to dine at the White House. This was a little illogical in view of the
well-known fact that an invitation to the White House is a summons
rather than an invitation in the ordinary sense. Neither President
Roosevelt nor Mr. Washington issued any statements by way of
explanation or apology. While it was, of course, farthest from the
wishes of either to offend the sensibilities of the South, neither
one--the many statements to the contrary, notwithstanding--ever
indicated subsequently any regret or admitted that the incident was a
mistake.
During the furore over this incident both the President and Mr.
Washington received many threats against their lives. The President
had the Secret Service to protect him, while Mr. Washington had no
such reliance. His co-workers surrounded him with such precautions as
they could, and his secretary accumulated during this period enough
threatening letters to fill a desk drawer. It was not discovered
until some years after that one of these threats had been followed by
the visit to Tuskegee of a hired assassin. A strange Negro was hurt in
jumping off the train before it reached the Tuskegee Institute
station. There being no hospital for Negroes in the town of Tuskegee
he was taken to the hospital of the Institute, where he was cared for
and nursed for several weeks before he was able to leave. Mr.
Washington was absent in the North during all of this time. Many
months later this Negro confessed that he had come to Tuskegee in the
pay of a group of white men in Louisiana for the purpose of
assassinating Booker Washington. He said that he became so ashamed of
himself while being cared for by the doctors and nurses employed by
the very man he had come to murder that he left as soon as he was able
to do so instead of waiting to carry out his purpose on the return of
his victim, as he had originally planned to do.
Booker Washington, with all his philosophy and capacity for rising
above the personal, was probably more deeply pained by this affair
than any other in his whole career. His pain was, however, almost
solely on Mr. Roosevelt's account. He felt keenly hurt and chagrined
that Mr. Roosevelt, whom he so intensely admired, and who was doing so
much, not only for his own race but for the whole South as he
believed, should suffer all this abuse and even vilification on his
account. President Roosevelt evidently realized something of how he
felt, for in a letter to him written at this time he added this
postscript: "By the way, don't worry about _me_; it will all come
right in time, and if I have helped by ever so little 'the ascent of
man' I am more than satisfied."
Probably no single public event ever gave Booker Washington greater
pleasure than Colonel Roosevelt's triumphant election to the
Presidency in 1904. The day after the election he wrote the President
the following letter:
[_Personal_]
_Tuskegee Institute, Alabama,_
_November 10, 1904_.
MY DEAR MR. PRESIDENT: I cannot find words in which to
express my feeling regarding the tremendous outcome of
Tuesday's election. I know that you feel the sacred and
almost divine confidence imposed. In my opinion, no human
being in America since Washington, perhaps, has been so
honored and vindicated. The result shows that the great
heart of the American people beats true and is in the
direction of fair play for all, regardless of race or color.
Nothing has ever occurred which has given me more faith in
all races or shows more plainly that they will respond to
high ideals when properly appealed to.
I know that you will not misunderstand me when I say I share
somewhat the feeling of triumph and added responsibility
that must animate your soul at the present time because of
the personal abuse heaped upon you on account of myself. The
great victory and vindication does not make me feel boastful
or vainglorious, but, on the other hand, very humble, and
gives me more faith in humanity and makes me more determined
to work harder in the interest of all our people of both
races regardless of race or color. I shall urge our people
everywhere to manifest their gratitude by showing a spirit
of meekness and added usefulness. The election shows to
what a great height you have already lifted the character of
American citizenship. Before you leave the White House I am
sure that the whole South will understand you and love you.
God keep you and bless you.
Yours most sincerely,
[Signed] BOOKER T. WASHINGTON.
_To President Theodore Roosevelt, White House, Washington_
President Roosevelt expressed great appreciation of this letter and
said that Mr. Washington had taken the election in just the way he
would have wished him to take it.
