A VACATION IN EUROPE.
In the spring of 1899 a rather notable meeting was held in Boston, in
the afternoon, at the Hollis Street Theatre. This meeting was gotten up
in the interest of the Tuskegee Institute, by friends of the
institution, in Boston for the purpose of raising money for the school.
It was presided over by Bishop Lawrence, bishop of Massachusetts. I
invited to speak with me at this meeting Dr. W. E. B. DuBois and Mr.
Paul Laurence Dunbar. Dr. DuBois read an original story and Mr. Dunbar
recited from his own poems. The theatre was filled with representatives
of the most cultured and wealthy men and women in Boston, and was said
to be the most successful meeting of the kind that had been held for a
good while. An admission was charged at the door and a generous sum was
raised for the school. This was the first time that Mr. Dunbar had
appeared in Boston and his readings produced a most favorable effect.
The same was true of Dr. DuBois.
During this same year I received an invitation which surprised me
somewhat. It was an invitation from the secretary of the Birmingham,
Alabama, Lyceum, a white literary organization, composed of the best
and most cultured people in the city of Birmingham, Alabama, inviting me
to address the Lyceum. I accepted this invitation to deliver an address
before the organization on the 30th of March. There was some adverse
criticism and some protests through the newspapers, and otherwise, on
the part of a certain element of white people in Birmingham; in fact,
some effort was made to prevent white ladies from attending, but I was
surprised and gratified when I appeared before the audience to find the
room filled with representatives of the best ladies and gentlemen of
Birmingham, and I have never spoken before any organization where my
words were more heartily and more kindly received than was true on this
occasion. I give one or two short extracts from Birmingham newspapers
which indicate how my address was received. This was the first time that
I had ever received an invitation to address a white literary
organization in the South, although during the winter of the same year I
had delivered an address before the National Farmer’s Association, which
met at Fort Worth, Texas.
Immediately after the public meeting held in Boston in the Hollis Street
Theatre, some friends of mine in Boston noted that I seemed to be rather
worn out as a result of nearly eighteen years of continuous work,
without any vacation during the winter or summer. Without our
knowledge, they quietly started a movement to raise a certain sum of
money to be used in sending Mrs. Washington and myself to Europe, where
we could rest for two or three months. This plan was a very great
surprise to us, and it seemed difficult for us to make up our minds to
leave the school for so long a time, but these friends insisted that we
owed it to the work and to ourselves to take the vacation. The result
was that we sailed for Europe on the 10th of May and remained abroad
until the 5th of August. We had a very pleasant and delightful trip
across the ocean and made many friends on the voyage. I was called upon
to speak on the steamer going and had a large and interesting audience.
After a voyage of ten days we landed at Antwerp, Belgium, and remained
there a short while. We then took a trip through the country in company
with some New York friends, whose acquaintance we made on the voyage. In
Holland we traveled on the canal boats, which gave us an opportunity of
seeing the inner life of the country people, and also the agricultural
life of the people.
I was especially anxious to study the agricultural and dairy systems,
with a view to utilizing the information in our work at Tuskegee. The
thorough cultivation of the soil, for which this country is noted, made
a deep impression upon me. There are few other countries, if any in the
world, where the soil is so thoroughly cultivated as in Holland. The
dairy interests there present an interesting and valuable field for
study. While in Holland we visited The Hague, where the International
Peace Congress was in session, and were shown many courtesies by the
American members of the Peace Conference. After remaining for some time
in Holland we returned to Antwerp and spent some time there, and
afterwards proceeded to Brussels, where we had a pleasant stay. From
Brussels we went to Paris, where we remained nearly six weeks. In Paris
we received much kind attention from General Horace Porter, the American
Ambassador, and his wife, as well as from other American and French
people. Soon after reaching Paris I received an invitation to deliver an
address before the American University Club, an organization composed
mainly of American college men residing in Paris. The American
Ambassador, Gen. Horace Porter, presided at this meeting, and in
addition to myself the speakers were Ex-president Benjamin Harrison and
Archbishop Ireland. I was also invited to deliver an address the
following Sunday in the American chapel, which I did. Mrs. Washington
and I attended a reception given by the American Ambassador, where we
met many prominent people.
