THE SPEECH AT THE OPENING OF THE COTTON STATES’ EXPOSITION, AND
INCIDENTS CONNECTED THEREWITH.
So much has been said and written concerning the address which I
delivered at the opening of the Atlanta Exposition in September, 1895,
that it may not be out of place for me to explain in some detail how and
why I received the invitation to deliver this address.
In the spring of 1895 I received a telegram at Tuskegee from prominent
citizens in Atlanta asking me to accompany a committee composed of
Atlanta people,--all white, I think, except Bishop Gaines and Bishop
Grant,--to Washington to appear before the Committee on Appropriations
for the purpose of inducing Congress to make an appropriation to help
forward the Exposition which the citizens of Atlanta were at that time
planning to hold. I accepted this invitation and went to Washington with
the committee. A number of the white people in the delegation spoke,
among them the Mayor and other officials of Atlanta, and then Bishop
Gaines and Bishop Grant were called upon. My name was last, I think, on
the list of speakers. I had never before appeared before such a
committee or made any address in the capitol of the Nation, and I had
many misgivings as to what I should say and the impression I would make.
While I cannot recall my speech, I remember that I tried to impress upon
the Committee with all the earnestness and plainness of language that I
could that if Congress wanted to help the South do something that would
rid it of the race problem and make friends between the two races it
should in every way encourage the material and intellectual growth of
both races, and that the Atlanta Exposition would present an opportunity
for both races to show what they had done in the way of development
since freedom, and would at the same time prove a great encouragement to
both races to make still greater progress. I tried to emphasize the fact
that political agitation alone would not save the Negro, that back of
politics he must have industry, thrift, intelligence and property; that
no race without these elements of strength could permanently succeed and
gain the respect of its fellow citizens, and that the time had now come
when Congress had an opportunity to do something for the Negro and the
South that would prove of real and lasting benefit, and that I should be
greatly disappointed if it did not take advantage of the opportunity. I
spoke for fifteen or twenty minutes and was very much surprised at the
close of my address to receive the hearty congratulations and thanks of
all the members of the Atlanta delegation, as well as the members of the
Committee on Appropriations. I will not prolong the story, except to add
that the Committee did pass the resolution unanimously, agreeing to
report a bill to Congress in the interest of the Atlanta Exposition. Our
work, however, did not end with making these addresses before the
Committee. We remained in Washington several days. The Atlanta committee
had meetings every day and the colored members were invited to these,
and were given a free opportunity to express their views. Certain
members of Congress were parceled out to each member of the Atlanta
committee to see, and we spent some time in convincing as many
individual members of Congress as possible of the justness of Atlanta’s
claim. We called in a body upon Speaker Thomas B. Reed. This was the
first time I had ever had the pleasure of shaking hands with this great
American; since then I have come to know him well and am greatly
indebted to him for many kindnesses. After we had spent some time in
Washington in hard effort in the interest of the bill, it was called up
in Congress and was passed with very little opposition. From the moment
that the bill passed Congress the success of the Atlanta Exposition was
assured.
Soon after we made this trip to Washington, the directors of the Atlanta
Exposition decided that it was the proper thing to give the colored
people of the country every opportunity possible to show, by a separate
exhibit, to what progress they had attained since their freedom. To this
end the directors decided to erect a large and commodious building to be
known as the Negro Building. This building in size, architectural beauty
and general finish was fully equal to the other buildings on the
grounds. It was entirely constructed by colored labor and was filled
with the products of Negro skill, brains, and handicraft.
