every individual. As a general thing it is not difficult for a person
to be polite in words and courteous in actions to individuals who are
classed in the same social scale, or who, perhaps, are above him in
wealth and influence. The test of a true lady or gentleman comes when
that individual is brought in contact with some one who is considered
beneath her or him, some one who is ignorant or poor. Show me a man who
is himself wealthy, and who is gentle and polite to the ignorant about
him, and to the poor people about him, and I will show you every time
a true gentleman. When Prince Henry of Prussia was in this country,
I remember reading this description of one of the prominent public
men who received him: "He is such a true gentleman that he can meet
a prince without himself being embarrassed, and can meet a poor man
without embarrassing the poor man."
Learn to speak kindly to every individual, white or black. No man loses
anything by being gentlemanly, by learning to be polite, by treating
the most unfortunate individual with the highest deference.
We want you to learn to control your temper. Some one has said that the
difference between an animal and a man is that the beast has no method
of learning to control his temper. With the individual, the human
being, there is education and training. He learns to master himself, to
have an even temper; learns to master his temper completely. Now if any
of you have a temper that often gets to be your master, make up your
mind that it is a part of your duty here to learn to control it. Step
upon it, as it were, and say: "I will be master of my temper, instead
of letting it be my master."
You want to have that kind of courage that is going to make you able
to speak the truth at all times, no matter what it may seem to cost
you. This may, for the time being, seem to make you unpopular; it may
inconvenience you, it may deprive you of something that you count dear;
but the individual who cultivates that kind of courage, who, at the
cost of everything, always speaks the truth, is the individual who
in the end will be successful, is the one who in the end will come
out the conqueror. You cannot afford to learn to speak anything but
the absolute truth. One of the most beautiful things that I have seen
printed about President Roosevelt was where someone wrote of him that
one of the President's greatest faults was that he did not know when
to lie--when to deceive people--but that he always spoke the absolute,
frank truth. As a result of his honesty, his truth speaking, he is at
the head of the nation.
We also want you to learn to be absolutely honest in all your dealings
with other people's property. We may just as well speak plainly and
emphatically. One of our worst sins, one of our weaknesses, is that of
not being able to handle other people's property and be honest with
it. You should learn to be absolutely honest with the property of your
room-mates, school-mates and teachers. Make up your minds that nothing
is going to tempt you from the path of absolute honesty. There is no
man or woman who begins with meddling with other people's property and
affairs, who begins to learn to take that which does not belong to
him or her, who is not beginning in a downward path ending in misery,
sorrow and disappointment. Make up your minds that you are going to be
absolutely honest and truthful in all cases. There is no way to get
happiness out of life, there is no way to get satisfaction out of your
school career, except by following the lessons that I have here tried
to emphasize.
When we speak of honesty, the first thought may be that the word
applies only to the taking of property that does not belong to us, but
this is not so. It is possible for a person to be dishonest by taking
time or energy that belongs to someone else, just as much as tangible
property. In going into a class-room, office, store or shop, one man
may ask himself the question: "How little can I do to-day and still
get through the day?" Another man will have constantly before him the
question: "How much can I put into this hour or this day?" Now we
expect every student who goes out from Tuskegee to be, not the man who
tries to see how little he can do, or the average man who proposes to
do merely his duty, but the man above the average, who will do more
than his duty. And you will disappoint us unless you are above the
average man, unless you go out from here with the determination that
you are going to perform more than your duty.
I like to see young men or young women who, if employed in any
capacity, no matter how small or unimportant that capacity may be, if
the hour is eight o'clock at which they must come to work, I like to
see them at work ten or fifteen minutes before that hour. I like to see
a man or woman who, if the closing hour is five o'clock or six o'clock,
goes to the person in charge and says: "Shall I not stay longer? Is
there not something else I ought to do before I go?" Put your whole
souls into whatever you attempt to do. That is honesty.
Another thing you should learn this year is to get into touch with the
best people there are in the world. You should learn to associate with
the best students in the institution. Take them as models, and say that
you are going to improve from month to month, and from year to year,
until you are as good as they are, or better. You cannot reach these
things all at once, but I hope that each one of you will make up his
mind or her mind that from to-night, throughout the year and throughout
life, there is going to be a hard striving on your part toward reaching
the best results. If you do this, when you get ready to leave this
institution, you will find that it has been worth your while to have
spent your time here.
THE GOSPEL OF SERVICE
The subject on which I am going to speak to you for a few minutes
to-night, "The Gospel of Service," may not, when you first hear it,
strike a very responsive chord in your hearts and minds, but I assure
you I have nothing but the very highest and best interest of the race
at heart when I select this subject to talk about.
