treasury before the summer season be-
gan. With a " cropping " season of four months
ahead, no money, no source from which any could
be expected, the nice tender " pig radish," year
after year, became our food-supply for the early
part of the summer at least. Thus, while push-
ing the operations of the farm, rebuilding the
soil by means of turning under green crops, fer-
tilizers, etc., " pig-radish " greens, western side

348

EVOLUTION OF A SHOEMAKER

meat, and corn-meal constituted our chief diet.
Beef came to us as a luxury twice a week. The
work was divided so that E. A. Long, our treas-
urer, was gardener, I was farmer, our wives and
Miss Griffin were matrons and cooks. The 4th of
July, 1900, found the work of the farm in such
a prosperous condition that it was decided to cele-
brate the event with a cake and some ice-cream,
for by this time we owned a cow.

One peculiar thing happened about the time we
purchased this farm. We w ere teaching a graded
school which we were eager to turn into a boarding
institution. The pupils and patrons were in per-
fect accord with the faculty, but as soon as the
fact became known that we had purchased a large
tract of land and would endeavor to build a board-
ing and industrial school thereon, the members of
the faculty at once became objects of scorn to
almost the entire colored population. There were
at that time enrolled in the school 240 children.
Within less than a month more than 100 had
dropped out. When school closed in May there
were only 60 children attending.

We went about our duties, however, without
complaint. While we worked, Nature also worked
for us. Vegetation flourished wherever seed were

349

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

sown; the trees bore a harvest of apples such as
I have not seen since, and all went well.

As I look back over those years of trial, of
privation, of sacrifice, I find they were conditions
precedent to laying an enduring foundation. Our
hope has been to establish a school where poor
but earnest boys and girls can secure an education.
It was through our efforts, first of all, that we were
able to prove to the supporters of the school that
such an institution could live and grow and do great
and lasting good for those it is designed to help.
Year by year the school has grown. Year by year
the people of the community realize the sincerity
of my teachers and give them hearty support. Pa-
tience, toil, trust in God, and enterprise are the ele-
ments which are fast putting this work on its feet.

Every person who visits the school sees earnest-
ness manifested on farm, in shop, in class, about
the grounds, everywhere, and goes away a sincere
friend. Not alone do we have our visitor's friend-
ship, but he tells the simple story to others and
the number of friends increases.

Mr. R. C. Bedford, of Beloit, Wis., after visit-
ing the school in January, 1905, took occasion to
address a gentleman in the North who had inter-
ested himself in raising funds for the school, in the

850

EVOLUTION OF A SHOEMAKER

following language: " I have not visited the school
for three years. Great changes have taken place
since then. The good there being accomplished
is simply immeasurable. Mr. Marshall and Mr.
Long work together in such perfect harmony as
to constitute a force of singular directness and
power. I think the work is carried on most eco-
nomically, and such a clear and full account of all
expenditures is given to the pubUc that you must
have the utmost confidence of all your friends."

A few years ago it was difficult for our Treas-
urer to raise $1,875. The raising of funds for
institutions is always difficult, but it is not as hard
now to raise $6,000 to $8,000 as it was to raise
$1,875 a few years ago.

Mr. E. A. Long, our treasurer, whose faith-
ful assistance I have had in every effort to develop
the school, was with me, embarrassed by a debt of
the boarding department of more than $600. This
condition grew, in a large measure, out of the fact
that we attempted to supply students' work on the
farm to pay their expenses, and the proceeds of
the farm were expended as far as possible in the
direction of building up the soil. In the fall of
1902 the board of managers assumed the responsi-
bility of the boarding department, paid all indebt-

351

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

edness, and to-day the school is operated on a cash
basis.

During four years there have been contributed
toward this work $43,528.77. We have added
to the original plant one $10,000 dormitory,
a cottage costing $750, a barn at a cost of $2,000,
and a shop building valued at $1,000. Much
has been spent in the way of repairs. We
have $1,000 invested in live stock, and more than
$300 worth of farming implements. In each of
the industrial departments fairly good equipment
can be found. We have grown from a half acre
of ground to more than 100 acres; from 2 horses
to 43 head of live stock; from a printing-press
weighing 75 pounds to one weighing 2,500 pounds.
Agriculture, carpentry, printing, shoemaking,
laundering, cooking, sewing, and basketry are car-
ried on successfully. The farm produces large
crops of cereals, vegetables, fruits, and raises a
large share of the meat used by the school. All
the flour for the past three years came from the
wheat produced on the farm.

The growth of the school has commended itself
favorably to those who have had occasion to in-
vestigate its claims. A committee appointed to
look into the condition of the school some time ago

352

EVOLUTION OF A SHOEMAKER

made the following statement: " In conclusion,
your committee would say that it feels that Messrs.
Marshall and Long and their wives have made
many sacrifices for the good of the school and have
shown a true missionary spirit in carrying on the
work, and their ideals and purposes are in accord
with the very best. They have borne an awkward
and heavy burden in financing the school, and your
committee feels that if released from this care
their teaching-work will be much improved and
become very valuable in building up the school."

In addition to the cultivation of the home-farm
of 100 acres, the increased amount of stock makes
it necessary to rent an adjacent pasture of 80
acres, the property of two of our teachers.

I have made an effort to supplement the knowl-
edge acquired at Tuskegee through a school of
correspondence and through the Chautauqua Read-
ing Circle with some degree of success.

The success of this school, in a very large meas-
ure, is due to the consecrated effort of the members
of the Friends' Freedmen's Association of Phila-
delphia and the board of managers of the institu-
tion. From the time I entered upon the work to
the present. Principal Washington has also been a
constant source of help and encouragement. Five

353

TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE

hundred dollars given by him in the spring of
1903 was the first money toward the erection of
our new dormitory. A combination woodworking-
machine is also a result of his interest.

We have on hand an endowment fund of sev-
eral thousand dollars which we are anxious to in-
crease. Definite plans have been made for the
erection of two new buildings. When the plans
thus far mapped out are completed, the plant,
now worth $30,000, will easily have a valuation
of $75,000.

(2)

THE END

354