The Washington bee., 1911-01-14
DEFENDING THE NEGRO
PLAIN TRUTHS ADDRESSED
By DR.. Booker T. Washington to the
White People of Alabama and the
South.


In letter to the Montgomery Ad-
vertiser, issue of December 80, 1910,
Dr. Washington said:
The average white man does not
realize that no matter what else the
average Negro will do without he
| wants education for his children
q do not believe that the leading
white people, and especially land
owners of the Black Belt counties,
know how little money some Negro
schools receive. | actually know Of
communities where Negro teachers are
| being paid only from SIS to $I7 per
month for service for a period Of
| three or four months III the year.
More money is paid for Negro con
victs than for Negro teachers. About
| $40 per month IS now being paid for
! hrst-ciass able-bOdied Negro COnviCts,
| $50 for second-class, and $50 for third
class for twelve months in the year
"One other element in the situation
that drives Negroes from the farms of
the Black Belt countries is this: In
many of the Black Belt countries,
when a Negro is charged with crime,
mob of wild, excited, and often in
toxicated people go securing through
| the country in search of the Negro
The experience of the civilized
world shows that even where the ut
most care and deliberation Is eXer-
| cised on the part of lawyers, judges
| and Jury, innocent persons are some
times punished In the face of this
lexperience it is impossible for wild,
frenzied and excited mob of people to
pass judgment upon the guilt or in
Innocence of the individual In my
| opinion, if the Negroes understand
that their public schools in the coun-
| try districts are gradually going to
be improved as fast as the State can
do so. and that they will receive po-
lice protection in case they are charg-
ed with crime in the country districts,
as they do in the cities, then the best
cOlored farmers will cease moving
from the country districts into the
cities
In an Emancipation address at
| Union Springs, Ala, on January I,
lDr Washington said:
q am going to say some things to
your faces that the COlOred people
have been saying to me behind your
backs, in order that you may know
what the colored people want
more attention ought to be given
in Alabama to the training of Negro
farmers. It is impossible for either
the white man who owns the land OF
the Negro who Cultit1tes it to get the
+ greatest returns out of the land unless
/. the Negro farmer receives some tram
. ing in the better methods of farming.
"And then I repeat what / have
recently said elsewhere, that the land
owners in the Black Belt of the
South cannot expects the Negroes tc
remain in the rural districts on the
: farm, unless they have good schoo
, houses and a school term that IS II
session seven or eight months during
= the year"
"Mv race wants education. Thel
!. are going TO get some kind OF educa
= ton. Lots of white people are airai'
n to educate Negroes, lest 1t spoil them
n Education does not spoil the Negro
'T was told of one place IN. thu
Y (Bullock) county where the coloIe'
: people have only a two months
! school A two months school simpl-
t means dissatisfaction.
S at pays to have happy, satishe'
Negroes in a community. Spen