THE STRUGGLES AND SUCCESS OF THE WORKERS AT TUSKEGEE FROM 1882 TO 1884.
Soon after securing possession of the farm we set about putting it into
a condition so that a crop of some kind might be secured from it during
the next year. At the close of school hours each afternoon, I would call
for volunteers to take their axes and go into the woods to assist in
clearing up the grounds. The students were most anxious to give their
service in this way, and very soon a large acreage was put into
condition for cultivation. We had no horse or mule with which to begin
the cultivation of the farm. Mr. George W. Campbell, however, the
president of the Board of Trustees, very kindly gave us a horse which
was well along in years. This was the first animal that the school ever
possessed. On the farm there was an old building that had formerly been
used as a stable, another that had been used as a chicken coop, and
still a third that had been used as a kitchen during ante-bellum days.
All of these three buildings or shanties were duly repaired and made to
do service as class-rooms, dormitories, etc.
We had our first services in Porter Hall on Thanksgiving Day, 1882. Rev.
R. C. Bedford, who was then pastor of the Congregational Church in
Montgomery, and who has since been one of our trustees and warmest
friends, preached the Thanksgiving sermon. This was the first
Thanksgiving service I think that was ever held in the town of Tuskegee;
and a joyous one it was to the people.
By the middle of the second year’s work the existence of the school had
begun to be advertised pretty thoroughly through the state of Alabama
and even in some of the adjoining states. This brought to us an
increasing number of students, and the problem as to what to do with
them was becoming a serious one. We put the girls who did not live in
town on the third floor of Porter Hall to sleep. The boys we scattered
around in whatever places we were able to secure. In order to secure a
dining room, kitchen and laundry, to be used by the boarding department,
our young men volunteered to dig out the basement under Porter Hall,
which was soon bricked up and made to answer its purpose very well. Old
students, however, who to-day return to Tuskegee and see the large new
dining room, kitchen, and laundry run by steam, are very much interested
in noting the change and contrast.
Sometimes during the winter of the second year of the school, we were
compelled to put large numbers of young men in shanties or huts to
sleep, where there was almost no protection from rain and cold weather.
Often during the very cold nights I have gone into the rooms of these
students at midnight to see how they were getting along, and have found
them sitting up by the fire, with blankets wrapped about them, as the
only method of keeping warm. One morning, when I asked at the opening
exercises how many had been frost-bitten during the cold weather, not
less than ten hands went up. The teachers were not surprised at this.
Still, notwithstanding these inconveniences and hardships, I think I
never heard a complaint from the lips of a single student. They always
seemed filled with gratitude for the opportunity to go to school under
any circumstances.
Very early in the history of the school we made it a rule that no
student, however well off he might be, was to be permitted to remain
unless he did some work, in addition to taking studies in the academic
department. At first quite a number of students and a large number of
parents did not like this rule; in fact, during the first three or four
years, a large proportion of the students brought either verbal or
written messages from their parents that they wanted their children
taught books, but did not want them taught work. Notwithstanding these
protests, we still stuck to our rule. As the years went on and as the
students and parents began to see and appreciate the value of our
industrial teaching, these protests grew less frequent and less strong.
It is a sufficient explanation to say in regard to this matter that it
has been ten years since a single objection has been raised by parents
or students against anyone’s taking part in our industrial work. In
fact, there is a positive enthusiasm among parents and students over our
industrial work, and we are compelled to refuse admission to hundreds
every year who wish to prepare themselves to take up industrial
pursuits. If we had the room and the means we could give industrial
training to a much larger number of students than are now receiving it.
The main burden of the letters which now come from parents is that each
wants his daughter or son taught some industry or trade in connection
with the academic branches. I also remember, during the early history of
this institution, that students coming here who had to pass through the
larger cities, or pass in the vicinity of other institutions, had the
finger of scorn pointed at them because they were going to a school
where it was understood that one had to labor. At the present time,
however, this feeling is so completely changed that there is almost no
portion of the South where there is any objection brought against
industrial education of the Negro on the part of the colored people
themselves. On the other hand, the feeling in favor of it is strong and
most enthusiastic.
