THE NEGRO AND THE WORLD WAR.
No book written in the year 1918 would be complete without a word about
this awful conflagration which is now sweeping over the earth.
One sometimes thinks that the end is near and that the world is being
destroyed.
We know that everything that has been invented to advance civilization
is now being used to destroy it. Our one consolation is that however
imperfect we may have been as a nation, we know that our cause is just
and because of this we believe that in the end we will and must win. The
right has always been more powerful than the wrong, even more powerful
than might and it will prove true in this case.
I am being constantly asked by white men in both the North and South,
"How does the Negro regard this war and what about his willingness to
share in its responsibilities." I have only one answer for such
questions: "The Negro now knows but one word 'Loyalty.' He is no alien,
he owes no allegiance to any other country, there is no hyphen to his
name, he is all American, he is willing to fight and die, that the world
might be made safe for democracy." He only asks that he may share in
this democracy.
Already there are practically 200,000 Negroes who have been called to
the colors and thousands of others are expected to be called. I hear of
but few if any slackers among them, while thousands of slackers of other
races are being rounded up by the police in various cities throughout
the country.
The 200,000 Negro soldiers who are now at the front and in the camps
have gone with as brave hearts as any American citizen. They say,
"Silver and gold, have I but little, but I give my life to Uncle Sam, it
is all that I can do."
The Negro is not only furnishing men to the National Army, but he is
doing his part to support the boys at the front. He has bought Liberty
Bonds to the fullest extent. Many of his business organizations,
societies and lodges have bought large blocks of these bonds.
On Sunday morning, June 14th, Dr. Cortland L. Myers of Tremont Temple,
Boston, in his sermon told of an incident of an old colored woman who
had worked hard and saved up three hundred dollars in order that she
might not at the end be buried in the paupers' field, but when she read
that the United States wanted money, took all she had and carried it to
the bank to the agent. When the agent gave her the Liberty Bond and told
her that she would get four per cent on her money, she was utterly
surprised and said, "Lord, Boss, I thought I was giving this money to
Uncle Sam." This woman had only three hundred dollars, but she gave all.
You remember what Christ said about those who were contributing to a
great cause on one occasion. Many made large gifts, but one poor woman
came up and gave a penny which was all she had. Christ on commenting on
this to his Disciples said that she had given more than all, because she
had given all she had. Many incidents of this kind may be cited as proof
of the Negroes' loyalty in this struggle.
Not only in the Liberty Loan drive, but in the Red Cross and War Savings
Stamp drives, the Negro is doing his part. There are Negro agents all
over the South who are educating our people up to what the Government at
Washington wants. Such schools as Snow Hill, Laurinburg, Denmark, Utica,
Okalona and Calhoun and many others are serving as bureaus of
information for this war work among the Negroes.
Nor is this all. The Negro is doing his part in the various industries
of the country. I have heard of many strikes and walk-outs since we
entered the war, but not once have a group of Negroes struck. In some
places where a few are working with the unions, the unions have forced
them out at the risk of their lives, but where he is free, nowhere in
this country has the Negro struck during the war.
He is doing his bit on the farm. Everywhere the Negro farmers, man,
woman and child, believe that they can help win the war by making a good
crop and they are at work on the farm trying to do this, so you see that
the Negro in every way is in the war to a finish.
These are answers to questions asked me by the white man both North and
South as to the attitude of the Negro toward this world's war.
But on the other hand the Negro soldiers and civilians are not asleep
and they too are asking such questions as these:--
"Are we to share in the democracy for which we are giving our lives?
When the world is made safe for democracy, will the entire country be made
safe for it?
Will my father, mother, sister and brother be allowed to share in this
democracy?
Will lynchings and burnings at the stake cease?
Will the white man who makes the laws allow these laws to take their
course?
Will they allow us or give us a fair trial before their courts, which
have only white men as jurors?
Will they cease taxing us without representation?
