CUBAN EDUCATION AND THE CHICAGO PEACE JUBILEE ADDRESS.
Immediately after the close of the Spanish-American war the Tuskegee
Institute started a movement to bring a number of Cuban and Porto Rican
students to Tuskegee, for the purpose of receiving training. The idea
was pretty generally endorsed, and within a reasonably short time enough
funds were donated by individuals throughout the country to provide for
the education of ten students from Cuba and Porto Rico. These students
are now at Tuskegee taking the regular courses of training and are
making a creditable record. It is the plan to have them return to their
island homes and give their people the benefit of their education.
Perhaps no single agency has been more potent during the last ten years
in assisting the Negro to better his condition than the John F. Slater
Fund, to which I have already referred. The trustees of this fund are
among the most successful and generous business men in the country, and
they are using the fund very largely as a means of pointing the proper
direction of the education of the Negro. During 1898 the Slater Fund
trustees made an appropriation which was to be used in enabling Mrs.
Washington and myself to go into all of the Southern cities and deliver
lectures to our people, especially in the large cities, speaking to them
plainly about their present material, financial, physical, educational
and moral needs, and trying to point out a way by which they could
improve. We spent a portion of the summer of 1898 in going into cities
in North and South Carolina. Meetings were held in Greensboro,
Wilmington, Columbia and Charleston, and everywhere we spoke the houses
were packed full. We spoke four or five times in Charleston, and the
audience rooms were crowded at every meeting with representatives of
both races. We have the satisfaction of feeling that these meetings
accomplished a great deal of good, and everywhere we were overwhelmed
with thanks from the people for our words. The newspapers gave us all
the space we desired and helped not only through their news columns, but
were generous in their editorial mention.
When the Spanish-American war closed there was great rejoicing
throughout the country and many cities vied with each other in their
effort to celebrate the return of peace on a scale that would command
the attention of the whole country. The city of Chicago, however, seemed
to have been the most successful in these celebrations. Chicago was
fortunate in securing the President of the United States, together with
nearly all the members of his cabinet and various foreign ministers and
other important officials. This gave the celebration in Chicago a
national importance such as attached to the celebration of no other city
which held one.
I was asked by President William R. Harper, of the University of
Chicago, chairman of the committee on invitations, to deliver one of the
addresses in Chicago. I accepted the invitation and delivered, in fact,
two addresses during the Jubilee week in Chicago. The principal address
which I delivered on this occasion was on Sunday evening, October 16.
The meeting was held in the Chicago Auditorium, and was the largest
audience that I have ever addressed in any part of the country. Besides
speaking in the main auditorium, I addressed, on the same evening, two
overflow audiences held in different portions of the city. It is said
there were 16,000 people in the Auditorium, and it seems to me there
were at least 16,000 on the outside trying to get into the building. In
fact, without the aid of a policeman, it was impossible for any one to
get anywhere near the entrance. The meeting was attended by President
William McKinley, the members of his cabinet, foreign ministers and a
large number
[Illustration: MR. WASHINGTON MAKING A SPEECH AT THE CHICAGO PEACE
JUBILEE, OCT. 16, 1808, IN THE AUDITORIUM.]
of army and navy officers, many of whom had distinguished themselves
during the Spanish-American war. The speakers, besides myself, on Sunday
evening, were, Rabbi Emil G. Hirsch, Father Thomas P. Hodnett and Dr.
John H. Barrows.
The speech which I delivered on Sunday evening was as follows:
“_Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen:_
“On an important occasion in the life of the Master, when it fell to Him
to pronounce judgment on two courses of action, these memorable words
fell from his lips: ‘And Mary hath chosen the better part.’ This was the
supreme test in the case of an individual. It is the highest test in the
case of a race or nation. Let us apply the test to the American Negro.
“In the life of our Republic, when he has had the opportunity to choose,
has it been the better or worse part? When in the childhood of this
nation the Negro was asked to submit to slavery or choose death and
extinction, as did the aborigines, he chose the better part, that which
perpetuated the race.
“When in 1776 the Negro was asked to decide between British oppression
and American independence, we find him choosing the better part and
Crispus Attucks, a Negro, was the first to shed his blood on State
street, Boston, that the white American might enjoy liberty forever,
though his race remained in slavery.
“When in 1814 at New Orleans, the test of patriotism came again, we find
the Negro choosing the better part, and Gen. Andrew Jackson himself
testifying that no heart was more loyal and no arm more strong and
useful in defense of righteousness.