Almost from the first I determined to have the students do practically
all the work of putting up the buildings and carrying on the various
departments of the institution. Many of our best friends, however,
doubted the practicability of this, but I insisted that it could be
done. I held that while the students at first might make very poor
bricks and do poor brick-masonry, the lesson of self-help would be more
valuable to them in the long run than if they were put into a building
which had been wholly the creation of the generosity of some one else.
By the end of the third year the number of students had increased from
30, with which we began, to 169; most of them, however, coming from
nearby counties and other sections of Alabama.
In February, 1883, the State Legislature of Alabama increased the state
appropriation for the school from two to three thousand dollars
annually, on recommendation of the State Superintendent of Public
Instruction, Hon. H. Clay Armstrong. The Committee on Education reported
the bill unanimously to the House and the Governor recommended its
passage. As some of the members were not acquainted with the character
of the school they raised objection to this increase at a time when, by
defalcation of the state treasurer, reported only the day before, the
state had lost a quarter of a million dollars. The Speaker of the House,
Hon. W. F. Foster, a member from Tuskegee, and an ex-Confederate
soldier, left the chair, and in an eloquent and effective speech in
praise of the work of the school at Tuskegee, urged the passage of the
bill. On conclusion of Col. Foster’s speech the bill passed by a large
majority vote. Col. Foster not only interested himself in the passage of
the first bill which gave support from the state to this institution,
but has been one of the warmest and most helpful friends from that time
until the present.
In reference to the passage of the bill for an increased appropriation
for the school, Rev. R. C. Bedford, at that time residing in Montgomery
as pastor of the Congregational Church, wrote to Gen. Armstrong as
follows:
“Gen. S. C. Armstrong, Dear Sir:--
“A short time ago I made a trip to Tuskegee, Ala., for the purpose of
visiting the State Normal School for colored people located there, four
of whose five teachers, together with the wife of the Principal, were
once pupils of yours at Hampton Institute. I attended the session of
the school for two days and was exceedingly pleased with the
enthusiastic spirit of both teachers and pupils. One of the encouraging
features of the school is the warm interest it has inspired in many of
the leading white citizens of Tuskegee. Mr. G. W. Campbell and Mr. Wm.
B. Swanson are among the oldest and most respected citizens of Macon
County. They with Mr. Lewis Adams, a prominent colored man, constitute
the State Board of Commissioners for the school. Col. Bowen, Mr. Varner,
and Col. W. F. Foster, speaker of the present Legislature, all citizens
of Tuskegee and familiar with the school, are among its warmest friends.
A short time ago, in conversation with Hon. H. Clay Armstrong, our State
Superintendent of Education, I learned that he was so much pleased with
the work of Mr. Washington and his associates as to recommend to the
Committee on Education to report a bill giving $1,000 per year
additional to the school. I was present during the debate on the bill.
So interested was Col. Foster in its passage that he left the speaker’s
chair, and upon the floor of the House, in an eloquent and effective
speech, urged that it pass. He sat down, and by a vote of 59 to 18, the
bill was passed; and it is now a law.
“With this example before us, we need have no fear as to what the
colored people can do if, like Mr. Washington and his associates, they
will take hold to win.”
In April, 1883, the school enjoyed a pleasant visit from Gen. J. F. B.
Marshall, the treasurer of Hampton Institute and the one who had been
generous enough to lend us $500 with which to make the first payment on
the farm. Gen. Marshall’s visit gave us the greatest hope and
encouragement. He wrote while at the school to the Southern Workman, a
paper published at Hampton Institute, as follows, concerning his visit:
“A few days’ rest from office duties being enjoined upon me recently, I
determined to pay a visit to the Tuskegee school, in which the faculty
and teachers of Hampton Institute naturally feel a special interest.
“The Tuskegee farm contains 140 acres and the boys are at work clearing
a field for sugar cane, which grows well here. They also raise cotton,
sweet potatoes, peaches, etc. To enable them to train the students
properly they must have them board at the school. A building is very
much needed for the accommodation of 100 young men. Mr. Washington says
that it will cost $8,000, if student labor can be made available in its
construction. For this purpose he proposes to build of brick made on the
farm, which has excellent clay. The young men are impatient to set to
work on their building.