Will they give us an equal part of the money spent for education? (In
many places in the Black Belt the Negro child receives thirty cents a
year for education, while the white child receives fifteen dollars.)
Will the Negro be given any work that he is capable of doing and not
be denied it on account of his color?
Will it be possible for a Negro travelling from Alabama to California or
Massachusetts, to find a place to sleep at night?
Will the baggage masters and the conductors of the South ever treat the
Negro passengers with courtesy and respect and finally will the white
man in the South after making the laws for the qualifications of
voters, allow a Negro to vote if he measures up to these
qualifications?"
The Negro does not care what these qualifications may be. He only wants
a fair chance in case he measures up to them.
The Negro only seeks equal rights and justice before all the courts of
the land. He expects this because of his teachings. He was brought to
this country against his will, even against his protest. He has been
given the white man's language, his history, his literature, his Bible
and even his God. His aspirations, inspirations and desires have been
brought about as a result of these and if they are wrong, the white man
is to blame. The Negro has been taught to believe that God is no
respecter of persons and therefore his subjects should not be. He
thought that if he did what other men did he would obtain the same
results.
Now evidently the Negro is a man. He loves as other men do, he lives as
others do, he dies as others die, he has joy and sorrow as others do,
even hates as others do, laughs and cries as others. He must therefore,
be a man as man is the only being which possesses these faculties. Then
he asks for a man's chance and the world will never be right until this
is given him. The world will never be safe for democracy until all the
races of the earth are allowed to share in it.
In answer to all of the foregoing questions asked me by both the white
and black, I have said that things will be better for the Negro after
the war. I have said that it was impossible for the world to be made
safe for democracy unless every county in the South is made safe for it.
I have gone as far as to cite a recent occurrence in Camden, Wilcox
County, Alabama, where more than one hundred and forty Negroes were sent
to the cantonments and I was asked to be one of the speakers on the
occasion. The white people there gave the Negroes a great banquet and in
my remarks after thanking them for their hospitality, I said "That it
would be foolish and cowardly on my part to stand here in your presence
and say that as a race we have no grievances, for we have them, but this
is no time to air them. When the house is on fire it is no time for
family quarrels, but the thing to do is to put the fire out and then we
can adjust the quarrels after.
"Today our National house is on fire and it is the duty of every man,
both white and black, rich and poor, great and small, to rise in his
might and put the fire out and when the fire is out, we will see you
about these grievances."
I went a step further and told that "already the war had brought some
good results as this was the most democratic day that this little city
had ever seen." Before the war, two expressions were commonly used by the
white man and the Negro. The Negro's expression was this:--"I haven't
any country," and the white man's expression was:--"This is a white
man's country." Now both of these classes are saying, "This is our
country." I further said that "we should win this war, because democracy
was right and autocracy is wrong, and if we lose, and God forbid that we
should, the fault will not be in democracy, but it will be due to the
fact that we are not practicing what we preach."
At the close of my remarks many of the white citizens, including the
judge, the sheriff, lawyers and other prominent men came forward and
congratulated me on what I had said and some said that the white people
of Camden needed more of such plain talk. I took these signs to mean
that better things were coming for the Negro of the South after the war,
but I must admit that when I read in the evening papers of June 27th
that Senator John Sharp Williams of Mississippi had practically defeated
the bill for women suffrage, because he said that he favored the vote
for white women only and that the bill in its present form would not be
allowed in his state--I must confess that this action almost took away
all of my hopes especially after there was no one to rise and rebut his
argument. There was no one in the United States Senate to speak for
democracy for all the people. Now I think that just such spirit as this
exhibited by that great Senator from Mississippi is at the foundation of
this world's war and until that spirit is crushed, I fear that this war
will continue. For of a truth, "God is no respecter of persons."
Now I have given my answers to both the Negro and the white man. What is
the answer of the white man?
Are we fighting for democracy for all the people, or are we fighting for
democracy for the white man only?
This question has never been answered by the white man, but it must be
answered after this great war.
