[Transcriber's Note: Every effort has been made to replicate thistext as faithfully as possible, including obsolete and variantspellings and other inconsistencies. ]

 THE FUTURE OF

 THE AMERICAN NEGRO

 Booker T. Washington

 Boston Small, Maynard & Company 1900

 _Copyright, 1899, By Small, Maynard & Company_ (_Incorporated_)

 _Entered at Stationers' Hall_

 _First Edition (2, 000 copies), November, 1899_ _Second Edition (2, 000 copies), February, 1900_

 _Press of George H. Ellis, Boston, U. S. A. _

[Illustration: Booker T. Washington. ]

PREFACE. 

_In giving this volume to the public, I deem it fair to say that Ihave yielded to the oft-repeated requests that I put in some moredefinite and permanent form the ideas regarding the Negro and hisfuture which I have expressed many times on the public platform andthrough the public press and magazines. _

_I make grateful acknowledgment to the "Atlantic Monthly" and"Appleton's Popular Science Monthly" for their kindness in grantingpermission for the use of some part of articles which I have atvarious times contributed to their columns. _

 BOOKER T. WASHINGTON. 

 TUSKEGEE NORMAL AND INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTE, TUSKEGEE, ALA. , October 1, 1899. 

CONTENTS. 

Chapter I. Page 3

 First appearance of Negroes in America--Rapid increase--Conditions during Civil War--During the reconstruction. 

Chapter II. Page 16

 Responsibility of the whole country for the Negro--Progress in the past--Same methods of education do not fit all cases--Proved in the case of the Southern Negro--Illustrations--Lack of money--Comparison between outlay for schools North and South--Duty of North to South. 

Chapter III. Page 42

 Decadence of Southern plantation--Demoralization of Negroes natural--No home life before the war--Too much classical education at the start--Lack of practical training-- Illustrations--The well-trained slaves now dead--Former plantations as industrial schools--The decayed plantation built up by a former slave--Misunderstanding of industrial education. 

Chapter IV. Page 67

 The Negroes' proper use of education--Hayti, Santo Domingo, and Liberia as illustrations of the lack of practical training-- Present necessity for union of all forces to further the cause of industrial education--Industrial education not opposed to the higher education--Results of practical training so far--Little or no prejudice against capable Negroes in business in the South--The Negro at first shunned labor as degrading-- Hampton and Tuskegee aim to remove this feeling--The South does not oppose industrial education for the Negroes-- Address to Tuskegee students setting forth the necessity of steadfastness of purpose. 

Chapter V. Page 106

 The author's early life--At Hampton--The inception of the Tuskegee School in 1881--Its growth--Scope--Size at present--Expenses--Purposes--Methods--Building of the chapel--Work of the graduates--Similar schools beginning throughout the South--Tuskegee Negro Conference--The Workers' Conference--Tuskegee as a trainer of teachers. 

Chapter VI. Page 127

 The Negro race in politics--Its patriotic zeal in 1776--In 1814--In the Civil War--In the Spanish War--Politics attempted too soon after freedom--Poor leaders--Two parties in the South, the blacks' and the whites'--Not necessarily opposed in interests--The Negro should give up no rights--The same tests for the restriction of the franchise should be applied alike to both blacks and whites--This is not the case--Education and the franchise--The whites must help the blacks to pure votes--Rioting and lynching only to be stopped by mutual confidence. 

Chapter VII. Page 157

 Difficulty of fusion--Africa impossible as a refuge because already completely claimed by other nations--Comparison of Negro race with white--Physical condition of the Negro--Present lack of ability to organize--Weaknesses--Ability to work--Trustworthiness Desire to rise--Obstructions put in the way of Negroes' advancement--Results of oppression--Necessity for encouragement and self-respect--Comparison of Negroes' position and that of the Jews--Lynching--Non-interference of the North-- Increase of lynching--Statistics of numbers, races, places, causes of violence--Uselessness of lynching in preventing crime--Fairness in carrying out the laws--Increase of crime among the Negroes--Reason for it--Responsibility of both races. 

Chapter VIII. Page 200

 Population--Emigration to the North--Morality North and South--Dangers: 1. Incendiary advice; 2. Mob violence; 3. Discouragement; 4. Newspaper exaggeration; 5. Lack of education; 6. Bad legislation--Negroes must identify with best interests of the South--Unwise missionary work--Wise missionary work-- Opportunity for industrial education--The good standing of business-educated Negroes in the South--Religion and morality--Justice and appreciation coming for the Negro race as it proves itself worthy. 

CHAPTER I. 