After it was decided to have a separate Negro exhibit it became quite a
question as to the best manner of securing a representative and large
exhibit from the race. I, in connection with prominent colored citizens
of Georgia, was consulted on a good many occasions by the directors of
the exposition. It was finally decided to appoint a Negro commissioner
to represent each Southern State, who should have charge of collecting
and installing the exhibit from his state. After these state
commissioners were appointed, a meeting of them was called in Atlanta
for the purpose of organization and forming plans to further the Negro
exhibit. At the joint meeting of these State Commissioners, it was
decided that a Chief Commissioner to have the general supervision of
all the exhibits should be selected. A good many people insisted that I
should accept the position of Chief Commissioner. I declined to permit
my name to be used for this purpose, because my duties at Tuskegee would
not permit me to give the time and thought to it that the position
demanded. I did, however, accept the position of Commissioner for the
State of Alabama. After a good deal of discussion and some disagreement,
Mr. I. Garland Penn, of Lynchburg, Virginia, was selected by the
Commissioners and this choice was made unanimous. The success of the
Negro exhibit was in a very large measure due to the energy and fidelity
of Mr. Penn. No one who voted for him, I think, ever had reason to
regret doing so. Most of the states, especially the Southern States,
including the District of Columbia, had very creditable
exhibits--exhibits that in many cases surprised not only the Negro race
but the white people. I think the class of people who were most
surprised when they went into the Negro Building were some of the
Southern white people who, while they had known the Negro as a field
hand, as a servant, and seen him on the streets, had not been in any
large degree into his homes and school-houses. At this Exposition, they
had, I believe, the first general opportunity to see for themselves the
real progress that the Negro was making in the most vital things of
life, and it was very interesting as well as satisfactory to hear their
constant exclamations of surprise and gratification as they walked
through the Negro Building.
The Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute made a special effort to
prepare a large and creditable exhibit, and in this the institution was
most successful. The Tuskegee exhibit consisted of all forms of
agricultural products, various articles made in the shops, such as
two-horse wagons, one-horse wagons, single and double carriages,
harness, shoes, tinware, products from the sewing rooms, laundry,
printing office, and academic work, in fact all of the twenty-six
industries in operation at Tuskegee were well and creditably
represented. With the exception of the exhibit from the Hampton
Institute, Hampton, Va., Tuskegee had the largest exhibit in the Negro
Building.
As the day for the opening of the Exposition began to draw near the
Board of Directors began to prepare their programme for the opening day.
A great many suggestions were made as to the kind of exercises that
should be held on that day and as to the names of the speakers to take
part. As the discussion went on from day to day, Mr. I. Garland Penn was
bold enough to suggest to the Commissioners that, as the Negroes were
taking such a prominent part in trying to make the Exposition a
success, it was due them that they should have some representation on
the programme on the opening day. This suggestion by Mr. Penn was
discussed for several days by the Board of Directors, none, however,
seeming to have any great objection to it,--the only objection being
that they feared it might bring upon the Exposition hurtful criticism.
The Board, however, finally voted to ask some Negro to deliver an
address at the opening of the Exposition. Several names were suggested,
but in some manner, largely I think due to Mr. Penn, my name was
selected by the Board, and in due time I received an official
communication from the President of the Exposition inviting me to
deliver this address. It was the middle of August when I received this
invitation. The Exposition was to open on the 18th of September. The
papers throughout the country began at once discussing the action of the
Board of Directors in inviting a Negro to speak, most of the newspaper
comments, however, being favorable.
The delicacy and responsibility of my position in this matter can be
appreciated when it is known that this was the first time in the history
of the South that a Negro had been invited to take part on a programme
with white Southern people on any important and national occasion. Our
race should not neglect to give due credit to the courage that these
Atlanta men displayed in extending this invitation; but the directors
had told the Negroes from the beginning that they would give them
fullest and freest opportunity to represent themselves in a creditable
manner at every stage of the progress of the Exposition, and from the
first day to the last this promise was kept.
The invitation to deliver this address came at a time when I am very
busy every year preparing for the opening of the new school year at
Tuskegee, and this made it rather difficult for me to find time in which
to concentrate my thoughts upon the proper preparation of an important
address, but the great responsibility which had been entrusted to me
weighed very heavily on me from day to day. I knew that what I said
would be listened to by Southern white people, by people of my own race
and by Northern white people. I was determined from the first not to say
anything that would give undue offense to the South and thus prevent it
from thus honoring another Negro in the future. And at the same time I
was equally determined to be true to the North and to the interests of
my own race. As the 18th of September drew nearer the heavier my heart
became and the more I felt that my address would prove a disappointment
and a failure. I prepared myself, however, as best I could. After
preparing the address I went through it carefully, as I usually do with
important utterances, with Mrs. Washington, and she approved of what I
intended to say. On the 16th of September, the day before I started for
Atlanta, as several of the teachers had expressed a desire to hear my
address, I consented to read it to them in a body. When I had done so
and heard their criticisms I felt more encouraged, as most of them
seemed to be very much pleased with it.