APPENDIX
_Address Delivered by Mr. Edwards on the Twentieth Anniversary of His
Graduation from Tuskegee._
"Two decades ago, twenty members constituting the class of '93, received
their commission from the illustrious Principal of this great
institution on yonder hill, to go ye into all parts of the South and
teach and preach Tuskegee's gospel. This gospel was then as it is now, a
gospel of service. Now after the lapse of twenty years we have assembled
here to review the efforts of past years. Although twenty years are not
long enough in which to record the life's work of a class, it is
sufficiently long to indicate the direction in which this work is
tending.
"So we come today, not so much to tell what we have accomplished as to
tell what we are doing to renew our allegiance to our Alma Mater, and to
assure its Principal and members of the Faculty that our motto, "Deeds
Not Words," is still our guiding star. Four of our number have passed to
the great beyond. We must therefore wait a later and greater day to hear
their record read or told. Of the remaining sixteen, we have lost all
communication with two, and it would be mere speculation for us to say
what these two are doing. We can only hope, and do most fervently pray,
that wherever they are they have with them the deep and abiding spirit
of Tuskegee, and this we believe they have. This leaves then only
fourteen live, vigorous and active members with which we are concerned.
All of these, except one, have been engaged more or less in teaching.
They are located as follows:
"Two in Normal School at Snow Hill, Alabama; one at the head of a large
Industrial School at Topeka, Kansas; three in Birmingham, Alabama; one
teaching in Miles Memorial College; one in Government Service; one doing
settlement work; two are in Asheville, N. C., where they are engaged in
teaching and doing settlement work respectively; another teaching in
Dothan, Alabama; two in Montgomery, one of these teaching and the other
doing settlement work; one in Selma, Alabama, farming and doing
extension work; one at the head of a prosperous Industrial School at
China, Alabama, and one teaching in Georgia. All have been remarkably
successful and they have touched and made better the lives of more than
five thousand souls. While losing their lives for others, they have
saved their own somewhat, materially.
"Having been out on the tempestuous sea of life for twenty years amidst
both storms and calms, it may not be out of place for us to speak a word
of warning or make a few suggestions to those who are to set sail today,
and to those who hope to go to sea at a later date. This, then, is our
message. First of all, it is necessary for you to know where the work of
the world is to be done.
"On one occasion during Christ's sojourn on earth, He took a few of His
disciples with Him upon the mountain and there transfigured Himself. He
clothed Himself in heavenly beauty and splendor; He arrayed Himself in
His Godlike power. These men were so overjoyed at this manifestation of
His glory and power, that old Peter, impulsive as he was, spoke out and
said: 'Lord, it is good for us to be here, if it be Thy will, let us
build here three tabernacles, one for Thee, one for Moses, and one for
Elias.' The place was so glorious that they wanted to abide there. But
at the same time the multitude was waiting at the foot of the mountain,
hungering and desiring to be fed; naked and desiring to be clothed;
sick, and desiring to be healed. The work of Jesus Christ and His
disciples was not on the transfigured mountain, but at the foot among
the masses. So as they came down from the mountain, there met Him a man
whose son was a lunatic, desiring that the Master might heal him.
"So on occasions like this when Dr. Washington takes us upon the
mountain and reveals to us Tuskegee in all of her beauty and splendor,
we are likely, in such a state of ecstasy, to cry out saying, Principal
Washington, it is good for us to be here, and let us build three
tabernacles; one for thee, one for Armstrong, and one for Douglas. But
my friends, we cannot abide here. We must go down to the foot of the
mountain among the masses. We must go out into the rural districts for
there it is that the people are a hungry and thirsty crowd, and there it
is that the harvest is great, but the laborers are few, and there it is
the work of the world must be done.
"Another suggestion is, that as you go out to work, you will find that
for the most part Negro society is built upon a false basis. Instead of
being built upon the sound basis of merit and character, it is built
upon display; instead of being built upon substance, it is built upon
shadow.