I went to Europe mainly for the purpose of securing complete rest, and
notwithstanding the many engagements which constantly pressed themselves
upon me, I succeeded in getting a great deal of needed strength,
especially was this true in Paris. From Paris we went to London and
arrived there just in the midst of the social season. We had many
letters of introduction from friends in America to influential people in
England, and our stay in England was occupied mainly in a continual
round of social engagements.
Soon after reaching London, friends insisted that I should deliver an
address to the public on the race problem in the South. The American
Ambassador, Hon. Joseph H. Choate, was especially anxious that I consent
to do this. A meeting was arranged to take place in Essex Hall. In
connection with this meeting Rev. Brooke Herford, D. D., whom I had
formerly known in Boston, gave Mrs. Washington and myself a reception.
The meeting was largely attended, and Mr. Choate, the American
Ambassador, presided. The substance of what Mr. Choate and myself said
at this meeting was widely circulated in England and telegraphed to the
American press. This meeting was attended by such well-known people as
Hon. James Bryce, who also spoke, and many high officials and members of
titled families in England. After this meeting I received many
invitations to speak at other gatherings, but as far as possible excused
myself from doing so, in order that I might secure the rest for which I
went to Europe. I did, however, consent to speak at a meeting at the
Crystal Palace, which was presided over by the Duke of Westminster, said
to be the richest man in the world. This meeting was also largely
attended. We attended, among many other social functions, receptions
given by the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland, by Mr. and Mrs. T. Fischer
Unwin, Mrs. Unwin being the daughter of the late Richard Cobden. Lady
Henry Somerset was very kind in her attention to us.
While in London the following editorial appeared in the Daily Chronicle:
“The presence in London of Mr. Booker T. Washington, at whose address
the other evening the American Ambassador presided, calls for a generous
recognition of the remarkable work being done in the United States for
the Negro by this gifted member of the Negro race. What Frederick
Douglass was to an older generation that Mr. Washington is to the
present. At the recent visit of President McKinley to the South, Mr.
Washington occupied a place of honor alongside the President, and was
almost as heartily acclaimed. When one recalls the tremendous ‘color’
feeling in America, such a fact is exceedingly striking. The great work
which Mr. Washington has done has been an educational work. Orator as he
is, it is not so much his power of speech as the building up of the
remarkable industrial institute at Tuskegee, in Alabama, which has given
this Negro leader his deserved fame. The Civil War left the Negro
legally and nominally free, and the legislation after the war was over
made him legally and nominally a citizen. But we know that the Negro has
been in fact in a very different position from that which he occupied on
paper. He has been insulted by degrading legislation, he has been in
many states virtually deprived of his vote, and in not a few cases an
election dispute has afforded the dominant white man an excuse for
slaughter of the blacks. The Negro has retaliated in his barbarous way.
Though religious in the most emotional form, he is often non-moral, and
there can be no doubt that he has committed many grave offenses against
social order.
“Mr. Washington, though an enthusiastic advocate of the claims of his
race, is by no means blind to the faults which render so many Negroes
almost unfit for American citizenship. He saw long ago, what so many
American politicians who gave the suffrage to the colored population did
not see--that the most important service which could be rendered to the
blacks was to make useful artisans and workmen of them. As a result of
his meditation on the condition of the colored people, Mr. Washington
founded the Tuskegee Institute in the Black Belt of Alabama, stumped the
Union for funds, interested in his great undertaking all the best minds
of the Northern States, and has had the satisfaction of seeing this
institution grow to its present status of the largest and most important
training centre of the black race in the world. Here, where both sexes
are welcomed on terms of equality, the Negro is taken in hand, given the
rudiments of education, taught a useful trade, taught also, if he proves
capable, the higher branches of modern culture, subjected to high
intellectual and ethical influences, and made a man of in the true sense
of the word. No better work is being done in America at the present hour
than in this remarkable institution in Alabama.