On the morning of September 17, 1895, together with Mrs. Washington,
Portia, Baker and Davidson, my children, I started for Atlanta. On the
way to the depot from the school, in passing through Tuskegee, I
happened to meet a white farmer who lived some distance in the country,
and he in a rather joking manner said to me, “Washington, you have
spoken with success before Northern white audiences, and before Negroes
in the South, but in Atlanta you will have to speak before Northern
white people, Southern white people and Negroes altogether. I fear they
have got you into a pretty tight place.” This farmer diagnosed the
situation most accurately, but his words did not add to my comfort at
that time. On the way to Atlanta I was constantly surprised by having
both colored and white people come to the cars, stare at me and point me
out and discuss in my hearing what was to take place the next day. In
Atlanta we were met by a committee of colored citizens. The first thing
I heard when I stepped from the cars in Atlanta was this remark by an
old colored man near by: “That’s the man that’s gwine to make that big
speech out at the Exposition to-morrow.” We were taken to our boarding
place by the committee and remained there until the next morning.
Atlanta was literally packed at that time with people from all parts of
the country, including many military and other organizations. The
afternoon papers contained in large head lines a forecast of the next
day’s proceedings. All of this tended to add to the burden that was
pressing heavily upon me.
On the morning of the day that the Exposition opened, a committee of
colored citizens called at my boarding place to escort me to the point
where I was to take my place in the procession, which was to march to
the Exposition grounds. In this same procession was Bishop W. J. Gaines,
Rev. H. H. Proctor and other prominent colored citizens of Atlanta. What
also added to the interest of this procession was the appearance of
several colored military organizations which marched in the same
procession with the white organizations. It was very noticeable that in
the arrangement of the line of march the white officers who had control
of the procession seemed to go out of their way to see that all of the
colored people in the procession were properly placed and properly
treated. The march through the streets out to the Exposition grounds
occupied two or three hours, and, as the sun was shining disagreeably
hot, when I got to the Exposition I felt rather fagged out, and very
much feared that my address was going to prove a complete failure.
As I now recall, the only colored persons who had seats on the platform
were Mr. I. Garland Penn, the Negro Commissioner, and myself, though of
course there were hundreds of colored people in the audience. When I
took my place on the platform the colored portion of the audience
cheered vigorously, and there were faint cheers from some of the white
people. Ex-Governor Bullock, of Atlanta, presided at the opening
exercises. The audience room, which was very large and well suited for
public speaking, was packed with humanity from bottom to top, and
thousands were on the outside who could not get in.
A white gentleman who resides in the North and is one of my best
friends, happened to be in Atlanta on the day that the Exposition
opened. He was so nervous about the kind of reception I would receive at
the hands of the audience and the effect my speech would produce that he
could not bear to go into the building, but walked around the building
on the outside until the exercises were over.
Gilmore’s famous band played several stirring and patriotic airs, after
which Gov. Bullock arose and delivered a short opening address and then
the speaking occurred in the following order:
Opening address, Hon. Chas. A. Collier, President International Cotton
States Exposition Company; address on behalf of the Woman’s Department,
Mrs. Joseph Thompson, President; address tendering Negro exhibit, Booker
T. Washington; address on behalf of the State, His Excellency, Governor
Atkinson; address on behalf of the city, Hon. Porter King; oration of
the day, Judge Emory Speer.
After his introduction, when I arose to speak, there was considerable
cheering in the audience, especially from the section of the room
occupied by my own people. The sun was shining brightly in my face and I
had to move about a good deal on the platform so as to reach a position
that would enable me to escape the rays of the sun. I think the thing at
the present time that I am most conscious of is that I saw thousands of
eyes looking intently into my face. From the moment I was introduced
until the end of my address I seemed to have entirely forgotten myself.
The following is the address which I delivered:
“_Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Board of
Directors and Citizens:_
“One third of the population of the South is of the Negro race. No
enterprise seeking the material, civil, or moral welfare of this section
can disregard this element of our population and reach the highest
success. I but convey to you, Mr. President and Directors, the sentiment
of the masses of my race when I say that in no way have the value and
manhood of the American Negro been more fittingly and generously
recognized than by the managers of this magnificent Exposition at every
stage of its progress. It is a recognition that will do more to cement
the friendship of the two races than any occurrence since the dawn of
our freedom.
