BUILDING A GREAT SCHOOL
At Hampton the chapel exercises were at night. Here they sang the
beautiful old negro melodies and listened to a talk by General
Armstrong, or some other good speaker. One Sunday night in May, 1881,
after the regular exercises, General Armstrong, who had a way of taking
the students into his confidence as well as keeping them informed of
matters of interest to the race, announced that he had received a very
interesting letter. He then told them that the Legislature of Alabama at
its last session had set aside some money for the establishment of a
negro normal school, and that they were looking for a man to be the head
of this school and that he had been asked to recommend such a man. Of
course they wanted a white man. However, the next day General Armstrong
sent for Booker Washington and said: “Washington, you heard the
announcement last night about the men in Alabama who want a man to be
the head of their school. I have decided that you are the man for them.
Will you take the place if it is offered to you?”
This was surely a great surprise, but Booker Washington was always
ready. He said: “I think I can fill the place, and I am willing to try.”
General Armstrong wrote at once about Washington. The next Sunday night,
during the chapel exercises, a telegram was handed to General Armstrong.
It was from the committee in Alabama. He opened it, and read it to the
audience. It said: “Booker Washington will suit us. Send him at
once.”[10]
Washington prepared to go at once to his new field. After finishing his
work at Hampton, he paid a visit to his old home at Malden, and a couple
of weeks later, early in June, he arrived at Tuskegee, Alabama, to begin
his new task.
Tuskegee at this time was a quiet little town of about two thousand
inhabitants. It is on a small branch railroad, five miles from the main
line, which runs from Atlanta, Georgia, to Montgomery, Alabama. The town
is about fifty miles from Montgomery. It is right in the heart of what
is known as the “Black Belt” in the South. A large and typical
population lived round about. The town was the county seat of Macon
County, in which lived a large number of negro farmers, all living very
much as the negro family lived in the South at that time. The white
people and the negroes were about equal in population in the town and
lived in cordial and friendly relations.
Booker Washington had a great surprise awaiting him when he reached
Tuskegee. He thought that this school that he was to be the head of was
already in existence and naturally looked about to find the schoolhouse,
of course expecting to see a nice building. Imagine his surprise when he
found that there was as yet no school at all and absolutely no building,
no sign of a school whatsoever. He was to start this school himself from
the very beginning. The legislature had simply set aside two thousand
dollars a year to be used only for paying salaries, and no provision had
been made for building and grounds.
Was Booker Washington discouraged? Not for a single minute did he sit
down and whine and complain and say that he might as well give up. He
went right out into the town, looked up some of the leading men of both
races, and told them that he was going to start something; that he was
going to open a school. And the men, a little amazed at first, caught
his enthusiasm and said: “Good for you. We are with you. You can count
on us. We will help.”
His first effort was to find a house to use as a school building, and he
finally secured a little shanty that stood near the A. M. E. Church. It
was agreed that he could use this building for meetings of any kind, and
that he could teach in the shanty. After consulting again with his
friends, he announced that on July 4, 1881, the Tuskegee Institute would
open.
Now that he had a place in which to begin work, his next job was to get
students for his school. He began to visit around in the country, making
talks in the churches at the regular service or at Sunday school and at
preaching services in schoolhouses and other places. He visited in the
homes of the people, and everywhere he told them of his school plans.
In this way he came to know the people just as they lived, and they
learned how sympathetic Washington was, and how he was trying to help
them. Most of those he visited he found living in one- or two-room
houses, with fat pork and corn bread as their principal food. But they
always treated him kindly and entertained him the best they could. One
thing that distressed him was the discovery that many of these people
had been persuaded to buy such things as costly sewing machines and
organs, when they didn’t have enough to eat and to wear. At one place
where he took dinner there were four in the family, and when they sat
down at the table, he found that there was but one fork for all five of
them.
Their lives were filled with much drudgery and hard work and almost no
opportunities for improvement. It was nearly impossible for them to make
a living, much less save any money. Their schools, if they had any at
all, had very short terms and were taught by teachers who knew very
little more than the children. It was a discouraging situation to any
one except a man like Booker Washington. “These are my people,” he said.
“They need help. They need education and the kind of education that will
give them cleaner and happier homes, healthier bodies, better schools,
and better life in every way. I am going to help them.”
The school opened on July 4, 1881, with thirty students. Washington was
the only teacher. A large number of students wanted to enter, but he
decided not to admit any under fifteen years of age. Some of these
students were boys, and some were girls; some were grown men and women.
Most of them had been teachers. None of them was very well prepared,
however, for they had been very poorly taught. But the teacher found all
of them eager to learn and ready to work.
Soon there were more students calling for admission. Within six weeks
there were fifty students. It was necessary to have a new teacher, and
the person secured for this work was Olivia Davidson, who afterwards
became Booker Washington’s second wife.
She was a great help to him, and she agreed with him that they must do
something for the students besides merely teaching them books.
Washington says that they wanted to teach them how to be clean; how to
take care of their teeth and clothing; what and how to eat; and how to
make a living.
All these pupils lived on the farm, as did nearly all the people of the
South. Washington wanted to so teach them that they would continue to
live among their own people and their lives would be happier and better
in every way. He did not want them to get a false idea about education.