“That the American conscience is being roused to its duty to the Negroes
is evident from the recent important conference at which two leading
speakers were an ex-Governor of Georgia and a Bishop of the Episcopal
Church. The horrible burnings and improvised hangings by white mobs, who
took the law into their hands, have awakened the people of the North,
and it is very properly asked whether those who permit such brutalities
in their own borders are fit to assume control of black and yellow
races in the Pacific. Ex-Governor Northen, of Georgia, took the North to
task for having been more responsible for the spread of slavery than the
South, and he defended, but without much success, the Southern whites
against the attacks made on them. The Bishop, it is gratifying to find,
took the strong ground of the Declaration of Independence, and asserted
the equal right of black and white to the common rights which the law
and the Constitution allow. But the important principle which emerges
clearly from the long discussion that took place at this conference is
that a _laissez faire_ policy is impossible in the case of the Negro.
You cannot ‘emancipate’ him alone. He must be educated, his character
must be formed, he must be made a useful and self-reliant being. This is
precisely what is being done at the Tuskegee Institute, and therefore,
its founder is solving, as far as one man can, one of the chief American
problems of the time. And what a problem! The practical humanising and
elevation from barbarism of dusky millions on whose own future the
future of the United States largely depends.”
Perhaps the most interesting and restful part of our visit to England
was the time that we spent as the guest of various English people in
their country homes. In order for one to appreciate what English life
really is he should have an opportunity to get into the daily life of an
English gentleman in his country residence.
We visited Bristol, where we were given a reception by the Women’s
Liberty Club, and also Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham. In
Birmingham we spent several days as the guests of Mr. Joseph Sturge, who
kindly gave us a reception, at which we met many of the prominent
citizens of Birmingham. Of course we visited a great many places of
historical interest and had an opportunity of looking into the methods
of education in England. We were specially interested in the work of the
large polytechnic institutes and the agricultural colleges, from which
we got a great deal of valuable information.
While in Europe I wrote a series of letters for the American Negro
press, which was widely published and commented upon.
During our stay in London I took special pains to inquire into the
opportunities for our people to better their condition by emigrating to
Africa, and convinced myself that there was little, if any, hope of our
people being able to better their condition by returning to Africa,
largely because Africa is almost completely divided up among various
European nations, leaving almost no hope for self-government in any part
of Africa, except in the little republic of Liberia, which is notably
unhealthy and undesirable from almost every point of view. I found out
that in many cases the Negroes are treated by Europeans in Africa almost
as badly as they have ever been treated in the South. The letter which I
wrote from London on this subject was very widely copied and commented
upon by the American press.
While I was in Europe cases of lynching of our people were especially
frequent in the South and in order to assist in checking this injustice
perpetrated upon the race, I addressed the following letter to the
Southern people, which was widely published throughout the country and
seemed to do much good. It was heartily commented upon editorially in
the Southern press:
“Several times during the last few months, while our country has been
shocked because of the lynching of Negro citizens in several states, I
was asked by many, and was tempted to say something upon the subject
through the press. At the time of these lynchings I kept silent, because
I did not believe that the public mind was in a condition to listen to a
discussion of the subject in the calm judicial manner that it would be
later, when there should be no undue feeling or excitement. In the
discussion of this or any other matter, little good is accomplished
unless we are perfectly frank. There is no white man of the South who
has more sincere love for it than I have, and nothing could tempt me to
write or speak that which I did not think was for the permanent good of
all the people of the South. Whenever adverse criticism is made upon the
South I feel it as keenly as any member of the white race can feel it.
It is, therefore, my interest in everything which appertains to the
South that prompts me to write as I do now. While it is true that there
are cases of lynchings and outrage in the Northern and Western States,
candor compels us to admit that by far the most of the cases of
lynchings take place in our Southern States, and that most of the
persons lynched are Negroes.
“With all the earnestness of my heart, I want to appeal, not to the
President of the United States, Mr. McKinley; not to the people of New
York nor of the New England States, but to the citizens of our Southern
States, to assist in creating a public sentiment such as will make human
life here just as safe and sacred as it is anywhere else in the world.
“For a number of years the South has appealed to the North and to
Federal authorities, through the public press, from the public platform,
and most eloquently through the late Henry W. Grady, to leave the whole
matter of the rights and protection of the Negro to the South, declaring
that it would see to it that the Negro would be made secure in his
citizenship. During the last half dozen years the whole country, from
the President down, has been inclined more than ever to pursue this
policy, leaving the whole matter of the destiny of the Negro to the
Negro himself and to the Southern white people among whom the great bulk
of the Negroes live.
