invited by the Secretary of the Cotton Exchange, in the name of the
Exchange, to speak to the members of the leading business
organizations of Houston, upon the floor of the Cotton Exchange Bank.
He was introduced by the secretary, who desired to give Dr. Washington
the opportunity to put before representative Southern white men the
thoughts and ideas of a representative colored man as to how the two
races might live together in the South on terms of mutual helpfulness.
Such was the impression he made upon the whites that when Dr.
Washington's secretary applied for Pullman accommodations for him,
returning East, they were not only ungrudgingly but even eagerly
granted. In those days it was unheard of for a colored man to travel
as a passenger in a Pullman car in Texas.
The injustices mentioned and all others connected with railway
passenger service for Negroes Booker Washington sought in
characteristic fashion to mitigate by instituting, through the agency
of the National Negro Business League, what are known as Railroad
Days. On these days each year colored patrons of railroads lay before
the responsible officials the respects in which they believe they are
unfairly treated and request certain definite changes. Although
started only a few years ago these Railroad Days have already
accomplished a number of the improvements desired in various
localities.
As an aid to the committees appointed in the various communities Mr.
Washington sent out a letter addressed to these committees which was
published in the Negro papers. This letter advised that all protests
on Railroad Days give: first, "a statement of present conditions,"
second, "a statement of conditions desired." There followed a sample
detailed statement of the present conditions about which there is
usually cause for complaint accompanied by a similar statement of the
conditions desired.
It was then suggested that these specific recommendations be followed
by these general requests:
"1. The same class and quality of accommodations for colored
passengers as are provided for the most favored class of travellers.
"2. Such regulations as will protect colored passengers from the
rudeness and insults of employees of the railroad.
"3. Some definite authority to whom these matters may be referred,
where friction arises, and who will, in good faith, investigate and
adjust them."
The letter concluded with this advice:
"All those who are going to act on the suggestions to make a united
effort to bring about better railroad and other travelling facilities
should not omit to remind our people that they have a duty to perform
as well as the railroads.
"First, our people should try to keep themselves clean and presentable
when travelling, and they should do their duty in trying to keep
waiting-rooms and railroad coaches clean.
"Second, it should be borne in mind that little or nothing will be
accomplished by merely talking about white people who are in charge of
railroads, etc. The only way to get any results is to go to the people
and talk to them and not about them."
Compare this definite, reasonable, and effective form of protest with
the bitter, vague, and futile outcry against the "Jim Crow" car which
is frequently heard.
Booker Washington sent a marked copy of the _Century Magazine_
containing the article, "Is the Negro Having a Fair Chance?" to the
head of every railroad in the South calling attention to the portion
relating to unfair treatment in passenger service for his people. In
response he received letters which in almost every case were friendly
and in many cases showed an active desire to coöperate in the
improvement of the conditions complained of. Mr. Washington published
extracts from these letters in the Negro press prior to his Railroad
Day proposal in order to show that the railroad officials were for the
most part at least willing to give a respectful hearing to the
complaints of their Negro patrons if properly approached. President
Stevens of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Company wrote that he had had
one hundred copies of the article distributed among the officials and
employees of his road. Mr. J.M. Parker, Receiver and General Manager
of the Arkansas, Louisiana & Gulf Railway Company, wrote: "I have your
favor with enclosure.... I shall take pleasure in reading this
article, and from glancing through it I am inclined to think that the
statement that the Negro is not getting a square deal in the way of
transportation facilities is well founded." Mr. William J. Black,
Passenger Traffic Manager of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé Railway
System, wrote in part: "You will, no doubt, be pleased to learn that
the Santa Fé has already provided equipment for colored travel in
conformity with the plan outlined in your article." From all or most
of the Southern railways came letters of the general tenor of those
quoted, and thus was the way prepared for the successful inauguration
of the Railroad Days.
Constantly as he labored for the rights of his people he never sought
to obtain for them any special privileges. Unlike most leaders of
groups, classes, or races of people he never sought any exclusive or
special advantages for his followers. He did not want the Negro to
receive any favors by reason of his race any more than he wanted him
to be discriminated against on that account. He wanted all human
beings, Negroes among the rest, to receive their deserts as
individuals regardless of their race, color, religion, sex, or any
other consideration which has nothing to do with the individual's
merits. One of his favorite figures was that "one cannot hold another
in a ditch without himself staying in the ditch." There is not a
single right for which he contended for his people which if won would
not directly or indirectly benefit all other people. Were they in all
the States admitted to the franchise on equal terms with white
citizens what Mr. Washington termed the "encouragement of vice and
ignorance among white citizens" would cease.
