SPREADING THE TUSKEGEE SPIRIT
One of the questions most frequently asked me is, To what extent
are Tuskegee graduates able to reproduce the work of the parent
institution? Just as the Tuskegee Institute is an outgrowth of the
Hampton Institute, so other smaller schools have grown out of the
Tuskegee Institute in various parts of the country. There are at
present sixteen schools of some size which have grown out of the
Tuskegee Institute or have been organised by Tuskegee men and women. In
all instances, these schools have become large enough to be chartered
under the laws of the State.
The Vorhees Industrial School at Denmark, South Carolina, for example,
was founded by Elizabeth E. Wright, class of 1894. It is now in its
seventh year. Miss Wright was greatly opposed at first by both the
white and coloured people, but she persevered, and has at length
overcome all opposition. She has 300 acres of land, all paid for. A
large central building has been erected at a cost of $3,000. This
contains offices, class rooms, and a chapel that will seat 600. This
building is paid for, and a girls' dormitory, to cost $4,000, the
money for which is in the treasury, is in process of erection. The
plans for both of these buildings were drawn by a Tuskegee student.
A barn to cost $800 is nearly completed, and there are several other
small buildings. Miss Wright is assisted by three Tuskegee graduates,
one as the farm superintendent, one as treasurer and bookkeeper, and
the other as carpenter and teacher of drawing. The day and boarding
students number more than 300. Farming in its various branches is the
principal work of the students, but they are also taught shoemaking,
carpentry, cooking, sewing, housekeeping, and laundering, while
printing and blacksmithing are soon to be added to the course. The
school spent $9,000 last year in current expenses, building expenses,
and the purchase of land.
Another of our graduates, Mr. V. Chambliss, has charge of the farming
operations of the Southern Land Improvement Company. About forty Negro
families have settled upon land controlled by this organisation, and
the number is increasing each year. These families are being given the
opportunity to buy their homes through their own labour and under the
guidance of Mr. Chambliss. Mr. Chambliss does not use the hoe himself,
for he finds it more economical to utilise his time directing the work.
When the world wants cotton or corn, it cares little whether the man
uses his pen or his hoe. What it desires are results. Some men have the
ability to produce fifty times as much cotton with the pen as with the
hoe. Another example will show how our students succeed when working
directly under others. The letter which follows is to the point:
PROFESSOR BOOKER T. WASHINGTON.
_Dear Sir_: The students from your school who have been at work
here during the vacation expect to return to Tuskegee to-morrow,
and we want to say to you that these boys have demonstrated to our
company the wonderful benefit of your teaching. These young men
have taken hold of their work in a steady and businesslike way,
and have worked uncomplainingly during the severe heat of the past
summer. We would like, if it is possible, to induce a number of
your students to purchase their homes about our works in North
Birmingham and become regular workmen in our different shops. We
have a letter before us now, written by one of your students,
John Davis, which would reflect credit on the masters of Yale or
Harvard. Please accept our best wishes for the success of the
grand work you have undertaken.
DIMMICK PIPE WORKS COMPANY,
Birmingham, Alabama.
A conspicuous example of a Tuskegee graduate who is using his knowledge
of stock-raising in a practical way is that of William Johnson
Shoals, of Clear Creek, Indian Territory. Shoals owns and operates
his own stock farm, one of the largest in the Territory, and has been
successful from the very beginning.
The following letter indicates one of the ways in which we are able to
assist the public-school system from time to time:
ETHELVILLE, ALABAMA, June, 1903.
PROFESSOR B. T. WASHINGTON.
I am very anxious to afford the coloured teachers of this county
the best instruction possible, and so I write to ask if you cannot
send us one of your teachers to conduct a Normal Institute, to be
held at Carrollton, June 29th to July 4th--a teacher whom you can
recommend. I am sorry to say the county has no money it can spend
on this matter.
Yours truly,
W. H. STOREY,
County Superintendent of Education.
The following institutions have grown out of the Tuskegee Institute and
have been chartered under the laws of their respective States. Not only
have they been founded by Tuskegee graduates, but the officers and in
many cases the entire faculty are from Tuskegee:
Mt. Meigs Institute, Waugh, Alabama; Snow Hill Institute, Snow Hill,
Alabama; Vorhees Industrial School, Denmark, South Carolina; East
Tennessee Normal and Industrial Institute, Harriman, Tennessee;
Robert Hungerford Industrial Institute, Eatonville, Florida; Topeka
Educational and Industrial Institute, Topeka, Kansas; Allengreene
Normal and Industrial Institute, Ruston, Louisiana; Utica Normal and
Industrial Institute, Mississippi; Christianburg Institute, Cambria,
Virginia.