“By the present policy of non-interference, on the part of the North and
the Federal Government, the South is given a sacred trust. How will she
execute this trust? The world is waiting and watching to see. The
question must be answered largely by the protection the South gives to
the life of the Negro and the provisions that are made for the
development of the Negro in the organic laws of the state. I fear that
but few people in the South realize to what extent the habit of
lynching, or the taking of life without due process of law, has taken
hold of us, and to what extent it is hurting us, not only in the eyes of
the world, but in our own moral and material growth.
“Lynching was instituted some years ago, with the idea of punishing and
checking outrage upon women. Let us examine the cold facts and see where
it has already led us, and where it is likely further to carry us, if we
do not rid ourselves of the habit. Many good people in the South, and
also out of the South, have gotten the idea that lynching is resorted
to for one crime only. I have the facts from an authoritative source.
During last year 127 persons were lynched in the United States. Of this
number, 118 were executed in the South and 9 in the North and West. Of
the total number lynched, 102 were Negroes, 23 were whites and 2,
Indians. Now, let everyone interested in the South, his country and the
cause of humanity, note this fact-that only 24 of the entire number were
charged in any way with the crime of rape; that is, 24 out of 127 cases
of lynching. Sixty-one of the remaining cases were for murder, 13 being
for suspected murder, 6 for theft, etc. During one week last spring,
when I kept a careful record, 13 Negroes were lynched in three of our
Southern States and not one was even charged with rape. All of these 13
were accused of murder or house-burning, but in neither case were the
men allowed to go before a court so that their innocence or guilt might
be proven.
“When we get to the point where four-fifths of the people lynched in our
country in one year are for some crime other than rape, we can no longer
plead and explain that we lynch for one crime alone.
“Let us take another year, that of 1892, for example. During this year
(1892) 241 persons were lynched in the whole United States, 36 of this
number were lynched in Northern and Western States, and 205 in our
Southern States. Of the 241 lynched in the whole country, 160 were
Negroes and five of these were women. The facts show that out of the 241
lynched in the entire country in 1892, but 57 were even charged with
rape, even attempted rape, leaving in that year alone 184 persons who
were lynched for other causes than that of rape.
“If it were necessary, I could produce figures for other years. Within a
period of six years about 900 persons have been lynched in our Southern
States. This is but a few hundred short of the total number of soldiers
who lost their lives in Cuba during the Spanish-American war. If we
could realize still more fully how far this unfortunate habit is leading
us on, note the classes of crime, during a few months, which the local
papers and Associated Press say that lynching has been inflicted
for--they include ‘murder,’ ‘rioting,’ ‘incendiarism,’ ‘robbery,’
‘larceny,’ ‘self-defense,’ ‘insulting women,’ ‘alleged stock poisoning,’
‘malpractice,’ ‘alleged barn-burning,’ ‘suspected robbery,’ ‘race
prejudice,’ ‘attempted murder,’ ‘horse stealing,’ and ‘mistaken
identity,’ etc.
“The practice has grown until we are now at the point where not only
blacks are lynched in the South, but white men as well. Not only this
but within the last six years, at least a half dozen colored women have
been lynched. And there are a few cases where Negroes have lynched
members of their own race. What is to be the end of this? Besides this,
every lynching drives hundreds of Negroes from the farming districts of
the South, where their services are of great value to the country, into
the already over-crowded cities.
“I know that some will argue that the crime of lynching Negroes is not
confined to the South. This is true, and no one can excuse such a crime
as the shooting of innocent black men in Illinois, who were guilty of no
crime except that of seeking labor, but my words just now are to the
South, where my home is and a part of which I am. Let other sections act
as they will; I want to see our beautiful Southland free from this
terrible evil of lynching. Lynching does not stop crime. In the
immediate section of the South where a colored man recently committed
the most terrible crime ever charged against a member of his race, but a
few weeks previous to this, five colored men had been lynched for
supposed incendiarism. If lynching was a cure for crime, surely the
lynching of five would have prevented another Negro from committing a
most heinous crime a few weeks later.