“Tuskegee is one of the very old towns in the state, an attractive place
of about 2500 inhabitants, having several colleges and academies of high
repute for the white youth of both sexes. I was glad to find a very
strong temperance sentiment here. There were only two bars in town and
they pay a license of about $900 a year each. No better location could
have been chosen.
“The leading white citizens of the place appreciate the importance of
Mr. Washington’s work, and speak of him in high terms. He has evidently
won the esteem and confidence of all. Mr. Foster, the present speaker of
the House, in the State Legislature, lives here, and rendered valuable
aid in getting the increased appropriation of the state for Mr.
Washington, of whom he spoke to me in high praise.
“I am reminded by everything I see here of our own beginning and methods
at Hampton. I found on my arrival at the school, which is about a mile
from the village center, a handsome frame building of two stories with a
mansard roof. Though not yet finished it is occupied as a school
building and is very conveniently planned for the purpose, reminding me
of the Academic Hall at Hampton. The primary school on the Normal School
grounds bears the same relation to it as a practice school that the
Butler does to the Hampton Institute. It has 250 on the roll. They are
stored away in what was the stable, close as crayons in a Waltham box.
Let us hope they will all make their mark.
“All six teachers of the Normal and Training Schools are colored; and to
their race belongs all credit for the work accomplished here and of the
judicious use of the funds which the friends of the school, through the
efforts of Mr. Washington and Miss Davidson, have contributed.
“The experiment, thus far so successful, is one of deep interest to all
who have the welfare of the race at heart, and should not be suffered to
fail for want of means for its completion. It is vital to the success of
this school that the students should all be brought under the training
and supervision of the teachers by being boarded and lodged on the
premises. Our experience at Hampton has shown us the necessity of this.
I know of no more worthy object or one conducive to more important
results than this school enterprise, and I trust the friends of Negro
advancement and education will not suffer it to languish or be hampered
for funds. They may rest assured that these may be wisely expended and
most worthily bestowed.
“My three days’ visit to Tuskegee was eminently satisfactory and has
inspired me with new hope for the future of the race.”
The next event in the history of the school was the celebration of its
second anniversary, combined with the dedication of Porter Hall, whose
corner-stone had been laid the year before. The dedication address was
delivered by Rev. Geo. L. Chaney of Atlanta, now of Boston, one of the
Trustees of the school; and eloquent speeches were also made by Rev.
Morgan Calloway, the associate in Emory College of its president, Dr.
Atticus G. Haygood, author of “Our Brother in Black.” Rev. Mr. Owens, of
Mobile, also made an interesting address.
During the following summer a small frame cottage with four rooms was
put up to hold sixteen young men, and three board shanties near the
grounds were rented containing accommodations for about thirty-six
additional students. In September a boarding department was opened for
both sexes, and as many young men as could be provided for gladly
availed themselves of the privilege of working out about half of their
board at the school.
In 1883 Mr. Warren Logan, a graduate of the Hampton Institute, who had
received special training in book-keeping under Gen. Marshall at
Hampton, came to Tuskegee as a teacher. He had not been here long,
however, before it was clearly seen that he could serve the school
effectively in another capacity as well as a class room teacher, and he
was soon given the position of Treasurer and book-keeper in addition to
his duties as a class room teacher. Mr. Logan has now been connected
with the school 16 years, and has been its treasurer during 13 years of
this time. In addition to the position of treasurer, he fills the
position of Acting Principal in the absence of the Principal. All of
these various and delicate as well as responsible duties he has
performed with great ability and satisfaction.
Mr. J. H. Washington, my brother, came to the school from West Virginia
in 1885 and took the position of Business Agent. He was afterwards made
Superintendent of Industries and has held that position ever since. In
the meantime the school has grown, and his duties as well as those of
Mr. Logan have broadened and increased in responsibility. Both he and
Mr. Logan, during the absence of the Principal, are in a large measure
the mainstay and dependence of the institution for counsel and wise
direction.
These two men, Mr. Logan and my brother John, have been from the
beginning very important forces in the school management. As Treasurer
and Superintendent of Industries respectively their responsibilities are
heavy, and how much credit they deserve will never be fully known till
the necessity arises some day to fill their places. They, with James N.
Calloway, a graduate of Fisk University, who is the manager of Marshall
Farm, Mr. G. W. Carver, Director of the Agricultural Department, and Mr.