“Not only this, but the opportunity here afforded will awaken among us a
new era of industrial progress. Ignorant and inexperienced, it is not
strange that in the first years of our new life we began at the top
instead of at the bottom; that a seat in Congress or the State
Legislature was more sought than real estate or industrial skill; that
the political convention or stump speaking had more attractions than
starting a dairy farm or truck garden.
“A ship lost at sea for many days suddenly sighted a friendly vessel.
From the mast of the unfortunate vessel was seen a signal: ‘Water,
water; we die of thirst!’ The answer from the friendly vessel at once
came back: ‘Cast down your bucket where you are.’ A second time the
signal, ‘Water, water; send us water!’ ran up from the distressed
vessel, and was answered: ‘Cast down your bucket where you are.’ And a
third and fourth signal for water was answered: ‘Cast down your bucket
where you are.’ The captain of the distressed vessel, at last heeding
the injunction, cast down his bucket, and it came up full of fresh,
sparkling water from the mouth of the Amazon River. To those of my race
who depend on bettering their condition in a foreign land, or who
underestimate the importance of cultivating friendly relations with the
Southern white man, who is their next door neighbor, I would say: ‘Cast
down your bucket where you are’--cast it down in making friends in every
manly way of the people of all races by whom we are surrounded.
“Cast it down in agriculture, mechanics, in commerce, in domestic
service, and in the professions. And in this connection it is well to
bear in mind that whatever other sins the South may be called to bear,
when it comes to business, pure and simple, it is in the South that the
Negro is given a man’s chance in the commercial world, and in nothing is
this Exposition more eloquent than in emphasizing this chance. Our
greatest danger is, that in the great leap from slavery to freedom we
may overlook the fact that the masses of us are to live by the
productions of our hands, and fail to keep in mind that we shall prosper
in proportion as we learn to dignify and glorify common labor, and put
brains and skill into the common occupations of life; shall prosper in
proportion as we learn to draw the line between the superficial and the
substantial, the ornamental gewgaws of life and the useful. No race can
prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field
as in writing a poem. It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not
at the top. Nor should we permit our grievances to overshadow our
opportunities.
“To those of the white race who look to the incoming of those of foreign
birth and strange tongue and habits for the prosperity of the South,
were I permitted I would repeat what I say to my own race, ‘Cast down
your bucket where you are.’ Cast it down among the 8,000,000 Negroes
whose habits you know, whose fidelity and love you have tested in days
when to have proved treacherous meant the ruin of your firesides. Cast
down your bucket among these people who have, without strikes and labor
wars, tilled your fields, cleared your forests, builded your railroads
and cities, and brought forth treasures from the bowels of the earth,
and helped make possible this magnificent representation of the progress
of the South. Casting down your bucket among my people, helping and
encouraging them as you are doing on these grounds, and, with education
of head, hand and heart, you will find that they will buy your surplus
land, make blossom the waste places in your fields, and run your
factories. While doing this, you can be sure in the future, as in the
past, that you and your families will be surrounded by the most patient,
faithful, law-abiding, and unresentful people that the world has seen.
As we have proved our loyalty to you in the past, in nursing your
children, watching by the sick bed of your mothers and fathers, and
often following them with tear-dimmed eyes to their graves, so in the
future, in our humble way, we shall stand by you with a devotion that no
foreigner can approach, ready to lay down our lives, if need be, in
defense of yours, interlacing our industrial, commercial, civil, and
religious life with yours in a way that shall make the interests of both
races one. In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as
the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual
progress.
“There is no defense or security for any of us except in the highest
intelligence and development of all. If anywhere there are efforts
tending to curtail the fullest growth of the Negro, let these efforts be
turned into stimulating, encouraging, and making him the most useful and
intelligent citizen. Effort or means so invested will pay a thousand per
cent interest. These efforts will be twice blessed--‘blessing him that
gives and him that takes.’
“There is no escape through law of man or God from the inevitable:
‘The laws of changeless justice bind
Oppressor with oppressed;
And close as sin and suffering joined
We march to fate abreast.’
“Nearly sixteen millions of hands will aid you in pulling the load
upwards, or they will pull against you the load downwards. We shall
constitute one-third and more of the ignorance and crime of the South,
or one-third its intelligence and progress; we shall contribute
one-third to the business and industrial prosperity of the South, or we
shall prove a veritable body of death, stagnating, depressing, retarding
every effort to advance the body politic.