Were the lynching of Negroes stopped the lynching of white men would
also cease. Both the innocent black man and the innocent white man
would feel a greater sense of security while the guilty black man as
well as the guilty white man would be less secure. Were the Negroes
given their full share of public education the whites would gain not
only more reliable and intelligent Negro labor, but would be largely
freed so far as Negroes are concerned from the menace of the crimes of
violence which are committed almost exclusively by ignorant persons.
Finally, were Negro travellers given equal accommodations and
treatment for equal rates on all the Southern railways the volume of
Negro travel would more rapidly increase, thus increasing the
prosperity of the railways and their shareholders which would in turn
promote the prosperity of the entire South.
True to his policy of always placing the emphasis upon those things
which are encouraging instead of upon those things which are
discouraging, Mr. Washington concluded the already much-quoted
article, "Is the Negro Having a Fair Chance?" with these observations:
"Notwithstanding all the defects in our system of dealing with him,
the Negro in this country owns more property, lives in better houses,
is in a larger measure encouraged in business, wears better clothes,
eats better food, has more schoolhouses and churches, and more
teachers and ministers, than any similar group of Negroes anywhere in
the world."
CHAPTER FIVE
MEETING RACE PREJUDICE
Although intensely human and consumingly interested in humanity--both
in the mass and as individuals, whether of his own race or any
other--Booker Washington thought and acted to an uncommon degree on
the impersonal plane. This characteristic was perhaps most strikingly
illustrated in his attitude toward race prejudice. When, many years
ago, he had charge of the Indian students at Hampton, and had occasion
to travel with them, he found they were free to occupy in the hotels
any rooms they could pay for, whereas he must either go without or
take a room in the servants' quarters. He regarded these experiences
as interesting illustrations of the illogical nature of race
prejudice. The occupants of these hotels did not resent mingling with
members of a backward race whose skin happened to be red, but they did
object to mingling on the same terms with members of another backward
race whose skin happened to be black. It apparently never entered his
head to regard this discrimination with bitterness or as a personal
rebuff. One could not, however, make a greater mistake than to assume
from this impersonal attitude that he condoned race prejudice, or in
any sense stood as an apologist for it. To dispel any such idea one
has only to recall his speech at the Peace Jubilee in Chicago after
the Spanish War, from which we have already quoted, and in which he
characterized racial prejudice as "a cancer gnawing at the heart of
the Republic, that shall one day prove as dangerous as an attack from
an army without or within."
Very early in his career Washington worked out for himself a perfectly
definite line of conduct in the matter of social mingling with white
people. In the South he scrupulously observed the local customs and
avoided offending the prejudices of the Southerners in so far as was
possible without unduly handicapping his work. For instance, in his
constant travelling throughout the South he not only violated their
customs, but oftentimes their laws, in using sleeping cars, but this
he was obliged to do because he could spare neither the time to travel
by day nor the strength and energy to sit up all night. This
particular Southern prejudice and the laws predicated upon it he was
hence forced to violate, but he did so as a physical necessity to the
accomplishment of his work and not in any sense as a defiance of
custom or law. While in the South he observed Southern customs and
bowed to Southern prejudices, but he declined to be bound by such
customs, laws, and prejudices when in other parts of this country or
the world. Except in the South he allowed himself whatever degree of
social intercourse with the whites seemed best calculated to
accomplish his immediate object and his ultimate aims. He never
accepted purely social invitations from white persons. He always
claimed that he could best satisfy his social desires among his own
people. He believed that the question of so-called "social equality"
between the races was too academic and meaningless to be worthy of
serious discussion.
Probably he never made a more well-considered or illuminating
statement of his personal attitude toward social intercourse with the
dominant race than in a letter to the late Edgar Gardiner Murphy, a
Southerner "of light and leading," author of "The Present South," "The
Basis of Ascendancy," and other notable books on the relations between
the races. Mr. Murphy, as a Southerner, became alarmed at the attacks
upon Booker Washington by certain Southern newspapers and public men
because of his appearance at so-called social functions in the North.
Mr. Murphy, rightly regarding the retention of the favorable opinion
of representative Southern whites as essential to the success of
Washington's work, very naturally feared any course of action which
seemed to threaten the continuance of that favorable opinion. In
response to a letter in which Mr. Murphy expressed these fears and
asked for an opportunity to discuss the situation with him Mr.
Washington replied as follows:
[_Personal_]
MY DEAR SIR: I have received your kind letter, for which I
thank you very much. I was very much disappointed that I did
not have an opportunity of meeting you, as I had planned the
other day, so as not to be so hurried in talking with you as
I usually am. I shall be very glad, however, the very first
time I can find another spare hour when in New York (Mr.
Murphy was then living in New York City) to have you talk
with me fully and frankly about the matters that are in your
mind.
However we may differ in our view regarding certain matters,
there is no man in the country whose frankness, earnestness,
and sincere disinterestedness I respect more than yours, and
whatever you say always has great weight with me.