In this volume I shall not attempt to give the origin and history ofthe Negro race either in Africa or in America. My attempt is to dealonly with conditions that now exist and bear a relation to the Negroin America and that are likely to exist in the future. In discussingthe Negro, it is always to be borne in mind that, unlike all the otherinhabitants of America, he came here without his own consent; in fact, was compelled to leave his own country and become a part of anotherthrough physical force. It should also be borne in mind, in ourefforts to change and improve the present condition of the Negro, thatwe are dealing with a race which had little necessity to labour in itsnative country. After being brought to America, the Negroes wereforced to labour for about 250 years under circumstances which werecalculated not to inspire them with love and respect for labour. Thisconstitutes a part of the reason why I insist that it is necessary toemphasise the matter of industrial education as a means of giving theblack man the foundation of a civilisation upon which he will grow andprosper. When I speak of industrial education, however, I wish italways understood that I mean, as did General Armstrong, the founderof the Hampton Institute, for thorough academic and religious trainingto go side by side with industrial training. Mere training of the handwithout the culture of brain and heart would mean little. 

The first slaves were brought into this country by the Dutch in 1619, and were landed at Jamestown, Virginia. The first cargo consisted oftwenty. The census taken in 1890 shows that these twenty slaves hadincreased to 7, 638, 360. About 6, 353, 341 of this number were residingin the Southern States, and 1, 283, 029 were scattered throughout theNorthern and Western States. I think I am pretty safe in predictingthat the census to be taken in 1900 will show that there are not farfrom ten millions of people of African descent in the United States. The great majority of these, of course, reside in the Southern States. The problem is how to make these millions of Negroes self-supporting, intelligent, economical and valuable citizens, as well as how to bringabout proper relations between them and the white citizens among whomthey live. This is the question upon which I shall try to throw somelight in the chapters which follow. 

When the Negroes were first brought to America, they were owned bywhite people in all sections of this country, as is well known, --inthe New England, the Middle, and in the Southern States. It was soonfound, however, that slave labour was not remunerative in the NorthernStates, and for that reason by far the greater proportion of theslaves were held in the Southern States, where their labour in raisingcotton, rice, and sugar-cane was more productive. The growth of theslave population in America was constant and rapid. Beginning, as Ihave stated, with fourteen, in 1619, the number increased at such arate that the total number of Negroes in America in 1800 was1, 001, 463. This number increased by 1860 to 3, 950, 000. A few peoplepredicted that freedom would result disastrously to the Negro, as faras numerical increase was concerned; but so far the census figureshave failed to bear out this prediction. On the other hand, the censusof 1890 shows that the Negro population had increased from 3, 950, 000in 1860 to 7, 638, 260 twenty-five years after the war. It is my opinionthat the rate of increase in the future will be still greater than ithas been from the close of the war of the Rebellion up to the presenttime, for the reason that the very sudden changes which took place inthe life of the Negro, because of having his freedom, plunged him intomany excesses that were detrimental to his physical well-being. Ofcourse, freedom found him unprepared in clothing, in shelter and inknowledge of how to care for his body. During slavery the slave motherhad little control of her own children, and did not therefore have thepractice and experience of rearing children in a suitable manner. Nowthat the Negro is being taught in thousands of schools how to takecare of his body, and in thousands of homes mothers are learning howto control their children, I believe that the rate of increase, as Ihave stated, will be still greater than it has been in the past. Intoo many cases the Negro had the idea that freedom meant merelylicense to do as he pleased, to work or not to work; but thiserroneous idea is more and more disappearing, by reason of theeducation in the right direction which the Negro is constantlyreceiving. 

During the four years that the Civil War lasted, the greaterproportion of the Negroes remained in the South, and worked faithfullyfor the support of their masters' families, who, as a general rule, were away in the war. The self-control which the Negro exhibitedduring the war marks, it seems to me, one of the most importantchapters in the history of the race. Notwithstanding he knew that hismaster was away from home, fighting a battle which, if successful, would result in his continued enslavement, yet he worked faithfullyfor the support of the master's family. If the Negro had yielded tothe temptation and suggestion to use the torch or dagger in an attemptto destroy his master's property and family, the result would havebeen that the war would have been ended quickly; for the master wouldhave returned from the battlefield to protect and defend his propertyand family. But the Negro to the last was faithful to the trust thathad been thrust upon him, and during the four years of war in whichthe male members of the family were absent from their homes there isnot a single instance recorded where he in any way attempted tooutrage the family of the master or in any way to injure his property. 