“When the long and memorable struggle came between union and separation,
when he knew that victory on one hand meant freedom, and defeat on the
other his continued enslavement, with a full knowledge of the portentous
meaning of it all, when the suggestion and temptation came to burn the
home and massacre wife and children during the absence of the master in
battle, and thus insure his liberty, we find him choosing the better
part, and for four long years protecting and supporting the helpless,
defenceless ones entrusted to his care.
“When in 1863 the cause of the union seemed to quiver in the balance,
and there was doubt and distrust, the Negro was asked to come to the
rescue in arms, and the valor displayed at Fort Wagner and Port Hudson
and Fort Pillow testifies most eloquently again that the Negro chose the
better part.
“When a few months ago the safety and honor of the republic were
threatened by a foreign foe, when the wail and anguish of the oppressed
from a distant isle reached his ears, we find the Negro forgetting his
own wrongs, forgetting the laws and customs that discriminated against
him in his own country, again choosing the better part--the part of
honor and humanity. And if you would know how he deported himself in the
field at Santiago, apply for an answer to Shafter and Roosevelt and
Wheeler. Let them tell how the Negro faced death and laid down his life
in defense of honor and humanity, and when you have gotten the full
story of the heroic conduct of the Negro in the Spanish-American
war--heard it from the lips of Northern soldiers, and Southern soldiers,
from ex-abolitionists and ex-masters--then decide within yourselves
whether a race that is thus willing to die for its country should not be
given the highest opportunity to live for its country.
“In the midst of all the complaints of suffering in the camp and field,
suffering from fever and hunger, where is the official or citizen that
has heard a word of complaint from the lips of a black soldier? The only
request that has come from the Negro soldier has been that he might be
permitted to replace the white soldier when heat and malaria began to
decimate the ranks of the white regiment, and to occupy at the same
time the post of greatest danger.
“This country has been most fortunate in her victories. She has twice
measured arms with England and has won. She has met the spirit of
rebellion within her borders and was victorious. She has met the proud
Spaniard and he lays prostrate at her feet. All this is well, it is
magnificent. But there remains one other victory for Americans to win--a
victory as far-reaching and important as any that has occupied our army
and navy. We have succeeded in every conflict, except the effort to
conquer ourselves in the blotting out of racial prejudices. We can
celebrate the era of peace in no more effectual way than by a firm
resolve on the part of the Northern men and Southern men, black men and
white men, that the trenches that we together dug around Santiago shall
be the eternal burial place of all that which separates us in our
business and civil relations. Let us be as generous in peace as we have
been brave in battle. Until we thus conquer ourselves, I make no empty
statement when I say that we shall have a cancer gnawing at the heart of
the republic that shall one day prove as dangerous as an attack from an
army without or within.
“In this presence and on this auspicious occasion, I want to present the
deep gratitude of nearly ten millions of my people to our wise, patient
and brave Chief Executive for the generous manner in which my race has
been recognized during this conflict. A recognition that has done more
to blot out sectional and racial lines than any event since the dawn of
our freedom.
“I know how vain and impotent is all abstract talk on this subject. In
your efforts to ‘rise on stepping stones of your dead selves,’ we of the
black race shall not leave you unaided. We shall make the task easier
for you by acquiring property, habits of thrift, economy, intelligence
and character, by each making himself of individual worth in his own
community. We shall aid you in this as we did a few days ago at El Caney
and Santiago, when we helped you to hasten the peace we here celebrate.
You know us; you are not afraid of us. When the crucial test comes, you
are not ashamed of us. We have never betrayed or deceived you. You know
that as it has been, so it will be. Whether in war or in peace, whether
in slavery or in freedom, we have always been loyal to the Stars and
Stripes.”
I shall not attempt to burden the reader with newspaper comments on this
address, but shall content myself with giving a description that
appeared at the time in the Chicago Times Herald.
“Booker T. Washington’s address at the Jubilee Thanksgiving services at
the Auditorium contained one of the most eloquent tributes ever paid to
the loyalty and valor of the colored race, and at the same time, was one
of the most powerful appeals for justice to a race which has always
chosen the better part.
“The speaker, who is the recognized leader of the colored race, reviewed
the history of his people from the childhood of the nation to the
present day. He pictured the Negro choosing slavery rather than
extinction; recalled Crispus Attucks, shedding his blood at the
beginning of the American revolution that white Americans might be free,
while black Americans remained in slavery; rehearsed the conduct of the
Negroes with Jackson at New Orleans; drew a vivid and pathetic picture
of the Southern slaves protecting and supporting the families of their
masters while the latter were fighting to perpetuate black slavery;
recounted the bravery of colored troops at Port Hudson and Forts Wagner
and Pillow, and praised the heroism of the black regiments that stormed
El Caney and Santiago to give freedom to the enslaved people of Cuba,
forgetting for the time being the unjust discrimination that law and
custom make against them in their own country.