Your letter emphasizes the tremendous difficulty of the work
at the South. In most cases, and in most countries where a
large section of the people are down, and are to be helped
up, those attempting to do the work have before them a
straight, simple problem of elevating the unfortunate people
without the entanglement of racial prejudice to be grappled
with. I think I do not exaggerate when I say that perhaps a
third or half of the thought and energy of those engaged in
the elevation of the colored people is given in the
direction of trying to do the thing or not doing the thing
which would enhance racial prejudice. This feature of the
situation I believe very few people at the North or at the
South appreciate. What is true of the Negro educator is true
in a smaller degree of the white educator at the South. I am
constantly trying, as best I can, to study the situation as
it is right here on the ground, and I may be mistaken, but
aside from the wild and demagogical talk on the part of a
few I am unable to discover much or any change in the
attitude of the best white people toward the best colored
people. So far as my own individual experience and
observation are concerned, I am treated about the same as I
have always been. I was in Athens, Georgia, a few days ago,
to deliver ah address before the colored people at the State
Fair, and the meeting was attended by the best class of
whites and the best class of colored people, who seemed to
be pleased over what I said.
Mr. Blank, a Southern Congressman, just now is making a good
deal of noise, but you will recall that Mr. Blank spoke just
as bitterly against me before Mr. Roosevelt became President
as he has since. I do not want to permit myself to be
misled, but I repeat that I cannot see or feel that any
great alienation has taken place between the two classes of
people that you refer to.
For the sake of argument I want to grant for the moment a
thing which I have never done before, even in a private
letter, and which is very distasteful to me, and that is,
that I am the leader of the colored people. Do you think it
will ever be possible for one man to be set up as the leader
of ten millions of people, meaning a population nearly twice
as large as that of the Dominion of Canada and nearly equal
to that of the Republic of Mexico, without the actions of
that individual being carefully watched and commented upon,
and what he does being exaggerated either in one direction
or the other? Again, if I am the leader and therefore the
mouthpiece for ten millions of colored people, is it
possible for such a leader to avoid coming into contact with
the representatives of the ruling classes of white people
upon many occasions; and is it not to be expected that when
questions that are racial and national and international in
their character are to be discussed, that such a
representative of the Negro race would be sought out both by
individuals and by conventions? If, as you kindly suggest, I
am the leader, I hardly see how such notoriety and
prominence as will naturally come can be wholly or in any
large degree avoided.
Judging by some of the criticisms that have appeared
recently, mainly from the class of people to whom I have
referred, it seems to me that some of the white people at
the South are making an attempt to control my actions when I
am in the North and in Europe. Heretofore, no man has been
more careful to regard the feelings of the Southern people
in actions and words than I have been, and this policy I
shall continue to pursue, but I have never attempted to hide
or to minimize the fact that when I am out of the South I do
not conform to the same customs and rules that I do in the
South. I say I have not attempted to hide it because
everything that I have done in this respect was published
four years ago in my book, "Up from Slavery," which has been
read widely throughout the South, and I did not hear a word
of adverse criticism passed upon what I had done. For
fifteen years I have been doing at the North just what I
have been doing during the past year. I have never attended
a purely social function given by white people anywhere in
the country. Nearly every week I receive invitations to
weddings of rich people, but these I always refuse. Mrs.
Washington almost never accompanies me on any occasion where
there can be the least sign of purely social intercourse.
Whenever I meet white people in the North at their offices,
in their parlors, or at their dinner tables, or at banquets,
it is with me purely a matter of business, either in the
interest of our institution or in the interest of my race;
no other thought ever enters my mind. For me to say now,
after fifteen years of creating interest in my race and in
this institution in that manner, that I must stop, would
simply mean that I must cease to get money in a large
measure for this institution. In meeting the people in this
way I am simply doing what the head of practically every
school, black and white, in the South is constantly doing.
For purely social pleasure I have always found all my
ambitions satisfied among my own people, and you will find
that in proportion as the colored race becomes educated and
prosperous, in the same proportion is this true of all
colored people.