The word "service" has too often been misunderstood, and on this
account it has in too many cases carried with it a meaning which
indicates degradation. Every individual serves another in some
capacity, or should do so. Christ said that he who would become the
greatest of all must become the servant of all; that is, He meant that
in proportion as one renders service he becomes great. The President of
the United States is a servant of the people, because he serves them;
the Governor of Alabama is a servant, because he renders service to the
people of the State; the greatest merchant in Montgomery is a servant,
because he renders service to his customers; the school teacher is
a servant, because it is his duty to serve the best interests of his
pupils; the cook is a servant, because it is her duty to serve those
for whom she works; the housemaid is a servant, because it is her duty
to care for the property intrusted to her in the best manner in which
she is able.
In one way or another, every individual who amounts to anything is
a servant. The man or the woman who is not a servant is one who
accomplishes nothing. It is very often true that a race, like an
individual, does not appreciate the opportunities that are spread
out before it until those opportunities have disappeared. Before us,
as a race in the South to-day, there is a vast field for service and
usefulness which is still in our hands, but which I fear will not be
ours to the same extent very much longer unless we change our ideas of
service, and put new life, put new dignity and intelligence into it.
Perhaps I am right in thinking that in no department of life has
there been such great progress and such changes for the better during
the last ten years as in the department of domestic service, or
housekeeping. The cook who does not make herself intelligent, who does
not learn to do things in the latest, and in the neatest and cleanest
manner, will soon find herself without employment, or will at least
find herself a "drug on the market," instead of being sought after and
paid higher wages. The woman who does not keep up with all the latest
methods of decorating and setting her table, and of putting the food on
it properly, will find her occupation gone within a few years. The same
is true of general housekeeping, of laundering and of nursing.
All the occupations of which I have been talking are at present in our
hands in the South; but I repeat that very great progress is being made
in all of them in every part of the world, and we shall find that we
shall lose them unless our women go forward and get rid of the old idea
that such occupations are fit only for ignorant people to follow. At
the present time scores of books and magazines are appearing bearing
upon every branch of domestic service. People are learning to do things
in an intelligent and scientific manner. Not long ago I sat for an
hour and listened to a lecture delivered upon the subject of dusting,
and it was one of the most valuable hours I ever spent. The person who
gave this lecture upon dusting was a highly educated and a cultivated
woman, and her audience was composed of wealthy and cultivated people.
We must bring ourselves to the point where we can feel that one who
cooks, and does it well, should be just as much honoured as the person
who teaches school.
What I have said in regard to the employments of our women is equally
true of the occupations followed by our men. It is true that at the
present we are largely cultivating the soil of the South, but if other
people learn to do this work more intelligently, learn more about
labour-saving machinery, and become more conscientious about their
work than we, we shall find our occupation departing. It used to be
the case in many parts of the North that the Negro was the coachman;
but in a very large degree, in cities like New York and Philadelphia,
the Negro has lost this occupation, and lost it, in my opinion, not
because he was a Negro, but because in many cases he did not see that
the occupation of coachman was constantly being improved. It has been
improved and lifted up until now it has almost become a profession. The
Negro who expects to remain a coachman should learn the proper dress
for a coachman, and learn how to care for horses and vehicles in the
most approved manner.
What is true of the coachman is true of the butler. In too many cases,
I fear, we use these occupations merely as stepping stones, holding
on to them until we can find something else to do, in a careless and
slipshod manner. We want to change all this, and put our whole souls
into these occupations, and in a large degree make them our life-work.
In proportion as we do this, we shall lay a foundation upon which our
children and grandchildren are to rise to higher things. The foundation
of every race must be laid in the common every-day occupations that are
right about our doors. It should not be our thought to see how little
we can put into our work, but how much; not how quickly we can get rid
of our tasks, but how well we can do them.
I often wish that I had the means to put into every city a large
training-school for giving instruction in all lines of domestic
service. Few things would add more to the fundamental usefulness of the
race than such a school. Perhaps it may be suggested that my argument
has reference only to our serving white people. It has reference to
doing whatever we do in the best manner, no matter whom we serve.
The individual who serves a black man poorly will serve a white man
poorly. Let me illustrate what I mean. In a Southern city, a few days
ago, I found a large hotel conducted by coloured people. It is one of
the very cleanest and best and most attractive hotels for coloured
people that I have found in any part of the country. In talking with
the proprietors I asked them what was the greatest obstacle they had
had to overcome, and they told me it was in finding coloured women to
work in the house who would do their work systematically and well,
women who would, in a word, keep the rooms in every part of the hotel
thoroughly swept and cleaned. This hotel had been opened three months,
and I found that during that time the proprietors had employed fifteen
different chambermaids, and they had got rid of a large proportion of
these simply because they were determined not to have people in their
employment who did not do their work well.
