The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-01-14
THE NEGRO In THE SOUTH
ADDRESS OF BOOKER T. WASHING
TON LAST NIGHT.
His Plea for the Education of the
Negro as u Means of EIevating
All People OF the South.

Booker T. Washington. of the College for
Colored People, at Tuskegee, Ala. adj
dressed a large audience last night at Ply
mouth Church. His subject was the negro
problem. In part he said:
1T is my wish TO assure you that I do
not come here merely in the interest of edu-
eating a few hundred young men and wom-
en- at Tuskegee, neither in the interest OF
the negro in the South more than the en-
tire Southern population. regardless of color
or of race. Those of you who understand
slavery. will, / think, agree with me in
the thought that the influence of slavery
did almost as much permanent harm TO
the Southern white man as to the negro.
And so those who understand conditions in
the South to-day will agree with me when
of my people in the South are in ignorance
and in poverty so long will this ignorance
and poverty be made the foundation or
pretext for the Southern white mans drag
ging himself down. If a white man steals
an ignorant Negroes ballot the negro suf-
fers temporary injustice, but the moral
guilty Of hat theft is permanent. is eter-
nal; and SO, my friends, 1 repeat that L
speak not in the interest of Tuskegee or
the negro alone. but In that broader, hlgn-
er and deeper interest, that of all our
brothers in the South.
Those who fought and died on the bat
tIefield performed their duty heroically and
well, but a duty remains tor you and me.
The mere fiat of law could not make an ig-
llOl IAIL kO|Gl al NoN1Ap SooAa 49,
make one citizen respect another, could not
make a dependent man an independent
to all races. by beginning at the bottom
and gradually working upward toward the
highest civilization. Few of you, / fear,
realize what you asked the South to do
Immediately after the war. Returning to
their destitute homes after years OF disas-
trous war to face BLASTED hopes. Il shattered
industrial system, your Southern brethren
had to reorganize or create a new indus
trial system and put on foot, out of their
poverty, a system Of public schools. Be
sides you asked them TO add to their own
burdens and perplexities that OF preparing
in education, economics and politics for citi-
of former slaves. That the South. stagger-
ing under the burden. made mistakes. and
that in a measure disappointment has been
for the generous hand of individuals and
organizations in the North who early came
to the rescue, the present condition of the
South would be much worse.
I'm the gulf States IS per cent. of our
people are on the plantations, but the prob
lem there is not a discouraging one If we
keep in mind the idea of self-help. The
negro on these plantations works and earns
money enough TO support. educate, and
church himself. Our people on these planta-
tons do not need. neither do they ask,
that charity be scattered among them. but
they do need to have educated men and
women sent among them who can teach
them habits of thrift, economy. better
| methods OF agriculture. how to take the
money anat nov goes pm wntshy, w s nnrl
chasing of land, building of decent dwell
ings and schoolhouses. Eight years ago one
of our graduates bean work on one OF
these plantations where the people were I'm
debt. m~ortgageing their crops. with a school
taught in a log cabin and lasting but
three months. Now In this same community
! can show you men out of debt. owning
their farms, a school lasting seven months
and a complete revolution In the religious.
industrial and educational life Of this COM
munity. Not a dollar came from the out
side. but they had this teacher to. show
them how to use their earnings. This, my
friends. is what Tuskegee stands for.
THE problem as between the races will
work itself out. Trade. commerce, is fast
bringing the North and South together, and
this force will bring the white man and
the black man in the South together where
ever there is estrangement.eHere again Is
the value of industrial education. In SlaV-
cry the negro was tied to the white man
through the bill of sale. In freedom the
negro must tie himself to the white man
through the bonds of and by the
cultivation I'm every manly way of the SYM
pathetic good will of his next-door neigh
Dor. The black man that has 5000 to lend
will have no trouble in finding friends and
borrowers among his white neighbors. The
black man that manufactures the best
bricks in his community Will always find
white men to purchase those bricks. When
Il negro has the best farm to be found in
his county every white man Will respect
him. When a negro is the largest taxpayer
to be found in, his county his white neigh
bors will not object very long to his voting
and having that vote honestly counted. In
all parts of the country there should be
a more vital and practical connection be-
tween the negro's educated brain and his
opportunity for earning a living.
For nearly twenty years after the war
we overlooked. except in the case of Gen.
Armstrong; at Hampton, the fact that ev-
cry large slave plantation in the South was
i'm "A measure an Industrial school. that dur
ing slavery we had in constant process cf
training a large number of youths In car
pentry. wheelwrighting and all the usual
mechanical pursuits. AS an example of this
training, the first cotton gin that was ever
built in Mississippi was the result of a
negroes skill. For years the most success
full bridgebuilder in the South was n col
ored man. But since the war we have not
held our own in the mechanical world. be-
cause during the first twenty years of our
free life. except at Hampton. no attention
was given to hand training. and We did
not realize the position we were in till.
as n result of the death of these men and
women who received hand training in slav-
cry. we found that we had no young men
to take the places of the old mechanics,
and the trades that we once had a monop-
oily OF in the South. were going into the
hands of white mechanics from the North
and from foreign countries. Almost all at
once we found ourselves being pushed to
the ragged edge of these important indus
tries instead of being their head and GEN.
ter as in days of yore. During slavery the
negro was not so situated that he could feel
the force of competition. but, to-day he is
called upon TO compete with the white man
in agriculture. in mechanics, in domestic
science and the professions. and while he
has the muscle. he lacks skill and brains
~
his own i'm the industrial world.
What | am trying to do at Tuskegee
with our 500 students is to give them so
much brains and skill that they can so con-
troll the forces Of n~ature-water, horse
power. electricity-that they can make ma
ture do the work. just as the white man
does. Taking this view of industrial educa-
ton. YOU see at once that. so far from
being something TO teach the negro to
work. II teaches him rather how not TO
work as in ante-bellum days; il teaches
him how to lift labor up. out of toll and
drudgery into that which is glorified. digni-
fled and beautiful. More and more we must
give attention TO this industrial training
or we go to the wall as a race. Even now
In many parts of the South there are in
dustrieS that mean. as II were, our life
blood, that are gradually slipping from us
especially is this true of laundering,
nursing. contracting. woodwork and iron
work. Shall we shut our eyes TO these i'm
portant facts or shall we face the issue and
prepare ourselves TO compete with the rest
of the world?"