About two years later Mr. Washington wrote President Roosevelt another
letter which throws light upon the relations between the two men as
well as upon the incongruous phases of racial prejudice:
_Tuskegee Institute, Alabama,_
_June 19, 1906._
MY DEAR MR. PRESIDENT: It will interest you to know that the
Cox family, over whom such a disturbance was made in
connection with the Indianola, Miss., post-office, have
started a bank in that same town which direct and reliable
information convinces me is in a prosperous condition. The
bank has the confidence of both races. It is a curious
circumstance that while objection was made to this black
family being at the head of the post-office no objection is
made to this black man being president of a bank in the same
town.
A letter just received from a reliable banker in Mississippi
contains the following sentences:
"Now, with reference to Mr. W.W. Cox, of Indianola, Miss., I
beg to advise that no man of color is as highly regarded and
respected by the white people of his town and county as he.
It is true that he organized and is cashier of the Delta
Penny Savings Bank, domiciled there. I visited Indianola
during the spring of 1905 and was very much surprised to
note the esteem in which he was held by the bankers and
business men (white) of that place. He is a good, clean man
and above the average in intelligence, and knows how to
handle the typical Southern white man. In the last statement
furnished by his bank to the State Auditor, his bank showed
total resources of $46,000. He owns and lives in one of the
best resident houses in Indianola, regardless of race, and
located in a part of the town where other colored men seem
to be not desired. The whites adjacent to him seem to be his
friends. He has a large plantation near the town, worth
$35,000 or $40,000. He is a director in Mr. Pettiford's bank
at Birmingham, Ala., and I think is vice-president of the
same. He also owns stock in the bank of Mound Bayou."
Yours very truly,
[Signed] BOOKER T. WASHINGTON.
_To President Theodore Roosevelt, Washington, D.C._
In August, 1905, Booker Washington spoke one Sunday morning before a
large audience in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. After his address Mr. John
Wanamaker and his daughter were among those who came forward to greet
him. They also invited him to dine with them at the United States
Hotel that afternoon. Mr. Wanamaker had been particularly interested
in Booker Washington and his work for many years. Mr. Washington
accepted this invitation without the least thought of reawakening the
clamor caused by the Roosevelt dinner. The dinner itself passed off
quietly, pleasantly, and without particular event. It was not until he
took up the papers at his little hotel in New York the next morning
that he found that he had again stirred up a hornet's nest similar to
that of four years before. The denunciation was if anything more
violent; for, as many of his assailants said, he should have profited
by the protests of four years before. In an editorial entitled,
"Booker Washington's Saratoga Performance" a Southern newspaper said:
"Since the fateful day when Booker T. Washington sat down to the
dinner table in the White House with President Roosevelt he has done
many things to hurt the cause of which he is regarded as the foremost
man.... Leaving out of the question the lack of delicacy and
self-respect manifested by Wanamaker and his family, blame must rest
upon Washington, because he knows how deep and impassable is the gulf
between whites and blacks in the South when the social situation is
involved. He deliberately flaunts all this in the face of the Southern
people among whom he is living and among whom his work has to be
carried on. He could have given no harder knock to his institution
than he gave when he marched into that Saratoga dinner room with a
white woman and her father."
These sentiments were expressed editorially by another Southern paper:
"Wanamaker is unworthy to shine the shoes of Booker Washington. He is
not in Washington's class. If the truly smart set of Saratoga was
shocked that Booker should have been caught in this man's company and
as his guest we are not surprised. But still Booker Washington could
not eat dinner with the most ordinary white man in this section. He
wouldn't dare intimate that he sought such social recognition among
whites here"; and in conclusion this editorial said: "The South only
pities the daughter that she should have allowed herself to be used by
a father whose sensibilities and ideas of the proprieties are so
dulled by his asinine qualities that he could not see the harm in it."
This vituperation of Mr. Wanamaker, and the scoring him for his part
in the affair even more than Washington, recalls an incident which Mr.