The story of struggle, sacrifice and hard work connected with the
founding of some of these schools is more akin to romance than to
reality.
[Illustration: A FURNITURE AND REPAIR SHOP AT SNOW HILL]
Snow Hill Institute, Snow Hill, Alabama, by way of illustration, was
founded by William J. Edwards, of the class of 1893. This school is
now in its tenth year, and was started in a one-room cabin. Soon after
the school was established, Honourable R. O. Simpson, a wealthy white
resident of the community, was so impressed with its good effect upon
the Negroes of the vicinity that he gave the school forty acres of
land. This has been added to, until the school now owns 160 acres, and
property to the value of $30,000.
Last year it expended $20,000 in its operations. It has about 400
students, 200 of them being boarding students. The following trades are
taught: Farming, carpentry, wheelwrighting, blacksmithing, painting,
brickmaking, printing, sewing, cooking, housekeeping. About twenty
teachers and instructors are employed, nearly all graduates or former
students of Tuskegee. Snow Hill has sent out twenty-five graduates. All
are required to pass the State teachers' examination before graduating.
Six of them are teachers in the Institute. The school not only has the
support and the sympathy of Mr. R. O. Simpson, but of all the best
white people in the county.
A little more than a year ago one of our graduates, Mr. Charles P.
Adams, established a small school at Ruston, Louisiana. At present
the school owns twenty-five acres of land, on which a schoolhouse
costing $1,200 has been built and paid for. The school term has
been extended from three to eight months, with three teachers--all
Tuskegee graduates--and 110 pupils. In connection with the class-room
work the students are taught agriculture and housekeeping. All this
has been done in a little more than one year with money and labour
contributed by the people of both races in the community. In regard
to Mr. Adams's work, Honourable B. F. Thompson, the Mayor of Ruston,
says, "Professor Adams deserves credit for what he has accomplished."
Honourable S. D. Pearce, the representative of the parish in the State
Legislature, says, "The school is doing fine work for the education of
the coloured youth of this section of the State, and Professor Adams
is making a vigorous struggle for its advancement." Mr. W. E. Redwine,
Superintendent of Public Instruction for the parish, says, "Professor
Adams is doing work in the right direction for the betterment of his
race." Mr. A. J. Bell, the editor of the local newspaper, says, "His
work in this section has been productive of incalculable good."
As to the work of the Utica Normal and Industrial Institute, Utica,
Mississippi, I will let Mr. W. H. Holtzclaw, the principal, tell in his
own words:
[Illustration: A SEWING-CLASS AT SNOW HILL]
"I came here from Snow Hill, Alabama, last October, without a cent (I
left my wife behind because of lack of means to bring her, and I walked
part of the way through a wild and unfrequented part of this State),
and started this work under a tree. Now we have two horses, forty
acres of land, one cow and a calf, a farm planted and growing, more
than 200 students, seven teachers, and a building going up. In all my
efforts I have had the wise counsel and constant assistance of Mrs.
Holtzclaw, without which I could not have made much progress."
Harriman Industrial Institute, Harriman, Tennessee, was established
five years ago by J. W. Oveltrea, of the class of 1893. The school has
thirty acres of land in the suburbs of Harriman. Mr. Oveltrea and his
wife are both graduates of Tuskegee, and they have been aided in their
work by Tuskegee graduates and students. The school has four buildings
and about one hundred students. Several trades are taught.
The Robert Hungerford Institute, in Eatonville, Florida, was founded by
R. C. Calhoun, of the class of 1896. Eatonville is about six miles from
Orlando. Mr. Calhoun had nothing to begin with but the little public
school. He has secured 200 acres of land, clear of debt, and a year
ago dedicated Booker T. Washington Hall, a dormitory and class-room
building, with chapel. This building, the plans of which were drawn
by a Tuskegee graduate, cost $3,000. The trades taught are farming,
wheelwrighting, painting, carpentry, sewing, cooking and laundering.
Miss Nathalie Lord, one of my early teachers at Hampton, is a trustee
of this school. The school is now in its fourth year. It has forty
boarding students and nearly one hundred day students. Mrs. Calhoun,
who is her husband's assistant, was a student at Tuskegee, as was also
the man who has charge of the blacksmith and wheelwright shops.
Nearly three years ago, three of our graduates, under the leadership
of one of our teachers, Mr. J. N. Calloway, went to Africa under the
auspices of the German government, to introduce cotton-raising among
the natives. At the end of the second year the German officials were
so pleased that they employed three other students. At the end of the
fourth year the experiment was successful to the extent that a hundred
bales of cotton have been shipped from the colony of Togo, Africa, to
Berlin. Only a few months ago the German officials were kind enough to
send me several pairs of hose made from cotton raised by our students.