"We need young men and women who have confidence in themselves;
confidence in the race, and abiding faith in God. We need young men and
women who are more interested in the opportunity to make a dollar than
in the privilege to spend one. We need young men and women who are
imbued with the spirit of sacrifice and service, whose mission is, 'Not
to be ministered unto, but to minister.' We need young men and women
with a purpose.
"To illustrate what we mean by a purpose, we take the action of Grant
during the late Civil War. When Winfield Scott and McClellan had
practically failed with the army of the Potomac and things were looking
very dark for the Union forces, Lieutenant U. S. Grant was placed in
command of all the Union forces. From the date of his command, his
purpose was: 'On to Richmond.' Day after day his command was: 'On to
Richmond.' When they had rivers to ford and mountains to climb, his
command was: 'On to Richmond.' At times thousands were laid low by the
ravage of disease, but his command was: 'On to Richmond.' When the
cannon of his enemy roared like thunder and bullets like lightning
struck his men down by the tens of thousands, his command was: 'On to
Richmond.' He received letters and telegrams by the thousands saying:
'My God, General, are you going to kill all of our husbands, all of our
sons, our brothers? Are you going to make all of the North a land of
widows and orphans?' His reply was: 'On to Richmond.' When rivers of
blood were before him, flames of fire swept over his forces, his command
was: 'On to Richmond.' And the command never ceased until Lee
surrendered his sword to Grant at Appomattox Court House. We repeat,
that for the work that lies before us, we need young men and women with
a purpose.
"A third warning is, that we must not mistake the aim and end of
education. You will find somewhere in the Bible a sentence like this:
'And the word was made flesh and it dwelled among us.' The word had been
spoken by Abraham; Moses thundered it from Mt. Sinai's ragged brow;
Ezekiel preached it; David sang it; Solomon proclaimed it; Jeremiah
prophesied it; Elijah saw it in the whirlwind; Moses saw it in the
burning bush, and Isaiah saw it and in amazement cried: 'Who is this
that cometh from Edom with dyed garments from Bazroh? this that is
glorious in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of His strength?'
But my friends, none of this would do. Speaking the word would not
atone; hearing it would not redeem; and seeing it would not save. The
word had to be made flesh and blood in the person of Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, and then come down on earth and live, move, and dwell among
us.
"As with the word, so with education. You have been here a number of
years trying to obtain it. You have heard education from your teachers;
you have heard it in the class-rooms; you have heard it from the
platform; you have heard it in the Sunday-School; you have gleaned it
from your text-books; you have sung it; you have prayed it; you have
spoken it; you have walked it; you have assumed it. But none of these
will suffice. Education, in order to be real, must be applied; in order
to be effective, it must be digested and assimilated. It must become a
part of your flesh and blood; it must transform you into a new creature
and then go out and move, live and dwell among us.
"And now a final word for the class of '93. What of its loyalty to
Tuskegee, our Alma Mater? It is true that at times our purposes and aims
have been misunderstood and misconstructed; at times your attitude
towards us has been misinterpreted, but not once have we doubted your
love. We hope that you have never mistrusted ours.
"It is true that at times we are troubled on every side, yet not
distressed; we are perplexed, but not in dispair; persecuted, but not
forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed. Through all of this, our love
and loyalty to dear old Tuskegee has never wavered, and now as a token
of this love and loyalty, I hand to Dr. Washington as a Memorial
Scholarship for the class of '93, a check for one thousand dollars."
I think that this act pleased Dr. Washington more than anything that had
ever been done by the class of '93. We all were proud of this because we
wanted Dr. Washington to see that we had not forgotten what he had done
for us. We wanted to do this during his lifetime, and this we succeeded
in doing.
An address before the Alabama State Teachers' Association, held in
Montgomery, Ala., the subject being:
_"School Building Under Difficulties."_
"There is no work pertaining to the welfare of our race that is of more
importance than that of the teacher, and no class of people has a
harder task to perform than the earnest and conscientious Negro teacher
of today.
