New-York tribune., 1905-02-26
EDUCATE BOTH WHITES AND NEGROES
Elevation and Degradation of Races in the
South Go Hand in Hand
To the Editor Of The Tribune.

To the Editor Of The Tribune.
Sir: It has been the contention OF Booker T
Washington founder of the Institute for Industrial
Training of the Negro at Tuskegee. Ala. that the
degradation of one race inevitably brings with it,
sooner or later the debasement of the other; that
an insult to human nature in the black means
the brutalizing of this same human nature in the
white No one has asserted that the converse
OF this statement is true; that the moral and in
tellectual elevation Of the black brings with
t corresponding Improvement OF the white
Yet this to be the fact. and the evidence for
it IS contained in an editorial which appeared in
recent issue of The Columbia State of Columbia,
S. c., and has since been reprinted in The Boston
Transcript" The Editor of The Columbia State
says:
South Carolina, trust. is forever done with
Methods that were once excusabIe in a terrible
emergency cannot be used again unless IN similar
are urging their black people TO go to school hold
embodiment Of their hopes in education and prop
erty, he Is enemy TO the white supremacy Of the
an the white children. And while the negro chill
dren are So akg yis adv6e H5 taelr
learning to read and TO write learning the lessons
the white supremacy of the future who would
stand in the gay Of ian an increase inc oI the the White Pop6 u
the negro; we believe that the negro should be
Booker Washington is working; It is a moral
obligation on the part Of the white people not TO
race. If it is capable of progress At the same
time the superior race must go forward, and II
do so only through education. the education
not of few at more or less expensive colleges.
schools in the highways and byways the sandhils
and the backwoods, the mountains and the mill
villages an educalloh Inat may not oe 6eslred oy
ignorant. Indifferent ana narrow minded parents.
but an education that is essential 10 the progress of
their supremacy. Let us look to the negro and be
wise.
When the doctrine that the supremacy of the
while man in the South must at all hazards be
naia; aimed was first proclaimed it said by
way of Justification. that the negro is by nature
and for all time condemned to occupy inferior
social position
1t speaks well for the progress the negro has
made in recent years. largely under the leadership
of men of his race, that Southern PUblicists
now in his moral and material advancement
menace TO the white supremacy. IL may be a
trihe illogical TO urge that the supremacy of the
white man must be maintained because the negro
is hopclessly ana lrretrevably. morally and intel
lectually Inferior. ana see in his moral and
inJellt cLUaI advancement a danger. one would
naturally assume that With the advancement OF the
negro race the status Of moral and intellectual
manhood the reason white supremacy would
cease to exist. TO the mind OF the Southern wnlte
man. however. this does not follow. To him
iulraincd is his superiority. the domination
en- end it Is 9 thing be desired and maintained for
its own sake. The moral and ma,erial advance
ment OF the negro threatens TINS supremacy. II
IS realized that the title OF the white 10 dOni-
nate the regro viii disappear soon the negro
is morally, intellectually and lTdustrlaIly ms equal
The advancement OF the negro Is thus a spur TO
the white man. The training OF the negro shows
itself here as one OF the means whlch are bringing
about the regeneration OF that most unhappy
product OF slayery-the poor white
1t thus appears that the single hearted oeFotlon
OF those missionaries and teachers who since the
day OF emancipation have given up their lives 10
nCt only the black whose great need directly
inspired their efforts but also the Whlte man VINO,
In the bitterness of defeat too often misunderstood
the purposes and Cespised the work or these early
missioEaries-the white man, too shall IN the end
profit by their y bors - - PROGRESS.
Montgomery. Ala. FEB. Il. 4So