M. T. Driver, Business Agent, constitute the Finance Committee of the
Institute, a sort of cabinet for the Principal.
In September, 1883, a very pleasant surprise came to the workers in the
form of $1,100, secured through Rev. R. C. Bedford from the Trustees of
the Slater Fund. I might add right here that the interest of the
Trustees of the Slater Fund, now under the control of Dr. J. L. M.
Curry, Special Agent, has continued from that time until this, so that
the institution now receives $11,000 from the Slater Fund instead of
$1,100 at the beginning. With this impetus, a carpenter shop was built
and started, a windmill set up to pump water into the school building, a
sewing machine bought for the girls’ industrial room, mules and wagons
for the farm, and the farm manager’s salary was also paid for nine
months.
All during the summer, as was true of the previous one, Miss Davidson
and myself had been earnestly presenting our cause at the North with so
much encouragement that the work on the new building, called Alabama
Hall, was vigorously pushed during the fall and winter. In February,
1884, about three years after the school was opened, $5,000 had been
secured towards the erection of Alabama Hall, which eventually cost
about $10,000.
In March, 1884, Gen. Armstrong did one of those generous things which he
was noted for all through his life. In fact, from the beginning of
Tuskegee’s life until Gen. Armstrong’s death, he seemed to take as much
interest in the work of Tuskegee as in the Hampton Institute, and I am
glad to say the same generous spirit is constantly shown by the
successor of Gen. Armstrong, Dr. Frissell. I received a letter from Gen.
Armstrong stating that he had decided to hold a number of public
meetings in such cities as Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Boston,
and wished me to accompany him and speak in the interest of Tuskegee.
These meetings were advertised to be in the interest of Hampton and
Tuskegee jointly, but in reality they turned out to be meetings in the
interest of Tuskegee, so generous was Gen. Armstrong in his words and
actions at these meetings. The special object aimed at in these meetings
was to secure money with which to complete Alabama Hall.
I quote from an address made at one of these meetings by myself: “Our
young men have already made two kilns of bricks and will make all
required for the needed building, Alabama Hall. From the first we have
carried out the plan at Tuskegee of asking help for nothing that we
could do for ourselves. Nothing has been bought that the students can
produce. The boys have done the painting, made the bricks, the chairs,
tables and desks, have built a stable and are now moving the carpenter
shop. The girls do the entire housekeeping, including the washing,
ironing and mending of the boys’ clothing. Besides, they make garments
to sell, and give some attention to flower gardening.”
In due time, however, by hard work, the remainder of the money, $10,000
in all, necessary to complete Alabama Hall, was secured in the North,
and not a little was gotten from friends in and about Tuskegee,
especially through the holding of festivals, etc.
In April, 1884, we received a visit from the Lady Principal, Miss Mary
F. Mackie, of the Hampton Institute, who was the first one to receive me
when I went to Hampton as a student. I will say here that, from the
visit of Gen. Marshall up to the present time, we have received constant
visits and encouragement from the officers and teachers of the Hampton
Institute. Miss Mackie, writing to a friend at Hampton, said:
“The wish constantly on my lips or in my heart, since I reached here
last evening, is that you could see this school. I am sure you would
feel, as I do, that the dial of time must have turned back twelve years
in its course. In many respects it is more like the Hampton I first knew
than the one of today is; I was particularly struck with the plantation
melodies which Mr. Washington called for at the close of the evening
prayers; there is more of the real wail in their music than I ever heard
elsewhere. The teachers here laugh over their exact imitation of the
alma mater; even the night school feature has sprouted; to be sure it
only numbers two students, but it is on the same plan as ours. Do you
know that Mr.---- has lately given them 440 acres of land, making their
farm now 580 acres?”
The June number of the Southern Letter, a little paper published by the
Institute, contained the following account of commencement, which took
place May 29, 1884: “Many visitors were present, white and colored. The
great interest was in the development of the department of industrial
training, which now includes the farm, the Slater carpenter shop and
blacksmith shop, the printing office, the girls’ industrial room, and
the brick yard, where the students were making brick for Alabama Hall.
The morning exercises, were, as usual, inspection, recitations and
review of the current news, and the speaker of the afternoon was Prof.