I said a minute ago that I had tried to be careful in regard
to the feelings of the Southern people. It has been urged
upon me time and time again to employ a number of white
teachers at this institution. I have not done so and do not
intend to do so, largely for the reason that they would be
constantly mingling with each other at the table. For thirty
years and more, in every one of our Southern States, white
and colored people have sat down to the table three times a
day nearly throughout the year, and I have heard very little
criticism passed upon them. This kind of thing, however, at
Tuskegee I have always tried to avoid so far as our regular
teaching force is concerned. But I repeat, if I begin to
yield in the performance of my duty when out of the South in
one respect, I do not know where the end will be. It is very
difficult for you, or any other person who is not in my
place, to understand the difficulty and embarrassment that I
am confronted with. You have no idea how many invitations of
various kinds I am constantly refusing or trying to get away
from because I want to avoid embarrassing situations. For
example, over a year ago Mr. S---- invited me to go to
Stockbridge, Massachusetts, near Lenox, to deliver an
address on General Armstrong's life and work. When I reached
Stockbridge an hour or so before the time of delivering the
address, I found that Mr. S----, who had invited me, had
also invited five or six other gentlemen to meet me at
luncheon. The luncheon I knew nothing about until I reached
the town. Under such circumstances I am at a loss to know
how I could have avoided accepting the invitation. A few
days afterward I filled a long-standing invitation to
lecture at Amherst College. I reached the town a few hours
before dinner and found that a number of people, including
several college presidents, had been invited to meet me at
dinner. Taking still another case: over a year ago I
promised a colored club in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that I
would be their guest at a banquet in October. The banquet
was held on the third of the month, and when I reached
Cambridge I found that in addition to the members of the
colored club, the Mayor of the city and a number of Harvard
professors, including President Eliot, had been invited; and
I could go on and state case after case. Of course, if I
wanted to make a martyr of myself and draw especial
attention to me and to the institution, I could easily do so
by simply writing whenever I receive an invitation to a
dinner or banquet that I could not accept on account of the
color of my skin.
Six years ago at the Peace Jubilee in Chicago, where I spoke
at a meeting at which President McKinley was present, I took
both luncheon and dinner in the same dining-room with
President McKinley and was the guest of the same club that
he was a guest of. There were Southern men present, and the
fact that I was present and spoke was widely heralded
throughout the South, and so far as I know not a word of
adverse comment was made. For nearly fifteen years the
addresses which I have been constantly making at dinners and
banquets in the North have been published throughout the
South, and no adverse comment has been made regarding my
presence on these occasions.
Practically all of the invitations to functions that are of
even a semi-social character are urged upon me by Northern
people, and very often after I have refused to accept
invitations pressure is brought to bear on special friends
of mine in order to get me to accept. Notwithstanding all
this, where I accept one invitation I refuse ten; in fact,
you have no idea how many invitations to dinner I refuse
while I am in the North. I not only do so for the reason
that I do not care to excite undue criticism, but for the
further reason that if I were to accept any large proportion
of such invitations I would have little time left for my
legitimate work. In many cases the invitations come from
people who do not give money but simply want to secure a
notoriety or satisfy curiosity.
I have stated the case as I see it, and with a view of
having you think over these matters by the time that we
meet.
[Signed] BOOKER T. WASHINGTON.
There were two particularly notable occasions upon which Mr.
Washington unwittingly stirred the prejudices of the South. The first
was when in 1901 he dined with President Roosevelt and his family at
the White House; the second, when four years later he dined with Mr.
John Wanamaker and his daughter at a hotel in Saratoga, New York.
The truth of his dining at the White House, of which so many imaginary
versions have been given, was this: having received so many
expressions of approval from all sections of the country on his
appointment of ex-Governor Jones to a Federal judgeship in Alabama,
which appointment was made, as described in a previous chapter, on the
recommendation of Booker Washington and Grover Cleveland, President
Roosevelt asked him to come to the White House and discuss with him
some further appointments and other matters of mutual interest.
On arriving in Washington he went to the home of his friend,
Whitefield McKinlay, a colored man with whom he usually stopped when
in the Capital. The next morning he went to the White House by
appointment for an interview with the President. Since they did not
have time to finish their discussion, the President, in accordance
with the course he had often followed with others under similar
circumstances, invited Washington to come to dinner so that they might
finish their discussion in the evening without loss of time.
In response to this oral invitation he went to the White House at the
appointed time, dined with the President and his family and two other
guests, and after dinner discussed with the President chiefly the
character of individual colored office holders or applicants for
office and, as says Colonel Roosevelt, "the desirability in specific
cases, notably in all offices having to do with the administration of
justice, of getting high-minded and fearless white men into
office--men whom we could be sure would affirmatively protect the
law-abiding Negro's right to life, liberty, and property just exactly
as they protected the rights of law-abiding white men." Also they
discussed the public service of the South so far as the
representatives of the Federal Administration were concerned--the
subject upon which President Roosevelt had wished to consult him. The
next day the bare fact that he had dined with the President was
obscurely announced by the Washington papers as a routine item of
White House news. Some days later, however, an enterprising
correspondent for a Southern paper lifted this unpretentious item from
oblivion and sent it to his paper to be blazoned forth in a front-page
headline. For days and weeks thereafter the Southern press fairly
shrieked with the news of this quiet dinner. The very papers which had
most loudly praised the President for his appointment of a Southern
Democrat to a Federal judgeship now execrated him for inviting to dine
with him the man upon whose recommendation he had made this
appointment.