HOW THE FIRST SIX YEARS AFTER GRADUATION FROM HAMPTON WERE SPENT.
In the fall of 1875 I returned to Malden and was elected as the teacher
in the school at Malden, the first school that I ever attended. I taught
this school for three years. The thing that I recall most pleasantly in
connection with my teaching was the fact that I induced several of my
pupils to go to Hampton and most of them have become strong and useful
men. One of them Dr. Samuel E. Courtney, is now a successful physician
in Boston and a member of the Boston Board of Education. While teaching
I insisted that each pupil should come to school clean, should have his
or her hands and face washed and hair combed and should keep the buttons
on his or her clothing.
I not only taught school in the day, but for a great portion of the time
taught night school. In addition to this I had two Sunday schools, one
at a place called Snow Hill, about two miles from Malden, in the
morning, and another in Malden in the afternoon. The average attendance
in my day school, was I think, between 80 and 90. As I had no assistant
teacher it was a very difficult task to keep all the pupils interested
and to see that they made progress in their studies. I had few
unpleasant experiences, however, in connection with my teaching. Most of
the parents, notwithstanding the fact that they and many of the children
knew me as a boy, seemed to have the greatest confidence in me and
respect for me and did everything in their power to make the work
pleasant and agreeable.
One thing that gave me a great deal of satisfaction and pleasure in
teaching this school was the conducting of a debating society which met
weekly and was largely attended both by the young and older people. It
was in this debating society and the societies of a similar character at
Hampton that I began to cultivate whatever talent I may have for public
speaking. While in Malden, our debating society would very often arrange
for debates with other similar organizations in Charleston and
elsewhere.
Soon after I began teaching, I resolved to induce my brother John to
attend the Hampton Institute. He had been good enough to work for the
family while I was being educated, and besides had helped me in all the
ways he could, by working in the coal mines while I had been away.
Within a few months he started for Hampton and by his own efforts and my
aid he went through the institution. After both of us had gotten
through Hampton we sent our adopted brother James there, and had the
satisfaction of having him educated under Gen. Armstrong.
In 1878 I went to Wayland Seminary, in Washington, and spent a year in
study there. Rev. Dr. King was President of Wayland Seminary while I was
a student there. Notwithstanding I was there but a short time, the high
Christian character of Dr. King made a lasting impression upon me. The
deep religious spirit which pervaded the atmosphere at Wayland made an
impression upon me which I trust will always remain.
Soon after my year at Wayland had expired, I was invited by a committee
of gentlemen in Charleston, West Virginia, to stump the state of West
Virginia in the interest of having the capital of the state moved from
Wheeling, West Virginia, to Charleston. For some time there had been
quite an agitation in the state on the question of the permanent
location of the capital. A law was passed by the legislature providing
that three cities might be voted for; these were, I think, Charleston,
Parkersburg and Martinsburg. It was a three-cornered contest and great
energy was shown by each city. After about three months of campaigning
the voters declared in favor of Charleston as the permanent capital by
a large majority. I went into a large number of the counties of West
Virginia and had the satisfaction of feeling that my efforts counted for
something in winning success for Charleston, which is only five miles
from my old home, Malden.
The speaking in connection with the removal of the capital rather fired
the slumbering ambition which I had had for some time to become a
lawyer, and after this campaign was over I began in earnest to study
law, in fact read Blackstone and several elementary law books
preparatory to the profession of the law. A good deal of my reading of
the law was done under the kind direction of the Hon. Romes H. Freer, a
white man who was then a prosperous lawyer in Charleston and who has
since become a member of Congress. But notwithstanding my ambition to
become a lawyer, I always had an unexplainable feeling that I was to do
something else, and that I never would have the opportunity to practice
law. As I analyze at the present time the feeling that seemed to possess
me then, I was impressed with the idea that to confine myself to the
practice of law would be going contrary to my teaching at Hampton, and
would limit me to a much smaller sphere of usefulness than was open to
me if I followed the work of educating my people after the manner in
which I had been taught at Hampton. The course of events, however, very
soon placed me where I found an opportunity to begin my life’s work.
My work in connection with the removal of the capital had not long been
over when I received an invitation from Gen. Armstrong, very much to my
surprise, to return to Hampton and deliver the graduates’ address at the
next commencement. I chose as the subject of this address, “The Force
that Wins.” Everyone seemed greatly pleased with what I said. After the
address I was still further surprised by being asked by Gen. Armstrong
to return to the Hampton Institute and take a position, partly as a
teacher and partly as a post-graduate student. This I gladly consented
to do. Gen. Armstrong had decided to start a night class at Hampton for
students who wanted to work all day and study for two hours at night. He
asked me to organize and teach this class. At first there were only
about a half dozen students but the number soon grew to about thirty.
The night class at Hampton has since grown to the point where it now
numbers six or seven hundred. It seems to me that the teaching of this
class was almost the most satisfactory work I ever did. The students who
composed the class worked during the day for ten hours in the saw mill,
on the farm, or in the laundry. They were a most earnest set. I soon
gave them the name of the “Plucky Class.” Several of the members of this
“Plucky Class” now fill prominent and useful positions. While I was
teaching I was given lessons in advanced subjects by Dr. H. B. Frissell,
who was then chaplain, but who is now the honored and successful
successor of Gen. Armstrong, as well as by others.
About the time the night class was organized at Hampton, Indians for the
first time were permitted to enter the institution. The second year that
I worked at Hampton, in connection with other duties, I was placed in
charge of the Indian boys, who at that time numbered about seventy-five,
I think. I lived in their cottage with them and looked after all their
wants. I grew to like the Indians very much and placed great faith in
them. My daily experience with them convinced me that the main thing
that any oppressed people needed was a chance of the right kind and they
would cease to be savages.
At the end of my second year at Hampton as a teacher, in 1881, there
came a call from the little town of Tuskegee, Alabama, to Gen. Armstrong
for some one to organize and become the Principal of a Normal School,
which the people wanted to start in that town. The letter to Gen.
Armstrong was written on behalf of the colored people of the town of
Tuskegee by Mr. Geo. W. Campbell, one of the foremost white citizens of
Tuskegee. Mr. Campbell is still the president of the Board of Trustees
of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, and has from the first
been one of its warmest and most steadfast friends. When Mr. Campbell
wrote to Gen. Armstrong he had in mind the securing of a white man to
take the principalship of the school. Gen. Armstrong replied that he
knew of no suitable white man for the position, but that he could
recommend a colored man. Mr. Campbell wrote in reply that a competent
colored man would be acceptable. Gen. Armstrong asked me to give up my
work at Hampton and go to Tuskegee in answer to this call. I decided to
undertake the work, and after spending a few days at my old home in
Malden, West Virginia, I proceeded to the town of Tuskegee, Alabama.
I wish to add here that, in later years, I do not envy the white boy as
I once did. I have learned that success is to be measured, not so much
by the position that one has reached in life, as by the obstacles which
he has overcome while trying to succeed. Looked at from this standpoint,
I almost reach the conclusion that often the negro boy’s birth and
connection with an unpopular race are an advantage, so far as real life
is concerned. With few exceptions, the negro youth must work harder and
perform his tasks even better than a white youth in order to secure
recognition. But out of the hard and unusual struggle through which he
is compelled to pass, he gets a strength, a confidence that one misses
whose pathway is comparatively smooth by reason of birth and race.
From any point of view, I had rather be what I am, a member of the Negro
race, than to be able to claim membership with the most favored of any
other race. I have always been made sad when I have heard members of my
race claiming rights and privileges, or certain badges of distinction,
on the ground simply that they were members of this or that race,
regardless of their own individual worth or attainments.