Washington himself relates in his book entitled, "My Larger
Education." When he was making a trip through Florida, a few weeks
after his dinner with President Roosevelt, at a little station near
Gainesville, "A white man got aboard the train," he says, "whose dress
and manner indicated that he was from the class of small farmers in
that part of the country. He shook hands with me very cordially, and
said: 'I am mighty glad to see you. I have heard about you and I have
been wanting to meet you for a long while.'
"I was naturally pleased at this cordial reception, but I was
surprised when, after looking me over, he remarked: 'Say, you are a
great man. You are the greatest man in this country.'
"I protested mildly, but he insisted, shaking his head and repeating,
'Yes, sir, the greatest man in this country.' Finally I asked him what
he had against President Roosevelt, telling him at the same time that,
in my opinion, the President of the United States was the greatest man
in the country.
"'Huh! Roosevelt?' he replied, with considerable emphasis in his
voice, 'I used to think that Roosevelt was a great man until he ate
dinner with you. That settled him for me.'"
Mr. Washington goes on to say: "This remark of a Florida farmer is but
one of the many experiences which have taught me something of the
curious nature of this thing that we call prejudice--social prejudice,
race prejudice, and all the rest. I have come to the conclusion that
these prejudices are something that it does not pay to disturb. It is
best to 'let sleeping dogs lie.' All sections of the United States,
like all other parts of the world, have their own peculiar customs and
prejudices. For that reason it is the part of common sense to respect
them. When one goes to European countries, or into the Far West, or
into India or China, he meets certain customs and certain prejudices
which he is bound to respect and, to a certain extent, comply with.
The same holds good regarding conditions in the North and in the
South. In the South it is not the custom for colored and white people
to be entertained at the same hotel; it is not the custom for black
and white children to attend the same school. In most parts of the
North a different custom prevails. I have never stopped to question or
quarrel with the customs of the people in the part of the country in
which I found myself."
And so he acted in the case of the Wanamaker dinner. He accepted Mr.
Wanamaker's invitation because he was in the North and his host was a
Northerner. In so doing he felt that he was not violating any
generally accepted custom or universally entertained prejudice of the
part of the country in which he found himself. Had the inconceivable
occurred, and had a Southerner invited him to dine in the South, under
conditions in all other respects identical, he would not have
accepted. He would not have been willing to incur the resentment of
the South even had his host been willing to defy local prejudices by
inviting him. On the other hand, he felt that the attitude of those
who would seek to control him in matters of social custom when he was
not in the South or among Southerners was unfair and unreasonable.
An incident which occurred while he was stopping at the English Hotel
in Indianapolis in 1903 furnished copy for the more or less
sensational press of the country. This hotel does not as a rule accept
Negroes as guests, but Mr. Washington was always a welcome visitor
there just as he was at many other hotels where less-favored members
of his race were excluded. He never patronized this hotel or any other
for the purpose of asserting his rights, but merely to obtain the
comforts and the seclusion so essential to a man who always worked up
to the limits of even his great strength and usually a little beyond
such limits. It is, indeed, quite possible that he might have lived
longer had he been free to stop at hotels in the South instead of
undergoing the constant wear and tear of being entertained in the
private homes of the all-too-kind hosts of his own race. All public
men and lecturers, in a large way of business, learn early in their
careers that they must decline practically all proffers of private
hospitality if they are to preserve their health.
On this occasion the white chambermaid assigned to care for the room
he occupied refused to perform her duties so far as his room was
concerned on the ground, as she stated, that she "would not clean up
after a nigger." For this refusal to do her work the management
discharged her. The Springfield _Republican_ of that date thus
describes what followed: "A hotel at Houston, Texas, immediately
offered her a place there, which she accepted, but as matters are now
going she is more likely to retire from the business as a grand lady
living on an independent income. Her name is upon all tongues in the
Southland, and the newspapers print long and complimentary accounts of
her life and the one great deed that has made her famous. Citizens and
communities vie with each other in contributing money.... Captain John
W. Johnson of Sheffield, Ala., is organizing a general subscription
fund from that and neighboring towns. A meeting at Houston, Texas,
raised $500 for her in the name of a 'self-respecting girl.' The
Houston _Chronicle_ is conducting another popular subscription.