Since beginning this experiment, we have received applications from
both English and Belgian cotton-raising companies that wish to secure
Tuskegee men to introduce cotton-raising in their African possessions.
The Porto Rican Government makes an annual appropriation for the
purpose of maintaining eighteen students at Tuskegee in order that they
may learn our methods. The Haytian Government has recently arranged to
send a number of young men here, mainly with the view of their being
trained in farming. Besides, we have students present from the West
Indies, Africa, and several South American countries.
While speaking of the Tuskegee missionary spirit, it is interesting to
note the effect that the industrial training given by our graduates has
had upon the morals and manner of living among the natives of Africa
in Togoland. Missionaries have been working among these people for
many years, and very effectively, and yet training in carpentry and
cotton-raising had results that the academic and religious teaching
had not accomplished. When the natives are taught the Bible, and the
heart and the head are educated, the tendency is for them to become
teachers or traders. In the latter case, their learning brings them too
frequently into contact with unscrupulous European traders from whom
they acquire habits of gambling, cheating, drinking, etc. In addition
to this, when they begin _merchandising_, the natives find that it is
to their advantage to have more than one wife, since their wives are
able to help them in selling in the markets and through the country
districts. The young people who went to Africa from Tuskegee found that
this problem greatly perplexed the missionaries, but wherever these
natives were given work on the plantations, and employed their muscles
as well as their brains, a change for the better was soon apparent.
It is usually true that when a native is kept employed in one place,
he will begin to build a home, consisting of a number of huts; he
will clear a farm or plantation, and stock it with cattle, sheep,
pigs and fowls. He will plant vegetables, corn, cassava, yams, etc.
This happened among the Africans who were employed on the plantations
cultivated by our graduates. The wives and children of these labourers
were given work on the farms, and it has been found that few of them
gamble, steal and cheat, as do those who wander to and fro without
employment. Such natives as these cotton-growers are more easily
reached by missionary effort, and when they are converted to the
Christian religion, if they remain on the farms, they seldom fall back
into paganism.
I have been informed that it is a general opinion among the
missionaries in Togoland that industrial education will be a main-stay
in future effort, and that such teaching will be introduced in the
missionary institutions as rapidly as possible. Since the young men
went out from Tuskegee, a decided change has been noticed in the
sanitation and mode of living in the towns near which they are located.
Much of this betterment has been the direct result of the lessons
learned by the natives from seeing our carpenter build houses, and
observing our graduates' habits of life. The natives seemed anxious
to learn, and the Tuskegee colony received many applications from the
women to have their daughters come and live with the American women in
order that they might learn the new customs, especially the art of
sewing, cooking, and doing housework.
Few of the huts had shutters or doors when our graduates first went
to the colony--bedsteads were unknown; but now many of the huts have
outside shutters, and their inmates have learned how to construct
comfortable beds for themselves. Many who formerly bathed in streams
now have bath-houses back of their huts. On Sunday, all work on the
plantations of the Tuskegee party was suspended, except caring for the
stock and other necessary duties, and this, too, had its effect on the
natives, who were inclined to accept our religious observance of the
day. Many now dress in holiday attire on Sunday, and go to the nearest
mission.
The Tuskegee party settled about sixty miles from the coast, where no
wagons or carts were used for conveying produce or material. The native
men and women carried all freight in sixty-pound loads on their heads,
and were able to travel fifteen to twenty miles a day. On these round
trips of ten days, the women carried their small children with them,
and during their frequent halts came into contact with the rough and
demoralising element of the trading-post, and with other degrading
influences. This mode of transportation seemed very unsatisfactory to
the Tuskegee young men, who introduced carts and wagons drawn by men.
This allowed the women and children to remain at home and look after
the farms and their household duties, while the men made the trips to
the coast.
Young girls, just growing into womanhood, are no longer compelled to
meet the many bad influences formerly encountered on the trips to
the coast. The use of farm machinery in the colony has relieved the
women and girls of much drudgery. They used to prepare the land with
the crudest hoes and plows. This is now done with improved American
implements. The Germans have been so strongly impressed with these
effects of industrial training upon the natives, that they have decided
to introduce into all the schools of that colony a system for the
training of boys in hand work. With the assistance of the chiefs,
improved methods of agriculture and handicraft will be spread among the
tribes of that region.
I do not wish my readers to get the impression that all of Tuskegee's
men and women have succeeded, because they have not. A few have failed
miserably, much to our regret, but the percentage of failures is so
small that they are more than overshadowed by those who have been, in
the fullest sense of the word, successful.
Despite all that I have said, the work has merely begun. I believe we
have found the way. Our endeavour will be to continue to pursue it
faithfully, actively, bravely, honestly. With sufficient means, such
work as I have indicated could be greatly increased.