The colored American., 1900-01-13
TEE "WIzARD" OF TUSKEGEE
he Noble Work of Booker T. Washington
& lndustralism's Foremost Advocate
IA True Prophet of His Race"

The most I6LuhThaDlc AlTO- -AulcTlCau
Of this generation is Booker T Wash
inpton. AS was said of Frederick
Douglass, he is not only a great Negro
ne is q great man. Few characters in
history, ancient or modern, civil or
military, offer career so replete In
thrilling incident, SO complex in con-
dulon and environment and yet 80
thoroughly successful as that of Mr..
Washington the founder and principal
NJ Tuskt gee Normal and Industrial In
dustrial Institute. The story OF his lte,
though often told, furnishes study at
once mi eresting, instructive and in
spiIing.
The fexiblIity of American standards
and Institutions Is picturesquely il,
lustrsted Id the wide extremes of sentI
meI,t and custom with which Mr..
Washington has had to deal. Identified
with race, regarded as inferior and
incapable OF progress, he mas risen by
his own might from the depths of hu-
man bondage, from the darkness OF
slavery, and the lhraldom OF ignorance
and poverty to the highest develop
ment offered by freedom, intelligence
aud industry. BY the sheer force OF his
personality and labors he has Won fame
upon two continents. He has arrested
the attention and commando d the re-
spect Of the fJremost scholars, states
men, scientists, so biologists and ecoDo'
mlsts OF America and Europ5, Without
regard to race, creed or political bent.
He holds the largest place in the popu
lar eye, and is the most widely talked
about figure in public life today, and
his theories and methods have produced
the most significant and diverse dis
cussion in the educa ional aud social
cenlers known to this decade And
why?
MI. Washington stands for definite
idea. He is the pioneer apostle of in.
duslrlaI training for the Negro, as the
fundamental principle in the solution
OF the veXatiOus race problem. This
doctrine, perhaps, had expounders and
advocates before Mr.. Washington, but
no one had ever been able to so clearly
diagnose the economic disease from
which We suffered or so candidly pre-
sented the facts in the case as this bril-
liant young man "fresh from his
books" at Hampton. A keen observer
of human nature, and quick to trace
effects back 10 causes, he early in life
detected flaws in our racial sy stem, and
probed the situation to its core. He
knew history; he knew logic; he had
common sense; he had convictions and
the courage to express them.
Mr.. Washington saw about him mil
lions Of desplsed and helpless black
7 eOple, just emerging from the status of
chattels for the most part, unlearned
and poor. He noted peculiar political
condition which sought by legislation
alone to confer upon them species of
that could not naturally
be borne by any class without prelIm-
mary period of proper instruction and
in the arts of government,
mental culture and capacity for sys
tematlc bIeadWinning. He saw that to
secure to the Negro the full and per-
manent enjoyment OF American c1ti
the superficial conditions, fos-
tered by false conceptions of education,
excessive political aspiration without
the backing of experience and wealth,
and an assumption of equality without
power to project it, must give away,
and solid foundation put under the
race. He declined to ac-
cept shadowy forms as true citizenship,
and insisted upon the doctrine that
'iDce only the fittest can survive, ,a'people
10 gain the right exist musts'treOgtEea
themselves from within, and be pre-
pared to compete on equal terms with
he beat brain and blood on earth.
While believing in a beautiful super
structure, with all the ornamentatIon
that astheticism can devise, he con