"The problems that come before the large educational associations of
this and other countries, are problems dealing largely with the child,
such as the treatment of backward children, treating of abnormal
children, care of the blind, of the deaf, special treatment for
incorrigibles, the feeble minded, and many other kinds of mental and
physical defectives.
"Other problems that demand the attention of such meetings, are problems
dealing with the teacher, his preparation and qualification for the
various grades of our schools, for instance, preparation of the teacher
for the elementary school, for the secondary school, and for colleges
and universities. These associations also give much time to such
subjects as The Relation of Education to Real Life; The Defects of our
Present School System; and how these defects may be remedied. In other
words, how can the school better fit the student to take his place in
the social and economic life of today? I repeat, these are the problems
which largely consume the time of these educational meetings. They are
vital and far-reaching, and demand the closest attention of our wisest
and best educators. They are not racial; not sectional; not even
national, but are universal in their scope and teachers in all parts of
the world must contend with them.
"The average Negro teacher of the South today must assume his share of
the burden of these problems along with other teachers, whether he wills
it or not. In addition to this he has to deal with the serious problem
of his bread and butter. This makes the burden of the Negro teacher of a
two-fold nature, and in this respect he is at a disadvantage of the
average American teacher. He has not as yet been able to live up to the
Biblical injunction, 'Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat,
or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on.' No
teacher can do his best so long as there is doubt and uncertainty about
his daily bread.
"The Negro student who finishes at one of our higher institutions of
learning today, and goes forth to teach, does not find everything to his
liking. He soon learns that there has been no voice before him crying in
the wilderness saying: 'Prepare ye the way of the teacher, make straight
in the desert a highway for our educator.' He learns here for the first
time that in addition to the ordinary educational problems, it is for
him to exalt every valley, make low every hill and mountain, make the
crooked straight, and the rough places plain. He finds no way prepared,
he must make one; he finds no school-house ready, he must build one; he
finds no people anxiously awaiting him, he must persuade them. In many
cases the Negro teacher who is imbued with the spirit of sacrifice and
service can truly say as did the Master, 'The foxes have holes and the
birds of the air have nests, but the teacher who would redeem a poverty
stricken and ignorant people, has not where to lay his head.'
"The purpose of the Snow Hill Institute is to prepare young men and
young women to go into communities where they propose to work and
influence the people to stop living in rented one-room log cabins, buy
land, and build dwelling houses having at least four rooms, and thus
improve the home life of the people. Second, to influence the people to
build better school-houses and lengthen the school terms and thus by
arousing educational interest, assist in bringing about the needed
reform that is so essential to economic and upright living; and finally
to promote good character building. To some extent the purpose is being
realized, for more than one thousand different students who have been
more or less benefited by having spent a year or more under its
guidance, are leading sober and useful lives. Two hundred fifteen have
either been granted certificates or diplomas, and are engaged as
follows: Fifty are teachers, twenty-five are housekeepers, three of the
teachers have founded schools of their own, one at Laurinburg, N. C.,
one at West Butler, Alabama, and one at Richmond, Alabama.
"Though the majority of the ex-students are located in the Black Belt of
Alabama and are engaged principally in farming, a large number of them
are found in the following states: Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia,
Florida, and the Carolinas."
APPENDIX
ADDRESS DELIVERED BY MR. EDWARDS IN BESSEMER, ALABAMA
"THE SIGNS OF TIMES"
It was customary in ancient times for nations to build walls around
their cities to protect them from the enemy. War was the rule, and peace
the exception. Nations therefore spent most of their time in preparing
for war, as they believed that their advancement depended largely upon
their conquest. Watchmen would be placed here and there on the walls to
keep a sharp look-out for the enemy and when detected, would warn the
inhabitants of his approach. As a result of these warlike times and
military activities, some of the world's greatest generals were produced
during that period.