“Gentlemen of the Exposition, as we present to you our humble effort at
an exhibition of our progress, you must not expect overmuch. Starting
thirty years ago with ownership here and there in a few quilts and
pumpkins and chickens (gathered from miscellaneous sources), remember
the path that has led from these to the invention and production of
agricultural implements, buggies, steam engines, newspapers, books,
statuary, carving, paintings, the management of drug stores and banks,
has not been trodden without contact with thorns and thistles. While we
take pride in what we exhibit as a result of our independent efforts, we
do not for a moment forget that our part in this exhibition would fall
far short of your expectations but for the constant help that has come
to our educational life, not only from the Southern States, but
especially from Northern philanthropists, who have made their gifts a
constant stream of blessing and encouragement.
“The wisest among my race understand that the agitation of questions of
social equality is the extremest folly, and that progress in the
enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result
of severe and constant struggle rather than of artificial forcing. No
race that has anything to contribute to the markets of the world is long
in any degree ostracized. It is important and right that all privileges
of the law be ours, but it is vastly more important that we be prepared
for the exercise of those privileges. The opportunity to earn a dollar
in a factory just now is worth infinitely more than the opportunity to
spend a dollar in an opera house.
“In conclusion, may I repeat that nothing in thirty years has given us
more hope and encouragement, and drawn us so near to you of the white
race, as this opportunity offered by the Exposition; and here bending,
as it were, over the altar that represents the results of the struggles
of your race and mine, both starting practically empty-handed three
decades ago, I pledge that, in your effort to work out the great and
intricate problem which God has laid at the doors of the South, you
shall have at all times the patient, sympathetic help of my race; only
let this be constantly in mind that, while from representations in these
buildings of the product of field, of forest, of mine, of factory,
letters, and art, much good will come, yet far above and beyond material
benefits will be that higher good, that let us pray God will come, in a
blotting out of sectional differences and racial animosities and
suspicions, in a determination to administer absolute justice, in a
willing obedience among all classes to the mandates of law. This,
coupled with our material prosperity, will bring into our beloved South
a new heaven and a new earth.”
Some days after my speech in Atlanta at the opening of the Exposition I
received the following letter from Dr. Gilman, President of Johns
Hopkins University, who was chairman of the committee of jurors in
connection with the Exposition:
“JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY,
“BALTIMORE, Sept. 30, 1895.
“_President’s Office_.
“DEAR MR. WASHINGTON:--
“Would it be agreeable to you to be one of the Judges of Award in
the Department of Education at Atlanta? If so, I shall be glad to
place your name upon the list.
Yours very truly,
D. C. GILMAN.
“A line by telegraph will be welcomed.”
I was more surprised to receive this invitation to act on the board of
jurors than to receive the invitation to speak at the opening of the
Exposition, for it became a part of my duty as one of the jurors not
only to pass on the exhibits from Negro schools but those from the white
schools as well throughout the country. I accepted this position and
spent a month in Atlanta in connection with my duties as one of the
jurors. The board was a large one, consisting in all of sixty members,
including such well known persons as the following: Dr. D. C. Gilman, of
Johns Hopkins University; Dr. I. S. Hopkins, secretary of the jury and
president of the Georgia School of Technology; General Henry Abbott,
United States engineer; President C. K. Adams, president of the
University of Wisconsin; Chancellor of the University of St. Louis;
President Charles W. Dabney, of the University of Virginia; Miss Grace
Dodge, of New York; Dr. Charles Mohr, an expert in forestry, of Mobile;
Mr. Gofford Pinchot, Biltmore, N. C.; Professor Ira Remsen, editor of
the American Journal of Chemistry; Professor Eugene A. Smith, state
geologist of Alabama; Professor C. P. Vanderford, of the Univerity of
Tennessee, and others equally prominent.
When the section of jurors on education met for organization Mr. Thomas
Nelson Page, the Southern author, who was a member of the board, made a
motion that I be made secretary of the section on education. This motion
was carried without a dissenting vote. Nearly half of the board of
jurors were Southern men. We were quite intimately associated together
for a month, and during this time our association was most pleasant and
cordial in every respect. In performing my duty in connection with the
inspection of the exhibits from the various white institutions, in each
instance I was treated with the greatest respect. At the close of our
labors a large photograph of the group of jurors was taken. We parted
from each other with the greatest regret.