Many of them had the wrong impression already. They thought that getting
an education consisted in reading big books and then of being able to
earn a living without work. Both of these ideas were wrong. He wanted to
teach them something that would make them useful and happy and
prosperous on the land in their native state.
He certainly could not do this while teaching in a little old shanty
with one room that was in such bad condition that one of the pupils had
to hold an umbrella over the teacher when it rained. He had this same
experience at his boarding house, where his landlady often held an
umbrella over him while he ate his breakfast.
About three months after the opening of his school, a small farm about
one mile from town was offered for sale. Washington went out and looked
it over and came to the conclusion that it was just the place for the
kind of school that he intended to build. But the price was $500, and he
didn’t have a dollar. The owner said: “Pay me $250 cash, and I will give
you one year to pay the other.” Washington borrowed $250 and closed the
deal.
He decided to move the school at once to the new home. On this farm were
four buildings. The “big house” had been burned, but there was left
standing a little cabin, formerly used as a dining room, an old kitchen,
a stable, and a henhouse. Booker Washington and his growing school moved
into these four buildings.
[Illustration:
TUSKEGEE’S FIRST GROUP OF BUILDINGS
]
The buildings were thoroughly cleaned and worked over and put in as good
condition as possible. Washington says, “I recall one morning, when I
told an old colored man who lived near, and who sometimes helped me,
that our school had grown so large that it would be necessary for us to
use the henhouse for school purposes, and that I wanted him to help me
give it a thorough cleaning out the next day, he replied, in a most
earnest manner, ‘What do you mean, boss? You sholy ain’t going to clean
out the henhouse in the daytime!’”[11]
Do you know what a “chopping bee” is? Well, the students of Tuskegee
didn’t know until Booker Washington taught them. After they had been in
their new quarters for several weeks, Washington walked in one day and
said: “To-morrow we are going to have a ‘chopping bee.’ Now all of you
that have an axe bring it to school with you. Those of you who do not
have one, let me know, and I’ll get one for you. We will dismiss school
early and go to the ‘bee.’”[12]
Next day everybody had an axe, and all of them were wondering what sort
of game a “chopping bee” was. They had never been to one, and they were
much excited over it.
Soon after dinner Washington got his axe and threw it on his shoulder
and told the boys to come on. They eagerly followed. He led them out to
the woods and began cutting down a tree, and told them to do the same
thing. They did so. Washington, swinging his axe faster and better than
any of them, led the crowd, though all of them were doing their best.
And as they just kept on at this, it presently dawned on them that a
“chopping bee,” after all, was nothing but plain cutting down trees and
clearing land. Some of the students became angry. They said they did not
come to school to do that kind of work; they came to study books. But
they looked at Washington, who was an educated man, and they saw that he
was not ashamed to do this kind of work. After a time they began to see
what Washington’s purpose was, and they quit complaining and gladly
helped with all their might to get this needful work done.
There was another way in which Washington secured the assistance of
others to build up his school. He had no way of going about over the
country except by walking. He did not have a horse or a mule, and he
could not cover much territory by walking. So he would watch for some
old negro with a mule and wagon and go to him and tell him all about his
plans. Then he would say: “Now, Uncle, don’t you want to help in this
good work? Well, come around early Saturday morning with your mule and
wagon and take me out in the country, where I can see the people and
tell them about our school,”[13] and the old man would be there on time.
So, with the cordial coöperation of the students and friends in the
town, the school was making progress. Land was being cleared, and the
buildings and grounds were being improved. Washington was spreading the
fame of his school throughout the country and every one was becoming
interested.
But that debt of five hundred dollars for the land on which the school
was being built had not been paid. Where was the money coming from? That
was the hard question. Miss Davidson started the plan of having suppers
or “festivals.” She would go about town and get friends to donate a
chicken or a cake or a pie for a supper. In this way a good sum was
raised. Washington wrote to his friends, explained the situation, and
asked for contributions. He asked the negroes as well as the white
people in town to give, and they did. Washington says that sometimes
they would give five cents, or twenty-five cents, or a quilt or some
sugar cane. “I recall one old colored woman,” he says, “who was about
seventy years of age,—she hobbled into the room where I was, leaning on
a cane. She was clad in rags, but they were clean. She said: ‘Mr.
Washington, God knows I spent de bes’ days of my life in slavery. God
knows I’s ignorant and poor; but I know what you and Miss Davidson is
tryin’ to do. I knows you is tryin’ to make better men and women for de
colored race. I ain’t got no money, but I wants you to take dese six
eggs, what I’s been savin’ up, and I wants you to put dese eggs into de
eddication of dose boys and gals.’”[14] Washington says that he has
received many gifts for Tuskegee, but none that affected him more deeply
than this one.
Needless to say, by the end of the year the five hundred dollars had
been raised and the debt paid.
Thus ended the first year of the history of Tuskegee. If you go there
now and see the many fine buildings, the broad acres, the hundreds of
students, and everything that goes to make up a great and wonderful
college, it would be very hard to realize that it started off with one
little shanty with a leaky roof, one teacher, and thirty students. From
this simple and humble, but very earnest beginning, Tuskegee grew by
leaps and bounds until it came to be the most remarkable negro school in
the South.