One weakness pertaining to the whole matter of domestic employment
in the South, at present, is this: it is too easy for our people to
find work. If there was a rule followed in every family that employs
persons, that no man or woman should be hired unless he or she brought
a letter of recommendation from the last employer, we should find that
the whole matter of domestic service would be lifted up a hundred per
cent. So long as an individual can do poor work for one family, and
perhaps be dishonest at the same time, and be sure that he or she will
be employed by some other family, without regard to the kind of service
rendered the last employer, so long will domestic service be poor and
unsatisfactory.
Many white people seldom come in contact with the Negro in any other
capacity than that of domestic service. If they get a poor idea of our
character and service in that respect, they will infer that the entire
life of the Negro is unsatisfactory from every point of view. We want
to be sure that wherever our life touches that of the white man, we
conduct ourselves so that he will get the best impression possible of
us.
In spite of all the fault I have found, I would say this before I stop.
I recognize that the people of no race, under similar circumstances,
have made greater progress in thirty-five years than is true of the
people of the Negro race. If I have spoken to you thus plainly and
frankly, it is that our progress in the future may be still greater
than it has been in the past.
YOUR PART IN THE NEGRO CONFERENCE
For eight or nine years, now, it has been our custom to hold here
what is known as the Tuskegee Negro Conference. A number of years ago
it occurred to some of us that instead of confining the work of this
institution to the immediate body of students gathered within its
walls, we perhaps could extend and broaden its scope so as to reach out
to, and try to help, the parents of the students and the older people
in the country districts, and, to some extent, if possible, in the
cities also.
With this end in view, we, some years ago, invited a number of men and
women to come and spend the day with us, and, while here, to tell us in
a very plain and straightforward manner something about their material,
moral and religious condition. Then the afternoon of that same day was
spent in hearing from these same men and women suggestions as to how
they thought this institution and other institutions might help them,
and also how they thought they might help themselves.
Out of these simple and small meetings has grown what we now call
"The Tuskegee Negro Conference," which, in the last few years, has
grown until it numbers from nine hundred to twelve hundred persons.
We not only have that large number of persons, most of whom come from
farms and are engaged in farm work, but we now also have "The Workers'
Conference," which meets on the day following the Negro Conference.
This Workers' Conference brings together representatives from all the
larger institutions for the education of the Negro in the South.
Now these meetings for this year begin next Wednesday morning, and the
practical question that I wish to discuss with you to-night is,--What
can we do to make that Conference a success? What can you do for the
Conference, and what can the Conference do for you?
I wish you to grasp the idea that is growing through the country--that
very few institutions now confine themselves and their work to mere
teaching in the class-room, in the old-fashioned manner. Very few now
confine themselves and their work to the comparatively small number of
students that they can reach in that way, as they did a few years ago.
In many cases they have their college extension work. In one way or
another they are reaching out and getting hold of the young people--and
getting a hold on the older people as well. And just so, to a very
large degree, through this Conference, Tuskegee is doing something of
the same kind of thing.
During these few days we shall have hundreds of the farmers, with their
wives and daughters, gathered here. We want each and every one of you
here in the institution to make up your mind that you can do something
to help these people. We want each one of you here to-night to feel
that he or she has a special responsibility during the time these
people are gathered together at Tuskegee. We sometimes speak of it as
their one day of schooling in the whole year,--that is, the one day
out of the whole three hundred and sixty-five days in the year when,
perhaps, they will give the greatest amount of attention to matters
pertaining to themselves. In inviting them here, not only the teachers
and officers of this institution have a responsibility, but each and
every student here also has a responsibility. I want you to feel that,
and see to what extent you can take hold of these people while they are
here, to inspire and encourage them, so as to have them go away from
here feeling that it is worth their while to come to the Institute for
this meeting, even if--as is true of some of them--they have come a
long distance.
Some of these people who will come here are ignorant, so far as books
are concerned, but I want you to know that not every person who cannot
read and write is ignorant. Some of the persons whom I have met and
from whom I have learned much, are persons who cannot write a word.
Very many of the people who will come here may not be able to read or
write, but we can learn something from them notwithstanding, while they
are here, and they can learn something from us.
I want you to take delight in getting hold of these people and taking
them through our shops, guiding them through our various agricultural
and mechanical departments. Be sure that you exert every effort
possible to make them comfortable and happy while they are here.
Heretofore the students have been so generous, at the time of this
meeting, that many of them, if necessary, have given up their rooms
that these people might have a comfortable night's rest. I do not know
where you have slept, but I do not think that in the history of the
school a student was ever asked to give up his room to any of these
people that he did not gladly and freely do so. I believe that you are
going to do the same thing this year.