R. T. Greener, of Washington, who delivered a very practical and
eloquent address. Reporters were present from Montgomery and Tuskegee.”
In the spring of 1884 I was very pleasantly surprised to receive an
invitation from the President of the National Educational Association,
Hon. Thos. W. Bicknall, of Boston, asking me to deliver an address
before that body at its next meeting during the summer. The Association
assembled at Madison, Wisconsin, and I think I am safe in saying that
there were at least five thousand teachers present, representing every
portion of the United States. This was the first opportunity I had had
of presenting the work of the school to any large audience, especially
of a national character. It was rather late in the evening before my
time to speak came. Several speakers had preceded me, and one especially
had proven himself to be rather tedious and tiresome by his long and
rather unprepared address, but this did not discourage me. I determined
to make the best address that I possibly could, although I was beset by
fear and trembling. The many kind words, however, which I received after
my address assured me that in some measure my effort had not been a
failure. Among other things I said:
“I repeat that any work looking toward the permanent improvement of the
Negro in the South, must have for one of its aims the fitting of him to
live friendly and peaceably with his white neighbors, both socially and
politically. In spite of all talk of exodus the Negro’s home is
permanently in the South, for coming to the bread and meat side of the
question the white man needs the Negro and the Negro needs the white
man. His home being permanently in the South, it is our duty to help him
prepare himself to live there, an independent, educated citizen. In
order that there may be the broadest development of the colored man and
that he may have an unbounded field in which to labor, the two races
South must be brought to have faith in each other. The teachings of the
Negro, in various ways, for the last twenty years, have tended too much
to array him against his white brother rather than to put the races in
co-operation with each other. Thus Massachusetts supports the Republican
party because the Republican party supports Massachusetts with a
protective tariff; but the Negro supports the Republican party simply
because Massachusetts does. When the colored man is educated up to the
point of seeing that Alabama and Massachusetts are a long way apart and
the conditions of life in them very different, and that if free trade
enables my white brother across the street to buy his plows at a cheaper
rate it will enable me to do the same thing, he will act in a different
way. More than once I have noticed that when the whites were in favor
of prohibition, the blacks, led even by sober, upright ministers, voted
against prohibition, simply because the whites were in favor of it, and
for this reason the blacks said that they knew it was a ‘democratic
trick.’ If the whites vote to lay a tax to build a school house it is a
signal for the blacks to oppose the measure, simply because the whites
favor it. I venture the assertion that the sooner the colored man,
South, learns that one political party is not composed altogether of
angels and the other altogether of devils, and that all his enemies do
not live in his own town or neighborhood and all his friends in some
other distant section of the country, the sooner will his educational
advantages be enhanced many fold. But matters are gradually changing in
this respect. The black man is beginning to find out that there are
those even among the Southern whites who desire his elevation. The
Negro’s new faith in the white man is being reciprocated in proportion
as the Negro is rightly educated. The white brother is beginning to
learn by degrees that all Negroes are not liars and chicken thieves.
“Now in regard to what I have said about the relations of the two races,
there should be no unmanly cowering or stooping to satisfy unreasonable
whims of Southern white men; but it is charity and wisdom to keep in
mind the two hundred years of schooling in prejudice against the Negro
which the ex-slaveholders are called on to conquer. A certain class of
whites object to the general education of the colored man on the ground
that when he is educated he ceased to do manual labor, and there is no
avoiding the fact that much aid is withheld from Negro education in the
South by the states on these grounds. Just here the great mission of
Industrial Education, coupled with the mental, comes in. It kills two
birds with one stone, viz., it secures the co-operation of the whites
and does the best possible thing for the black man.”
After this address I began receiving invitations from a good many
portions of the country to deliver addresses on the subject of educating
the Negro. At the present time these applications have increased to such
an extent, and they come in such large numbers, that, if I were to try
to answer even one-third of the calls that come to me from all parts of
the United States as well as other countries, to speak, I would scarcely
spend a single day at Tuskegee.
[Illustration: BOOKER T. WASHINGTON’S RESIDENCE, TUSKEGEE, ALABAMA.]
[Illustration: FACULTY, TUSKEGEE NORMAL AND INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTE--88
OFFICERS AND TEACHERS.]