In making up their awards the board of jurors awarded but three gold
medals to institutions of learning, and the Tuskegee school got one of
the three. As I was a member of the board I insisted that Tuskegee
should not be permitted to compete for a medal, but I was overruled in
this, and the medal given, regardless of my protests. The exhibit which
the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute made, except that from the
Hampton Institute, was the largest and most comprehensive in the Negro
Building.
Without referring to the many newspaper comments, it will be wisest to
let the newspaper war correspondent, who was at that time in Atlanta as
a representative of the New York World, relate the impression my speech
seemed to make. He wrote the following for the World:
“Mrs. Thompson, head of the Women’s Department, had scarcely taken her
seat, when all eyes were turned on a tall, tawny Negro sitting in the
front row on the platform. It was Prof. Booker T. Washington, president
of the Tuskegee (Ala.) Normal and Industrial Institute, who must rank
from this time forth as the foremost man of his race in America.
Gilmore’s band played the ‘Star Spangled Banner,’ and the audience
cheered. The tune was changed to ‘Dixie,’ and the audience roared with
shrill ki-yi’s. Again the music changed to ‘Yankee Doodle,’ and the
clamor lessened.
“All this time the eyes of thousands looked straight at the Negro
orator. A strange thing was to happen. A black man was to speak for his
people with none to interrupt him. As Prof. Washington strode toward the
edge of the stage, the low, descending sun shot fiery rays through the
window into his face. A great shout greeted him. He turned his head to
avoid the blinding light, and moved about the platform for relief. Then
he turned his powerful countenance to the sun, without a blink of the
eyelids, and began to talk.
“There was a remarkable figure, tall, bony, straight as a Sioux chief,
high forehead, straight nose, heavy jaws, and strong, determined mouth,
with big white teeth, piercing eyes, and a determined manner. The sinews
stood out on his bronzed neck, and his muscular right arm swung high in
the air, with a lead pencil grasped in the clenched brown fist. His big
feet were planted squarely, with the heels together and the toes turned
out. His voice rang out clear and true, and he paused impressively as he
made each point. Within ten minutes the multitude was in an uproar of
enthusiasm, handkerchiefs waved, canes flourished, hats tossed in the
air. The fairest women in Georgia stood up and cheered. It was as if the
orator had bewitched them.
“And when he held his dusky hand high above his head, with his fingers
stretched wide apart, and said to the white people of the South on
behalf of his race, ‘In all things that are purely social we can be as
separate as the fingers; yet one as the hand in all things essential to
social progress,’ the great wave of sound dashed itself against the
walls, and the whole audience was on its feet in a delirium of applause,
and I thought at that moment of the night when Henry Grady stood among
the curling wreaths of tobacco smoke in Delmonico’s banquet hall and
said, ‘I am a Cavalier among Roundheads.’
“I have heard the great orators of many countries, but not even
Gladstone himself could have pleaded a cause with more consummate power
than this angular Negro standing in a nimbus of sunshine, surrounded by
the men who once fought to keep his race in bondage. The roar might
swell ever so high, but the expression of his face never changed.
“A ragged, ebony giant, squatted on the floor in one of the aisles,
watched the orator with burning eyes and tremulous face until the
supreme outburst of applause came, then the tears ran down his face.
Most of the Negroes in the audience were crying, perhaps without
knowing just why.
“At the close of the speech Gov. Bullock rushed across the platform and
seized the orator’s hand. Another shout greeted this demonstration, and
for a few moments the two men stood facing each other, hand in hand.”
The papers all over the United States the next day after the speech, and
for months afterwards, were filled with the most complimentary accounts
of and comments upon this speech. I will quote also a letter written by
the Hon. Clark Howell to the New York World and an editorial from the
Boston Transcript, also two articles from colored papers, as fair
samples of the expressions that were made throughout the country. The
letter of Mr. Howell was as follows:
ATLANTA, GA., September 19.
“_To the Editor of the World_:
“I do not exaggerate when I say that Prof. Booker T. Washington’s
address yesterday was one of the most notable speeches, both as to
character and the warmth of its reception, ever delivered to a Southern
audience. It was an epoch-making talk, and marks distinctly a turning
point in the progress of the Negro race, and its effect in bringing
about a perfect understanding between whites and blacks of the South
will be the immediate. The address was a revelation. It was the first
time that a Negro orator had appeared on a similar occasion before a
Southern audience.