Undoubtedly, conditions here mentioned, existed because of the poor
methods of transportation and communication that were uncertain during
that day, for since the advent of the steam-engine, telegraph,
telephone, the automobile, and other means of rapid transit, national
lines of demarcation have been becoming less distinct. As nations
communed with nations and understood each other better, they found less
causes for differences and less need of watchmen on the walls.
We cannot help but believe that with a better knowledge of each race by
the other and on the part of each a better understanding of the great
and common end of life, which is to serve and uplift, that racial strife
and conflict will cease and ere long this old world will become the
kingdom of our God.
But these are not ancient times and things that were are not now. The
cities of the plain are no longer separated, for the walls have been
demolished and instead of the watchmen we have the teacher, the preacher
and the politician to tell us the signs of the times.
This is, pre-eminently, a progressive age; an age of going forth; an age
in which things move. With the new and varied inventions of the 19th and
20th Centuries, old customs and conditions are rapidly passing away and
those nations, races, and individuals who cannot adjust themselves to
these new conditions must be left behind. Just now grave and serious
problems confront the American People and this, in itself, is a proof of
our going forth. We must not deprecate them, we must not shirk them,
they are ours, we must face them manfully, must shoulder them and stand
up and walk. These problems are the mothers of progress and instead of
trying to turn from them or to dodge them, we should rejoice because we
live at a time when we can help in the solution of such complex
problems, whose results will have such far reaching and lasting effect
upon the social and economic life of the American People.
This country is one and inseparable and whatever is beneficial to the
white man is beneficial to the black man also. The negro cannot hope at
the present to play a very important part in the solution of great
questions. At our best the part we must play can only be secondary.
First, because our business operations have not brought us into intimate
relation to these questions and we do not fully comprehend their
meaning. Second, we can do but little because these questions are
political in their nature and must be settled by the ballot. The Negro
in this section has been disfranchised and therefore he cannot play at
that game. Our being thus handicapped and prohibited from assisting in
the solution of these great problems, is no reason why we should say
there is nothing we can do.
"If you cannot cross the ocean
And the heathen lands explore
You can find the heathen nearer;
You can help them at your door."
There are some problems, however, that are within our reach, upon the
solution of which depends our future welfare in this country. They are,
inefficiency, vagrancy, and crime. For a long time we have been hearing
of the inefficiency of the Negro teacher, the inefficiency of the Negro
preacher, but all the while it was said that he was a good worker; that
he was only fitted to do manual labor. The cry has gone out and is
rapidly spreading to the effect that the Negro is worthless; that there
is inefficiency in the pulpit, inefficiency in the school-room, and now
inefficiency on the farm. Inefficiency everywhere. Our race has lost
many places of trust and honor because of this cry. I know personal
cases where Negro men have been replaced by white men because, they say,
the black men were inefficient. This is as much true in New York as it
is in Alabama. As the supply of efficient men increases, the demand for
inefficient men will decrease and sooner or later there will be no room
for the inefficient man. He will be idle, cannot get any work to do. He
will be added to the vagrant class. Already this class is too large
among us; strong able-bodied men walking about with no home and nothing
to do. This is a dangerous class. Of course, unless the vagrant gets
some work to do he will starve or have to leave the country; but this
man does not do either. He becomes a parasite and lives of the honest
toil of others. Sometimes he lives out of the white man's kitchen,
because his sweetheart is the cook; sometimes because his old mother is
a wash woman, and sometimes because his sister is a nurse. This is the
class, my white friends, that gives you trouble, this is the class that
gives us trouble, this is the class that will give trouble to any
community and we are as anxious as you are to rid ourselves of this body
of death.
