Lexington gazette. [volume] (Lexington, Va.) 1871-1962, 1906-06-06
President RooseveIt's Advice to
Negroes at Hampton

Negroes at Hampton
A notable address was delivered
to the colored students of Hampton
Institute last Wednesday, National
Memorial Day, by President Roosc-
welt. He dwelt particularly on
the necessity for the development
of character, not only in the negro,
bat in the white man as well,
maintaining that education would
fit neither for citizenship unless
accompanying it there was the
right type of family life in the
home. He urged the boys to take
to industrial work and the farm.
Speaking directly to the negro
students, he said:
"Now, the first thing upon
which / wish to lay emphasis is
that a school such as this, which
strives to raise the cclored men
and the colored women, to make
them better men and better VIC
men, better citizens,is pre- eminent
ly in the interest of the white man.
There is nothing that can be done
better for the white man who is
to live eide by eide with the colored
man than tc train that colored man
up to be a good citizen. The good
man who is q white man, by his
presence is a benefit to every color.
ed man in the community, and the
safety of the white man 10 in hav-
ing the colored man grow to be a
good and decent man.
From the standpoint Of the
white man the safest and best
thing that can happen is to hav
the cclored people around him be-
come thrifty, industrious home
makers and home-keepers, for you
never yet had any formidable
quantity of criminals from a peo-
pie or locality where the average
type was the home-maker and the
hOme-keeper.
From the standpoint Of the
colored man, the only real way to
help him Is to help himself. In
the long run in this world no human
being can be carried. What this
institution does is to train young
men and women to walk by them
selves. The colored man who
helps his race most is he who helps
teach the members of his race how
to conduct themselves with self
respect. No race, no nationality,
ever raises itself by the exhibition
of genius in a few men; what
counts is characterize character
of the average man and the aver
age woman.
"You have sent out from lamp
ton Institute in all something like
six thousand graduates, and if |
remember rightly, there are but
two of whom you have recorded as
criminals, and that fact is an all
sufficient answer 20 the blind peO-
pie who say that no good will
come from educating the negro.
So far is that from the truth that
1t may be said that the real hope
for the negro, as we'll as for the
white man, is in education,if only
we understand the meaning Of
education in its proper sense.
cit is often said that the true
place for the negro is in industrial
work. 1t is, Thet is the true
place for the average negro, and
the true place for the average man,
and we will not get our civilization
upon a proper basis until we root
out of the mind of the average
man, and the average girl,o what
ever color, the belief that to be-
come a poor clerk Is better thing
than being first-class hand-work-
err, a first-cl mechanic or first
class agricultural laborer. The
wrong twist that has been given
to our education in the past has
been largely responsible for the
very healthy development of the
city at the expense Of the country"