Contributions are coming into it from all parts of Texas. Citizens of
New Orleans have raised $1,000. About twoscore Southern towns and a
dozen cities so far figure in the contributions. The movement extends
to Indianapolis, where a gold watch has been contributed." The
hysterical lauding of this "heroine" was subsequently wet blanketed by
the discovery that she had cared for Mr. Washington's room for the
first day or two of his stay without protest, and by the further
discovery that her second or third husband had recently obtained a
divorce from her.
It is only fair to add that many of the leading citizens of the South
strongly deprecated the sensational magnifying of this trivial
incident by a certain section of the Southern press. Mr. Washington
declined to make any comment for publication during or after this
petty tumult.
In spite of the three events described, and others of a like nature
that might be mentioned, no Negro was ever so liked, respected,
admired, and eulogized by the Southern whites as Booker Washington.
The day following his great speech before the Cotton States Exposition
in Atlanta in 1895 when he went out upon the streets of the city he
was so besieged by white citizens from the highest to the lowest, who
wanted to shake his hand and congratulate him, that he was fairly
driven in self-defense to remain indoors. Not many years after that it
had become a commonplace for him to be an honored guest on important
public occasions throughout the South. On occasions too numerous even
to note in passing he was welcomed, and introduced to great audiences,
by Southern Governors, Mayors, and other high officials, as well as by
eminent private citizens. Such recognition came partly as a
spontaneous tribute to the great work he was doing and partly because
of his constantly reiterated assurance that the Negro was not seeking
either political domination over the white man or social intercourse
with him. He reasoned that the more Southern whites he could convince
that his people were not seeking what is known as social equality or
political dominance, the less race friction there would be.
It has already been mentioned that at the opening of the first Negro
agricultural fair in Albany, Georgia, in the fall of 1914, the Mayor
of the city and several members of the City Council sat on the
platform during the exercises and listened to his speech with most
spontaneous and obvious approval. In this part of Georgia the Negroes
outnumber the whites by at least six to one. The afternoon of the same
day the Mayor invited Booker Washington and his party to come to the
city hall and confer with himself, the other city officials, and a
group of prominent private citizens on the relations between the races
in that city and locality. At this conference there was a friendly,
easy interchange of ideas interspersed with jokes and laughter, but
all the time Mr. Washington was leading them step by step to see that
by giving the Negroes proper educational opportunities they were
helping themselves as well as the Negroes. Mr. Stowe, who was present
at this conference, noticed to his surprise that some of the arguments
advanced by Dr. Washington, which seemed to him to be almost worn-out
truisms, although freshly and strongly expressed, were seized upon by
his auditors as new and original ideas. When he made this observation
to Mr. Washington after the meeting he said that several other
Northerners had under similar circumstances made the same observation
and then he added: "I only wish that it were possible for me to spend
several months of each year talking with just such groups of
representative Southern men. They are always responsive, eager to
understand what we are driving at, and sympathetic when they do
understand. The necessity for raising money has forced us to devote
the bulk of our time to educating the Northern public to the needs of
the situation to the neglect of our Southern white neighbors right
here about us."
It was an interesting illustration of the illogical workings of race
prejudice that this man to whom the city fathers from the Mayor down
gave up practically their entire day--this man to whom the city hall
was thrown open and at whose feet sat the leading citizens as well as
the officials of the city, could not have found shelter in any hotel
in town. This man whom the officials and other leading citizens
delighted to honor arrived at night on a Pullman sleeping car in
violation of the law of the State; and, after all possible honor had
been paid him, save allowing him to enter a hotel, departed the next
night by a Pullman sleeper in violation of the law!