“The propriety of inviting a representative of the Negro race to
participate in the opening exercises was fully discussed a month ago,
when the opening program was being arranged. Some opposition was
manifested on account of the fear that public sentiment was not prepared
for such an advanced step. The invitation, however, was extended by a
vote of the Board of Directors, and the cordial greeting which the
audience gave Washington’s address shows that the board made no mistake.
There was not a line in the address which would have been changed by the
most sensitive of those who thought the invitation to be imprudent. The
whole speech is a platform on which the whites and the blacks can stand
with full justice to each race.
“The speech is a full vindication from the mouth of a representative
Negro of the doctrine so eloquently advanced by Grady and those who have
agreed with him that it is to the South that the Negro must turn for his
best friend, and that his welfare is so closely identified with the
progress of the white people of the South that each race is mutually
dependent upon the other, and that the so-called ‘race problem’ must be
solved in the development of the natural relations growing out of the
association between the whites and blacks of the South.
“The question of social equality is eliminated as a factor in the
development of the problem, and the situation is aptly expressed by
Washington in the statement that ‘in all things that are purely social
we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things
essential to mutual progress.’
“The speech will do good, and the unanimous approval with which it has
been received demonstrates the fact that it has already done good.
CLARK HOWELL,
Editor of the ‘Constitution.’”
The Boston Transcript’s editorial was as follows:
“The speech of Mr. Washington at the Atlanta Exposition this week seems
to have dwarfed all the other proceedings and the exhibition itself. The
crowd that listened to it were carried away with enthusiasm, and the
sensation it has caused in the press has rarely been equaled. The
Southern papers themselves pronounce it epoch-making, and call it the
beginning of the end of the war between the races. All this is no great
surprise to those who have kept themselves informed upon the development
of industrial and other education for Negroes in the Negro-populated
districts of the country. Intelligent and sympathetic observers have
long been aware that it was through the silent and serious and steady
work of the school for the Negroes that the solution of the race problem
was coming, and not through the passions of politics, stirred and kept
hot by tricky professional party managers for use in presidential
elections. Mr. Washington is no different from what he has been: he is
saying no more than he and his backers have been saying for years. But
he is a great revelation to those who have hitherto regarded the Negro
question as one simply calling for slang-whanging partisan and sectional
abuse instead of philosophy, patience and study.”
The editor of the Texas Freeman wrote as follows:
“The address made by Booker T. Washington, Principal of the Tuskegee
Normal and Industrial Institute, at the formal opening of the Cotton
States and International Exposition, stamps him as a most worthy
representative of a large part of the country’s citizenship. Without
resort to hyperbolic exaggeration, it is but simple justice to call the
address great. It was great. Great, in that it exhibited the speaker’s
qualities of head and heart; great, that he could and did
discriminatingly recognize conditions as they affected his people, and
greater still in the absolute modesty, self-respect and dignity with
which he presented a platform upon which Clark Howell, of the Atlanta
Constitution, says, ‘both races, blacks and whites, can stand with full
justice to each.’ No better selection, among the whole number of the
race’s most prominent men, could have been made than Prof. Washington.”
The Richmond Planet delivered itself as follows:
“The speech of Prof. Booker T. Washington at the opening of the Atlanta
Exposition was a magnificent effort and places him in the forefront of
the representatives of our race in this country. Calm, dispassionate,
logical, winning, it captivated the vast assemblage who heard it and
caused a re-echoing sound of approval on the part of those who caught
the rounded sentences and rhetorical periods as they were flashed over
the wires.
“Reserved in his manner, earnest in the delivery, realizing fully the
heavy responsibility resting upon him, he performed that duty with an
ease that was magnetic and grace that was divine.”
As soon as I had finished my address, the first thing that I remember is
that Gov. Bullock rushed across the stage and took me by the hand.
Others sitting on the platform did the same thing. Following my address
came a brilliant and eloquent speech from Judge Emory Speer. At the
close of his address the President of the United States, Hon. Grover
Cleveland, touched a button in Washington, which started the machinery
and the Exposition was declared open. By the time the exercises in the
Auditorium were finished it was quite late in the afternoon and, in
fact, dark. A large number of people, both Northern and Southern,
together with numbers of colored people, congratulated me most heartily
on my address; in fact, I found it quite difficult to get out of the
building or away from the Exposition grounds. As soon as possible I left
the Exposition and went to my boarding place.