“We might as well face the facts bravely and wisely. Since the beginning
of the world crime has been committed in all civilized and uncivilized
countries, and a certain amount of crime will always be committed, both
in the North and in the South, but I believe that the crime of rape can
be stopped. In proportion to the numbers and intelligence of the
population of the South, there exists little more crime than in several
other sections of the country, but because of the lynching habit we are
constantly advertising ourselves to the world as a lawless people. We
cannot disregard the teachings of the civilized world for eighteen
hundred years, that the only way to punish crime is by law. When we
leave this dictum chaos begins.
“I am not pleading for the Negro alone. Lynching injures, hardens and
blunts the moral sensibilities of the young and tender manhood of the
South. Never shall I forget the remark by a little nine-year-old white
boy, with blue eyes and flaxen hair. The little fellow said to his
mother after he had returned from a lynching: ‘I have seen a man hanged;
now I wish I could see one burned.’ Rather than hear such a remark from
one of my little boys, I would prefer seeing him laid in his grave. This
is not all; every community guilty of lynching, says in so many words to
the governor, to the legislature, to the sheriff, to the jury, and to
the judge, I have no faith in you and no respect for you. We have no
respect for the law which we helped to make.
“In the South, at the present time, there is less excuse for not
permitting the law to take its course, where a Negro is to be tried,
than anywhere else in the world, for almost without exception the
governors, the sheriffs, the judges, the juries and the lawyers are all
white men, and they can be trusted, as a rule, to do their duty;
otherwise it is needless to tax the people to support these officers. If
our present laws are not sufficient to properly punish crime, let the
laws be changed, but that the punishment may be by lawfully constituted
authority is the plea I make. The history of the world proves that where
law is most strictly enforced is the least crime; where people take the
administration of the law into their own hands is the most crime.
“But there is another side. The white man in the South has not only a
serious duty and responsibility, but the Negro has a duty and
responsibility in this matter. In speaking of my own people I want to be
equally frank, but I speak with the greatest kindness. There is too much
crime among us. The figures for a given period show that in the United
States 30 per cent. of the crime committed is by Negroes, while we
constitute only about 12 per cent. of the entire population. This
proportion holds good, not only in the South, but also in the Northern
States and cities.
“No race that is so largely ignorant and so lately out of slavery could,
perhaps, show a better record, but we must face these plain facts. He is
most kind to the Negro who tells him of his faults as well as of his
virtues. A large amount of the crime among us grows out of the idleness
of our young men and women. It is for this reason that I have tried to
insist upon some industry being taught in connection with their course
of literary training. The time has come when every parent, every teacher
and minister of the gospel, should teach with unusual emphasis morality
and obedience to the law. At the fireside, in the school room, in the
Sunday-school, from the pulpit and the Negro press, there should be such
a sentiment created regarding the committing of crime against women,
that no such crime shall be charged against any member of the race. Let
it be understood for all time that no one guilty of rape can find
sympathy or shelter with us, and that none will be more active in
bringing to justice, through the proper authorities, those guilty of
crime. Let the criminal and vicious element of the race have at all
times our most severe condemnation. Let a strict line be drawn between
the virtuous and the criminal. I condemn with all the indignation of my
soul the beast in human form guilty of assaulting a woman. Let us all
be alike in this particular.
“We should not as a race become discouraged. We are making progress. No
race has ever gotten upon its feet without discouragements and
struggles.
“I should be a great hypocrite and a coward if I did not add that which
my daily experience teaches me is true, viz.: that the Negro has among
many of the Southern whites as good friends as he has anywhere in the
world. These friends have not forsaken us. They will not do so; neither
will our friends in the North. If we make ourselves intelligent,
industrious, economical and virtuous, of value to the community in which
we live, we can and will work out our own salvation right here in the
South. In every community, by means of organized effort, we should seek
in a manly and honorable way the confidence, the co-operation, the
sympathy of the best white people in the South and in our respective
communities. With the best white people and the best black people
standing together, in favor of law and order and justice, I believe that
the safety and happiness of both races will be made secure.”