This constant "law-breaker" was welcomed and introduced to audiences
by Governor Blanchard of Louisiana at Shreveport, La.; by Governor
Candler at Atlanta, Ga.; by Governor Donaghey at Little Rock, Ark.;
by Governor McCorkle of West Virginia, and successively by Governors
Jelks and O'Neil of his own State of Alabama. Still other Southern
Governors spoke from the same platform with him at congresses,
conventions, and meetings of various descriptions.
Next to South Carolina and Georgia, perhaps no State in the Union has
shown as much hostility to the progress of the Negro as Mississippi.
In 1908, in response to the urgent appeals of Charles Banks, the Negro
banker and dominating force of the Negro town of Mound Bayou, Mr.
Washington agreed to make a tour through Mississippi such as he had
made three years before through Arkansas and what were then Oklahoma
and Indian Territories. At Jackson, Miss., the management of the State
Fair Association offered the local committee of Negroes the great
Liberal Arts Building for Mr. Washington's address. In the audience
were not less than five thousand persons, among them several hundred
white citizens. Among the whites who sat on the platform were Governor
Noel, Lieutenant-Governor Manship, Bishop Charles B. Galloway of the
Methodist Episcopal Church South, Mr. Milsaps, the richest citizen of
the State; the postmaster of Jackson, the United States Marshal, Hon.
Edgar S. Wilson, and a considerable number of other prominent white
citizens.
At Natchez, a few nights later, the audience literally filled every
available space in the Grand Opera House and overflowed into the
adjoining streets. This audience was in many respects the most
remarkable that the city had ever seen. The entire orchestra was given
over to the white citizens of Natchez and Adams County, and still
there was not room to accommodate them, for they were packed in the
rear and stood three and four deep in the aisles. The colored people
were crowded into the balcony and the galleries. When Booker
Washington arose to speak, he was greeted by a perfect whirlwind of
applause and cheering. He was visibly affected by the reception given
him by whites as well as blacks.
When he finished speaking a large delegation headed by the Mayor of
the city made their way to the platform, welcomed him to the city,
thanked him for his address, and stated that his influence for good in
the city and county could not be estimated.
Mr. J.T. Harahan, of the Illinois Central Railroad, provided the
Pullman tourist car in which Mr. Washington and his party toured the
State. It was estimated that from sixty to eighty thousand people saw
and heard him during his seven days' trip. On the conclusion of the
tour one paper said, "No more popular man ever came into the State,
white or black, and no man ever spoke to larger audiences than he did.
He is the only speaker who ever filled the Jackson, Miss., Coliseum."
Only six months before his death Booker Washington made a similar tour
through Louisiana. Louisiana has always been reputed to be in the same
category as Mississippi in opposing Negro progress. To some of his
audiences Mr. Washington said that he and his party of twenty-five
colored men had felt before they started very much like the little
girl who was about to go on a trip to Louisiana with her parents. The
night before they started she said her prayer as usual:
"_Now I lay me down to sleep
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take._"
With a deep sigh she then added, "Good-bye, Lord, for two weeks. We
are going down to Louisiana."
In introducing Mr. Washington to a great audience in New Orleans, made
up of both races, Mayor Berhman said, turning to Booker Washington:
"The work you are doing for the uplift of your people means untold
good to the great State of Louisiana and to the whole country. Nowhere
has your race greater opportunities than in Louisiana. If the people
of the Negro race will follow your teachings, they will help
materially to bring about a condition that will mean much for
Louisiana, the South, and the nation."
At Shreveport former Governor N.C. Blanchard, in introducing Dr.
Washington to an audience of over 10,000 white and colored citizens,
said: "I am glad to see this goodly attendance of white people,
representative white people at that, for his Honor, the Mayor, is
here, and with him are members and officials of the city government
and other prominent citizens of our community. They are here to give
encouragement to Mr. Washington, to hold up his hands, for they know
that he is leading his people along right lines--lines tending to
promote better feeling and better understanding between the two
races....