The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-02-25
Uhe Hncssengcr.
A WISE NEGRO INSTRUCTOR

Booker T.. Washington, president of
Uuskegee Industrial School, in Ala
baIna, is generally regarded by the
press as about the foremost man Of
his race now living. Unlike Fred
Douglass he is not "gingercake' in
color nor o~ne-third or more white. He
is Il negro. He has no little ability
and wisdom and is doing an excellent
WORK for his race in his state. He is
also showing his breadth Of vision as
well as accuracy of racial study by his
utterances from time to time. He late
ly wrote an article for the New York
independent, the old, famous abolition
organ Of the past. What ne says is
worthy of public attention, and par
HicularIy of the ignorant north that
neither understands the negro question
nor the southern whites. We find the
Washington Post saying 1--WE do nor see
ahe independently that his article is
r'most interesting and significant" and
that sit is worthy of note that ne does
not find the negro improved after more
than thirty years of freedom. On the
contrary, he finds the race, taking it as
"a whole, less respectable and less eff
aicient thar it was under slavery.
There ara cases in which coiored men
have acquired a Snowy and more or
Tess useful education, but the masses
of the cOIOrCd people have not advanced
in any important respect" Not having
-nop : -, ,-ir.o o,-tfc-1 ,r. MO r'1a-oI
to copy the following part from the
Post OF the negro presidents article:
Il would be the last to apologize for
the curse of slavery, but j am simply
stating the facts. Before the war if a
southern white man wanted a house or
a bridge built he consulted a negro me-
chanic about the plan. If he wanted
q suit of clothes or a pair of shoes, it
was to tine negro tailor or
that he talked. Every large slave plan
tatiOn in the south was, in a limited
sense, an industrial school. On these
plantations there were scores Of young
colored men and cJlOred women who
were constantly being trained, not only
as common farmers, but as carpenters,
blacksmith5, whelWrights, plasterers,
brickmaSons, engineers, bridge build
ers. cooks, dreSS-makerS ~houSekeGpers,
more in one county than now in the
whole city of Atlanta
This comes from the educated, OBJ
servant negro man who has come into
active life since the war. He is not of
the old kind, but in respect to the edu-
cation and age of the new. What he
says is certainly correct and yet it is a
view no northern man ever took Or
ever dreamt of. The Intelligent white
men in the south know we'll that the
education thus far has Ions but little
for the elevation of the negro race,
making them more honest, more truth
full, more reliable, more self-reliant,
better citizens and of higher morals.
Doubtless some have been uplifted and
made bGtter in many ways. But as the
Post, edited by northern men, says
t'the negro is not bettered by a
shabby smattering OF the classics and
by just enough knowledge Of the higher
branches to make him impudent and
disconnected. He can do nothing with
his halfway education after he re-
ceives it," The industrial school at
Tuskcgee is doing an excellent work in
behalf OF the negroes who attend.
They get a practical education that
makes them skilled workman and fits
them for further usefulness and sue
cess. President Washington shows his
independence of mind and wise OD5er-
walton in his remark:
zone Of the saddest sights L ever
saw" he says, was the placing OF a
$500 rosewood piano in a countr
school in the south that was situated
in the midst of the black b1lt. Am l
arguing against the teaching of instru-
mental music to the negroes in that
community? Not at all. only l should
have deferred those music lessons about
twenty-five years. |
The fact is that MIR. SambO had the
ballot and the offices and the fiOurishes
and trimmings to, soon. He needed the |
experience of freedom, the benefits of
discipline, the results of education be-
fore being so enlarged in his borders
and being made such a dominating po-
Eitical factor. The practical and indus
trial were too much lost sight OF. 1t
was all a fourth of July Grafton with
him with Christmas fireworks thrown
in. Booker Washington is a safe,
sound teacher of his people.