After the opening exercises a reception was tendered me by some of the
colored citizens of Atlanta. I did not in any large measure appreciate
the excitement and deep impression that my address seemed to create
until the next morning about ten o’clock when I went to the city on some
errand. As soon as I entered the business portion of Atlanta I was
surprised to find myself pointed out, and I was very soon surrounded by
a crowd of people who were bent on shaking my hand and congratulating
me; in fact, this was kept up on every street where I went, until I
found it impossible to move with any degree of comfort about the
streets, and so I returned to my boarding place. In a few hours I began
receiving telegrams and letters from all parts of the country.
One thing I always thought was rather strange in connection with this
address and that is that no officer connected with the Exposition ever
asked me what ground I was going to cover in my speech, or ever
suggested that I should be careful not to say anything which would harm
the relations between the races and thus cripple the success of the
Exposition. It would, of course, have been very easy for me to have
uttered a single sentence which would have thrown a wet blanket over the
prospects of the Exposition and especially the harmonious relations of
the races.
The next morning I took the train for Tuskegee. At the depot in Atlanta
and at every station between Atlanta and Tuskegee I found a crowd of
people anxious to shake hands with me and who were pointed out to me
making remarks about my address.
Some days after I returned to Tuskegee, I sent the President of the
United States, Hon. Grover Cleveland, a copy of the address I delivered
at Atlanta, and was very much surprised as well as gratified to receive
from him a letter which I here insert:
GRAY GABLES,
BUZZARD’S BAY, Mass., Oct. 6, 1895.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON, Esq.
MY DEAR SIR:--I thank you for sending me a copy of your address
delivered at the Atlanta Exposition.
I thank you with much enthusiasm for making the address. I have
read it with intense interest, and I think the Exposition would be
fully justified if it did not do more than furnish the opportunity
for its delivery. Your words cannot fail to delight and encourage
all who wish well for your race; and if our colored fellow citizens
do not from your utterances gather new hope and form new
determinations to gain every valuable advantage offered them by
their citizenship, it will be strange indeed. Yours very truly,
GROVER CLEVELAND.
All of it was written with his own hand. From that time until the
present, Mr. Cleveland has taken the deepest interest in Tuskegee and
has been among my warmest and most helpful friends.
After I returned to Tuskegee I continued to be deluged with letters of
congratulation and endorsement of my position. I received all kinds of
propositions from lecture bureaus, editors of magazines, etc., to take
the lecture platform and write articles. One lecture bureau went as far
as to offer me $50,000, or $200 a night, if I would place my services at
its disposition for a given period of time. To all these communications
I replied that my life work was at Tuskegee, and that wherever I should
speak it must be in the interest of my race and the institution at
Tuskegee, and that I could not accept any engagements that would seem to
place a mere commercial value on my addresses. From that time until the
present I have continued to receive liberal offers from lecture bureaus
for my services. Only a few weeks ago the following letter came to me,
but I have continued to refuse, as I expect to do in the future, to
become a professional lecturer at any price:
CENTRAL LYCEUM BUREAU,
CHICAGO, Ill., November 29, 1897.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON, Tuskegee, Ala.
MY DEAR SIR:--“If you will give us exclusive control of your
lecture business for next summer and winter, season of 1898-99, I
am confident I can make you more money than you have made this
season on the platform. Would you consider an offer of say ten
thousand dollars and all expenses for one hundred nights. Please
let me hear from you and oblige, Yours very truly,
FRED PELHAM.”
Soon after receiving the letter quoted above, I received a proposition
from a lecture bureau in Boston offering me at the rate of $200 per
night for my lectures for as long a time as I would give them my
services at this rate, but I declined. Although I refused to become a
professional lecturer for personal gain, I did not keep silent, but
continued to work and speak in behalf of Tuskegee.
In the fall of 1895 I continued addressing large audiences in the states
of Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania and in the Western states.
During my trip to the West I addressed the Hamilton Club and was its
guest while in the city of Chicago. The Hamilton Club is one of the
largest and most influential political organizations of Republican faith
in the West. While in Chicago for the purpose of addressing the Hamilton
Club I was invited by Dr. Harper, the president of the University of
Chicago, to deliver an address before the students of the University,
which I did and was treated with great consideration and kindness by all
of the officers of the University.