The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-07-23
NEGRO AS A CITIZEN.
Booker Washington Draws Picture
of His Race.

of His Race.
Atlanta. July 23.-Brooker T. Wash
ington has made another great speech
in behalf Of his race. He was one of
the leading speakers at the national
educational convention at Buffalo, N.
Y, last week, and his speech on the fu-
ture of the Negro was one of the great
est hits of the entire gathering.
Washington's talk was sensible, and
practical. Among other things he said:
AT TuSkegee we are not saying that
education in the classics of ministers,
lawyers and doctors, is not necessary
and important, but we are saying with
every atom of our being that since 80
per cent of the black race depend at
present upon the common occupations,
and that since IS per cent of our peO-
pie live by agriculture and are in the
country districts of the south, it is of
the utmost Importance that we supply
them as fast as possible with educated
leaders with the highest training in
agriculture, dairying, horticulture and
the mechanical arts. With us as
race this is a question of growth or de-
cay, life or death.
within the next two decades it will
be decided whether the Negro, by dis
carding ante-bellum IDEAS and methods
of labor, by putting brains and skill in
to the common occupations that lie at
his door, will be able to lift up labor
out of toll, drudgery and degradation
into that which is dignified. beautiful
cided within this time whether he is to
be replaced, crushed out as a helpful
industrial factor by the disappearing
trade unions and thousands of foreign
skilled laborers that even now tread
fast and hard upon his heels and begin
to press him unto death.
This question is for Christian ana
lySiS to help decide. And in deciding
remember that you are deciding not
alone for the Negro, but whether you
will have 100000 of people in this
Mexico, a nation within a nation, that
will be a burden, a menace to your civ
ilization, that will be continually
threatening and degrading your insti-
tutiOns, or whether you viii make him
a potent, emphatic factor in your civil
ization and commercial life.
What was 800 years in doing cannot
be undOne in 80 years. You cannot
graft a fifteenth century civilization
into twentieth century civilization by
the mere performance of mental gym
nastics An educated man on the
streets with his hands in his pockets
is not a whit more benefit to society
than an ignorant man on the streets
with his hands in his pockets.
If, in the providence of God, the Ne
gro got any good out of slavery, he got
the habit of work AS is true of any
race, we have class about bar-roOns
and street corners, but the rank and
file of the Negro race works from year
to year. Whether the call for labor
comes from the cotton fields of AIissis-
sippt, the rice swamps of the Carroll
mas, or the sugar bottoms of Louisiana,
the Negro answers that call. Yes. toll
is the badge of all his tribe, but the
trouble centers hereby reason of his
ignorance and want of training he does
not know how to utilize the results of
his labor.
Coupled with literary and religious
training must go force that will re-
suit in the improvement of the mater
ial and industrial condition.
In Alabama we find If a Traffv hard
thing to make a good citizen out of a
hungry man. It is only as the Negro
is taught to mix in with his religious
lei VOr and emotion habits of industry
economy, land, houses with two or
three. rooms, and a little bank account
just as the white man does, will he have
a Christianity that will be worthy of
the name.
No member of your race in any part
or TINS country can harm the weakest
or meanest member of mine without
the prOudest and bluest blood in the
Anglo-SaXon race being degraded.
have little patience with those who are
merely concerned about the Negroes
soul in the next world, and are ready
to damn the Negroes body in this
world.
In considering the relations Of the
race in the south, 1 thank God that I
have grown to the point where I can
sympathize with the white man as
much as 2I can with a blac man; where
L can sy1npathize with a southern
white man as much as I can with a
northern white man. To be a man is
but man for a that and a. that
propose that no man shall drag me
down by making me hate him. No
race can hate or Cypress another race
without itself being narrowed and ha-
ted.
Those who died and suffered on the
battle field performed their duty he
roically and well, but a duty remains
for you and me. The mere fiat of law
could not make dependent man an
Independent man; could not make an
ignorant voter an intelligent voter
could not make one man respect anoth-
er; these results come to the Negro as
to all races-by beginning al the bot
tom and gradually working toward