“In all of these things the speaker declared that his race had chosen
the better part. And then he made his eloquent appeal to the
consciences of white Americans: ‘When you have gotten the full story of
the heroic conduct of the Negro in the Spanish-American war, heard it
from the lips of Northern soldier and Southern soldier, from
ex-abolitionists and ex-masters, then decide within yourselves whether a
race that is thus willing to die for its country, should not be given
the highest opportunity to live for its country.’
“When Americans conquer race prejudice, the speaker declared, they will
have won a victory greater than can be obtained through the achievements
of arms. He likened the effect of race discrimination, especially in the
Southern States, to a cancer gnawing at the heart of the republic, ‘as
dangerous as an attack from an army within or without.’
“This is not a threat, but a warning, and one to which the white race
should give heed. The only solution of the ‘Negro problem’ which will
remove all menace to the tranquillity and interest of the country, is a
universal recognition of the Negro’s civil rights. When law and custom
cease to degrade him and place obstacles in the way of his advancement;
when we cease by unjust discrimination to fill his heart with despair
and hatred, but instead, give him hope and aid in his efforts to fully
emancipate himself, he will solve the problem now fraught with vexation
and danger.
“The race is fortunate in having a Booker T. Washington and other
comparatively great men as living evidence of what education and the
development of natural faculties have accomplished for the colored man,
as well as what can be accomplished in the future.
“Only through the defeat of race prejudice can the colored man hope to
acquire his full proportions as a citizen. And in conquering race
prejudice, the white race will achieve a greater victory than both races
won in the late war. They will be choosing the better part.”
The portion of the speech which seemed to raise the wildest and most
sensational enthusiasm was the part where I thanked the President for
his recognition of the Negro in his appointments during the
Spanish-American war. The President occupied a seat in a box to the
right of the platform. When I addressed the President I turned toward
him, and as I closed the sentence thanking him for his generosity the
whole audience arose and cheered for some time. The cheering continued
with waving of hats, handkerchieves and canes until the President
himself arose in his box and bowed to me two or three times. This
kindled anew the enthusiasm and the demonstration was almost beyond
description.
I shall not go into all the details relating to the attention which was
shown me during this three days’ visit to Chicago. I would say that from
the Mayor of the city down every official connected with the Peace
Jubilee seemed to give me the greatest attention and completely put me
at my ease on every occasion. I was given a position on the President’s
stand during the review of the parade and dined twice with the
President’s party.
My address was reported in all portions of the country through the
associated press dispatches. One portion of it seemed to have been
misunderstood, however, by the Southern press and some of the Southern
newspapers took exception to some things that I said and criticised me
rather strongly for what seemed to them a reflection upon the South.
These criticisms continued for several weeks, when I received a letter
from the editor of the Age-Herald, published in Birmingham, Alabama,
asking me if I would say just what I meant to say in my address, and I
replied in the following letter, which seemed to put an end to all
criticism on the part of the Southern press and to satisfy the South:
“_To the Editor of the ‘Age-Herald:’_
“Replying to your communication of recent date regarding my Chicago
speech, I would say that I have made no change whatever in my attitude
towards the South or in my idea of the elevation of the colored man. I
have always made it a rule to say nothing before a Northern audience
that I would not say before a Southern audience. I do not think it
necessary to go into any extended explanation of what my position is,
for if my seventeen years of work here in the heart of the South is not
a sufficient explanation I do not see how mere words can explain. Each
year more and more confirms me in the wisdom of what I have advocated
and tried to do.
“In Chicago, at the Peace Jubilee, in discussing the relations of the
races, I made practically the same plea that I did in Nashville this
summer at the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor, where I
spoke almost wholly to a Southern white audience. In Chicago I made the
same plea that I did in a portion of my address at the opening of the
Atlanta Exposition, for the blotting out of race prejudice in
‘commercial and civil relations.’ What is termed social recognition is a
question I never discuss. As I said in my Atlanta address, ‘The wisest
among my race understand that the agitations 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.’
[Illustration: LAUNDRY BUILDING AT TUSKEGEE INSTITUTE.]
[Illustration: PORTER HALL. FIRST BUILDING ERECTED OF THE TUSKEGEE
INSTITUTE.]
God knows that both--we, of the black race and the white race--have
enough problems pressing upon us for solution without obtruding a social
question, out of which nothing but harm would come.