I want you, also, to remember that you not only can help the Conference
to be a success by being polite and kindly to the farmers who come
from this and other Southern States, but also by being polite and
attentive to the representatives from the large institutions that
will be here. We will have present representatives from every large
institution engaged in the education of our people. It means much for
the principals and instructors in these large colleges and industrial
schools to leave their work and come as far as many of them do, to
spend these days here. We have a responsibility on their account; we
desire them to feel that it has been worth their while to leave their
work and spend their time and money to come here for these meetings. We
wish them to get something out of our industries here; we wish them to
get something out of the training here, in every department, something
which they can take back to their own institution to make their work
there stronger and better.
Now as to yourselves. You can get something out of this Conference
for yourselves, by getting hold of everything possible, so that when
you go out from Tuskegee you will have just that much more helpful
information to put into practice. I want to see you go out through the
South and establish local conferences. Call them together, and teach
the same kind of lessons that we teach at these gatherings at Tuskegee.
You can get the most out of this Conference by putting into practice
this effort to make other people happy. To get the greatest happiness
out of life is to make somebody else happy. To get the greatest good
out of life is to do something for somebody else. I want you to find
the persons who are most ignorant and most poverty stricken; I want you
to find the persons who are most forlorn and most discouraged, and do
something for them to make their hours happy. In doing that, you will
do the most for yourselves.
I want each boy and each girl who belongs to this institution to be
deep down in his or her heart a gentleman or a lady. A gentleman means
simply this: a generous person; one who has learned to be kind; one
who has learned to think not of himself first, but of the happiness
and welfare of others. Let us put this spirit into our Conference
day the coming week, and the day and week will be the greatest and
most successful that we have ever had. Let our resolution be that the
persons who come here, whether they represent a university, a college,
an industrial school, a farm, or a shop--let our resolve be that when
these people leave here they shall take away with them from Tuskegee
something that will make their lives happier, brighter, stronger and
more useful.
WHAT IS TO BE OUR FUTURE?
Last Thursday afternoon I received a telegram from a gentleman stopping
for a time in a city in Georgia, asking me to come there at once on
important business; and being rather curious to know what he wanted of
me, I went. I found that this man was in the act of making his will,
and that he had in mind the putting aside of a considerable sum in his
will--some $20,000, in fact--for this institution.
The special point upon which this gentleman wished to consult me was
the future of the Institution. He said that he had worked very hard
for his money, that it had come as a result of much sacrifice and hard
effort, and that there were friends of his who were beseeching him to
use his money in other directions, because they thought it would be
more likely to do permanent good elsewhere. And so he wished to know
what the future of this Institution is likely to be, because he did not
care to risk his money upon an uncertain venture, one that was likely
to prosper for a few years, and then fail. He said that he would not
like to give his money to an institution where it would not go on
through the years, accomplishing a certain amount of good. Accordingly
the question he repeated to me over and over again was: "What is to be
the future of Tuskegee?" He wished to know whether, if we were given
the money, it would go on from year to year, blessing one generation
after another.
My point in speaking to you to-night is to emphasize what I think our
good friend Professor Brown has already brought to our attention in
one or two of his talks to us this week, the importance of making this
institution what it ought to be, what its reputation gives it, and what
its name implies.
More and more I realize--and I remember that the gentleman of whom I
have spoken repeated this to me with great emphasis--that so far as
the outside world is concerned, Tuskegee is sure; you need not have
the least doubt that the institution will be supported. If we keep
things right at the institution, if it is worthy of support, the
moneyed people of the country will support it and stand by it. More and
more each year this impression grows upon me, and more and more each
year there are convincing evidences of the fact that the permanence
and growth of this institution do not rest upon whether the people
of the South or the people of the North are going to support it with
their means. I have the most implicit confidence that the institution
is going to be supported. But the question that comes to us with the
greatest force is: "Are we going to be worthy of that support? Shall we
be worthy of the confidence of the public?" That is the question that
is most serious; that is the question that presses most heavily upon my
heart, and upon the hearts of the other teachers here.
Now these questions can be answered satisfactorily only by evidence
that each student, each individual connected with the school in any
way, no matter in how low or high a capacity, is putting his or her
whole conscience into the work here. When I say work, I mean study of
books, work of the hand, effort of the body, willingness of the heart.
No matter what the thing is, put your conscience into it; do your best.
Let it be possible for you to say: "I have put my whole soul into my
study, into my work, into whatever I have attempted. Whatever I have
done I have honestly endeavored to do to the best of my ability."