Now the best class of Negroes and the best class of white people are
agreed as to the fact that this dangerous class must be gotten rid of,
but they differ as to methods. The Negro believes mostly in the
preventive method, the white man mostly in the cure method. The Negro
says a good school in every community will prevent, the white man says a
good jail in every county will cure. The Negro says teach the law, the
white man says enforce the law. The Negro cries for a state reformatory
for the boys and girls of his race, the white man cries for the
penitentiary for them. Now, this is not a very great difference after
all and we should get together by each asking for the best schools to
prevent these evils and then when the evils are committed, asking for
the strictest law for their punishment. As for my part, it is not a
question in my mind as to the cause of this increasing class among my
people. It is plain to me that ignorance is the cause of inefficiency,
inefficiency the cause of vagrancy, and vagrancy the cause of crime. We
must, therefore, seek the remedy in the removal of the cause. If
ignorance be the mother of inefficiency, inefficiency the mother of
vagrancy, and vagrancy the mother of crime, it is plain that the removal
of ignorance will stop the others. This can only be done by education
and civic righteousness.
I wish here to emphasize the fact that education is the source of all we
have and the spring of all our future joys. Our religion, our morality,
and that which is highest and best in our social and civic life, all
come from education. Therefore, it is the primary factor in the
elevation of all races.
Our education should be of a threefold nature, viz.: Literary,
Industrial and Religious. No limit should be placed upon the Negro's
literary qualification. A race so largely segregated as ours, needs its
own teachers, preachers, lawyers, doctors, pharmacists, and other
professional and business men, and therefore they should be given the
highest and best education that is obtainable. If our preachers and
teachers are inefficient, it is because they are improperly educated.
If the churches are growing cold and dying and the schools accomplishing
but very little good, it is because religion is not being made practical
and education not being made to apply to our every day life. Such an end
can only be accomplished through well and systematically trained
teachers and preachers. Better teachers and better preachers will go a
long way towards the alleviation of our ills. If we would secure the
kind of education here referred to, we must be willing to pay for it; we
must make a sacrifice, we must care less about forms and fashions and
more about the higher things of life. We must see less evils in the
dollar and more good.
We must not only have a good education, but we must have good industrial
training. This is a scientific as well as a literary age. A scientific
age is always an age of inventions and with new inventions comes the
demand for men qualified to manage large interests and complicated
machinery. This demand can only be supplied by industrially trained men
and women. This must be done in our industrial schools. Our hands should
be as truly trained to work as our minds to think, and any education
that teaches otherwise, is not worthy of the name.
I know that in some sections my people are prejudiced towards industrial
schools, but this is foolish in the extreme. If we are to hold our own
in this country, it must be by our ability to do work and to do it in
the most acceptable manner. We are in a farming section and I believe
that we should therefore strive to be the best farmers in the world. Let
us make a specialty of all the trades that are related in anyway to
agriculture; endeavor to become the best stock raisers, the best truck
gardeners, the best cooks, the best wash women, the best housekeepers,
the best dress makers, the best blacksmiths, and in fact, the best in
all that pertains to country life.
Let us get hold of the lands we cultivate as far as possible and build
better homes and keep our homes clean. But you say that we do not need
industrial training. Let us see. Many years ago Henry Clay, in order to
encourage home industry, introduced a bill in the Kentucky Legislature
to the effect that the people of that state should use nothing save what
could be produced in the state. Suppose today the white man of this
country should say that the Negro must use only the things which he
could make, what would be his condition? Could we cook with proper
utensils? Could we eat with knives and forks? Could we dress as we do
now? Practically everything we wear or use was made by the white man and
were he to institute such actions we would be helpless to provide for
ourselves.
In our quest for knowledge, we must not overlook the education of the
heart. Our religion should be made practical. It must be real and not
visionary. No other will suffice. Our religion must consist more in
deeds and less in words.
Transcriber's Notes:
Passages in italics are indicated by _underscore_.
The following misprints have been corrected:
"210" corrected to "120" (Table of Contents)
"Tuskeegee" corrected to "Tuskegee" (page 47)
"phosporus" corrected to "phosphorus"(page 91)
Some quotes are opened with marks but are not closed. Obvious errors
have been silently closed, while those requiring interpretation have
been left open.
Other than the corrections listed above, printer's inconsistencies in
spelling, punctuation, and hyphenation usage have been retained.