“In my addresses I very seldom refer to the question of prejudice,
because I realize that it is something to be lived down, not talked
down, but at that great meeting which marked, in a large measure, the
end of all sectional feeling, I thought it an opportune time to ask for
the blotting out of racial prejudice as far as possible in ‘business and
civil relations.’
“In a portion of my address which was not sent out by the Associated
Press, I made the request that the Negro be given every opportunity in
proportion as he makes himself worthy. At Chicago I did not refer wholly
to the South or to the Southern white people. All who are acquainted
with the subject will agree that prejudice exists in the North as well
as in the South. I naturally laid emphasis upon the South because, as we
all know, that, owing to the large proportion of blacks to whites in the
South, it is in the South mainly that the problem is to be worked out.
Whenever I discuss the question of race prejudice I never do so solely
in the interest of the Negro; I always take higher ground. If a black
man hates a white man it narrows and degrades his soul. If a white man
hates a black man it narrows and degrades his soul.
“Both races will grow stronger in morals and prosper in business just in
proportion as in every manly way they cultivate the confidence and
friendship of each other. Outbreaks of race feelings and strained
relations not only injure business, but retard the moral and religious
growth of both races, and it is the duty among the intelligent of both
races to cultivate patience and moderation.
“Each day convinces me that the salvation of the Negro in this country
will be in his cultivation of habits of thrift, economy, honesty, the
acquiring of education, Christian character, property and industrial
skill.”
I have always made it a rule never to say anything in an address in the
North that I would not say in the South. I have no sympathy with any
policy which would leave one to suppose that he can help matters in the
South by merely abusing the Southern white man. What the South wants is
help and not abuse. Of course, when individuals, communities or states
in the South do a wrong thing they should be criticised, but it should
be done in a dignified, generous manner. Mere abuse of a man because he
is white or because he is black amounts to nothing and ends in harm. I
have said more than once, and I here repeat it, that I can sympathize as
much with a white man as with a black man; I can sympathize as much
with a Southern white man as with a Northern white man. I do not propose
that my nature shall be lowered by my yielding to the temptation to hate
a man because he is white or because he happens to live in the South.
The Negro who hates a white man is usually little and narrow. The white
man who hates a Negro is usually little and narrow. Both races will grow
strong, useful and generous in proportion as they learn to love each
other instead of hating each other. The Negro race, of all races in the
world, should be the last to cultivate the habit of hating an individual
on account of his race. He will gain more by being generous than by
being narrow. If I can do anything to assist a member of the white race
I feel just as happy as if I had done something to assist a member of
the Negro race. I think I have learned that the best way to lift one’s
self up is to help some one else.
While writing upon this subject, it is a pleasure for me to add that in
all my contact with the white people of the South, I have never received
a single personal insult. The white people in and near Tuskegee, to an
especial degree, seem to count it a privilege to show me all the respect
within their power, and often go out of their way to do this.
Not very long ago, I was making a journey between Dallas, Texas, and
Houston. In some way it became known in advance that I was on the train.
At nearly every station at which the train stopped, numbers of white
people, including in most cases the officials of the town, came aboard
and introduced themselves and thanked me heartily for the work that I
was trying to do for the South.
On another occasion, in Georgia, I found in a Pullman two ladies from
Boston whom I knew well. These ladies being ignorant of the customs of
the South, insisted that I take a seat with them in their section. After
some hesitation I consented. One of them, without my knowledge, ordered
supper to be served to the three of us. When I found that supper had
been ordered, I tried to excuse myself, but the ladies insisted that I
must eat with them. I finally settled back in my seat with a sigh, and
said to myself: “I am in for it now, sure.”
At last the meal being over, I went into the smoking-room, where most of
the men by that time were. In the meantime, however, it had become known
in some way throughout the car who I was. When I went into the
smoking-room nearly every man came up and introduced himself to me and
thanked me earnestly for the work that I was trying to do for the whole
South.
[Illustration:
Phelps Hall. Press Platform. Pres. McKinley. Mr. Washington’s Cottage.
Reviewing Platform.
BIRDS-EYE VIEW OF CROWDS AND REVIEWING STAND AT TUSKEGEE, DECEMBER,
1898, WHEN PRES. MCKINLEY AND PARTY VISITED THE INSTITUTE.]
[Illustration:
Gov. Johnson, Pres. McKinley, Principal Washington.
In Reviewing Stand.
WAITING FOR THE PROCESSION TO PASS AT THE TIME OF PRESIDENT McKINLEY’S
VISIT TO TUSKEGEE DECEMBER 16, 1898.]