St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-01-15
NEGRO WHO WILL BE
--@ -
FUTURE OF THE RACE AS VIEWED
BY PROF. BOOKER WASH
INGTON.
WHO TYPlFlEs THE TRIUMPH
THE RACE HAS ALREADY MADE
OVER VERY ADVERSE CIRCUM-
STANCES.
TO TEACH. NOT TO DEPoRr HIM
Is the Solution Suggested by the
CoIored Orator of AtIanta's
Highest Fame.

Booker T.. Washington, principal OF
the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial
institute, of Tuskegee, Ala, the col
ored pcdagogue and lecturer, spoke to
a large and enthusiastic audience at
the Peoples church last evening upon
the condition of the negro in the
South and the efforts being made by
the school of which he is principal to
educate and elevate the Afro-Ameri-
can people.
In introducing the speaker of the
evening, Bishop Gilbert paid high
tribute to the American negro and
the wonderful possibilities open to him
as exemplified in the person OF Mr..
Washington, who is an accomplished
speaker, and eloquent in the defense Of
his race The negro in the South had
been under the greatest disadvan-
tages for thirty years, without home
or means of gaining livelihood or an
education, but it was the endeavor of
the school of which the speaker is
principal to lay the foundation upon
which the negro was to rear a national
character and independence, Of which
he was eminently capable. This re-
suit, in the opinion Of the speaker,
could only be effected by providing
the negro with a thorough practical ed
ucation. 'It isl said he, "of great
importance that we shall have Sc
cured to us all the rights provided
In the grandest document ever formu-
lated, the constitution Of the United
States, but it is Of far greater i'm
portance that we first know what they
mean and how to appreciate them.
If any Of you have the faintest idea
that l have come here in the capacity
of an instructor along any line of edu-
cation, l wish you to part with such
an impression at once. My history and
advantages have not fitted me to be
your teacher; the most I can do is to
give you a few facts out of my hum
your own conclusions
II was born slave in a one-room
log cabin in Virginia, in the year 1857 or
1858, think. My early life was passed
in this narrow world until at last the
morning of freedom came. Myself and
each of my fellow slaves at once set
out on search for new homes. l set
tied with my mother in Virginia, where
l worked in the coal mines for our sup
Hampton's school, at Hampton, Va.
began at once to save money that
might attend this institution and after
many weary months found myself at
its doors. 1 was received and educated
by working my way through the college.
On graduating / resolved to help my
people as others had helped me, and in
1881 started the Tuskegee Industrial in
stitute in small church and shanty,
with one teacher and thirty students.
Since then the institute has gradually
grown until we now have SiXty-nine in
StructorS and 800 young men and Wom-
en-, representing nineteen states, and If
l add the families Of instructors, we
have on our grounds constantly a popu-
lation of about 1000 souls.
I'm planning our course of instruc-
ton we have steadily endeavored to suit
the studies to our needs rather than pat
tern after the courses of a people whose
opportunities have been greater than
ours. From the first, industrial, or hand
training has been made a special feat
ure of our work. This industrial train
ing combined with the mental and re-
igious, to my mind, has marked adVan-
tages. AT first our students could re-
main in school but two months in q
year, but in the industrial feature we
can now give them a years schooling
and make a constant lesson for our peo-
pie in our section of the South. This
year we cultivated 600 acres of land and
we are now building a three-story
house, every part Of which is being
made and put up by our students. The
bricks, masonry, carpenters work,
plaStering, painting, tinSmithing, are all
the work of our students, who, when the
building is completed, have the practi-
cal and theoretical knowledge of the
various crafts at which they have
4l,;c III In nltro
acquired gives to our students love for
labor and self-respect.
"In about fourteen years our students
in the way | have mentioned have built
up property consisting of thirty-seVen
buildings located on l, 400 acres of land,
all of which are valued at $225,O0O. OF
these buildings, thirtyfour have been
erected by our students, and the land
is yearly placed under cultivation In
the same manner.
This, briefly, is what our school has
done and is the line which we propose
to follow out in the future.
I'VE have many obstacles to over
come however in thus endeavoring to
raise our people to a higher plane. They
are poor, uneducated,. and, in most
cases, unable, without assistance, to
better their conditions. but they are
progressing slowly but surely to ulti-
mate success. There is not a negro in
the South SO poor that he does not want
to be better off, nor so ignorant that he
does not recognize his ignorance and
desire to attain an education. The
trouble is, they do not know how to
elevate themselves, and the object Of our
school is to show them the means to
employ to this end. We cannot undo
ia. twenty-five years the effects of $50
years Of slavery and oppression, nor do
we want our friends in the North and
West to educate our race, as a whole,
but what we do want is that you should
aid in educating our leaders, in order
that they may go among their own and
possess them of the advantages you en-
JOY. Our people are under some disad-
vantages in the South, but I sympa-