Not only is this true, but all through the years of preparation forthe war and during the war itself the Negro showed himself to be anuncompromising friend to the Union. In fact, of all the chargesbrought against him, there is scarcely a single instance where one hasbeen charged with being a traitor to his country. This has been truewhether he has been in a state of slavery or in a state of freedom. 

From 1865 to 1876 constituted what perhaps may be termed the days ofReconstruction. This was the period when the Southern States which hadwithdrawn from the Union were making an effort to reinstate themselvesand to establish a permanent system of State government. At the closeof the war both the Southern white man and the Negro found themselvesin the midst of poverty. The ex-master returned from the war to findhis slave property gone, his farms and other industries in a state ofcollapse, and the whole industrial or economic system upon which hehad depended for years entirely disorganised. As we review calmly anddispassionately the period of reconstruction, we must use a great dealof sympathy and generosity. The weak point, to my mind, in thereconstruction era was that no strong force was brought to bear inthe direction of preparing the Negro to become an intelligent, reliable citizen and voter. The main effort seems to have been in thedirection of controlling his vote for the time being, regardless offuture interests. I hardly believe that any race of people withsimilar preparation and similar surroundings would have acted morewisely or very differently from the way the Negro acted during theperiod of reconstruction. 

Without experience, without preparation, and in most cases withoutordinary intelligence, he was encouraged to leave the field and shopand enter politics. That under such circumstances he should have mademistakes is very natural. I do not believe that the Negro was so muchat fault for entering so largely into politics, and for the mistakesthat were made in too many cases, as were the unscrupulous whiteleaders who got the Negro's confidence and controlled his vote tofurther their own ends, regardless, in many cases, of the permanentwelfare of the Negro. I have always considered it unfortunate that theSouthern white man did not make more of an effort during the period ofreconstruction to get the confidence and sympathy of the Negro, andthus have been able to keep him in close touch and sympathy inpolitics. It was also unfortunate that the Negro was so completelyalienated from the Southern white man in all political matters. Ithink it would have been better for all concerned if, immediatelyafter the close of the war, an educational and property qualificationfor the exercise of the franchise had been prescribed that would haveapplied fairly and squarely to both races, and, also, if, in educatingthe Negro, greater stress had been put upon training him along thelines of industry for which his services were in the greatest demandin the South. In a word, too much stress was placed upon the merematter of voting and holding political office rather than upon thepreparation for the highest citizenship. In saying what I have, I donot mean to convey the impression that the whole period ofreconstruction was barren of fruitful results. While it is not a veryencouraging chapter in the history of our country, I believe that thisperiod did serve to point out many weak points in our effort toelevate the Negro, and that we are now taking advantage of themistakes that were made. The period of reconstruction served at leastto show the world that with proper preparation and with a sufficientfoundation the Negro possesses the elements out of which men of thehighest character and usefulness can be developed. I might nameseveral characters who were brought before the world by reason of thereconstruction period. I give one as an example of others: Hon. Blanche K. Bruce, who had been a slave, but who held many honourablepositions in the State of Mississippi, including an election to theUnited States Senate, where he served a full term; later he was twiceappointed Register of the United States Treasury. In all thesepositions Mr. Bruce gave the greatest satisfaction, and not a singlewhisper of dishonesty or incompetency has ever been heard against him. During the period of his public life he was brought into active anddaily contact with Northern and Southern white people, all of whomspeak of him in the highest measure of respect and confidence. 

What the Negro wants and what the country wants to do is to takeadvantage of all the lessons that were taught during the days ofreconstruction, and apply these lessons bravely, honestly, in layingthe foundation upon which the Negro can stand in the future and makehimself a useful, honourable, and desirable citizen, whether he hashis residence in the North, the South, or the West. 

CHAPTER II. 

In order that the reader may understand me and why I lay so muchstress upon the importance of pushing the doctrine of industrialeducation for the Negro, it is necessary, first of all, to review thecondition of affairs at the present time in the Southern States. Foryears I have had something of an opportunity to study the Negro atfirst-hand; and I feel that I know him pretty well, --him and hisneeds, his failures and his successes, his desires and the likelihoodof their fulfilment. I have studied him and his relations with hiswhite neighbours, and striven to find how these relations may be mademore conducive to the general peace and welfare both of the South andof the country at large. 

In the Southern part of the United States there are twenty-twomillions of people who are bound to the fifty millions of the North byties which neither can tear asunder if they would. The mostintelligent in a New York community has his intelligence darkened bythe ignorance of a fellow-citizen in the Mississippi bottoms. The mostwealthy in New York City would be more wealthy but for the poverty ofa fellow-being in the Carolina rice swamps. The most moral andreligious men in Massachusetts have their religion and moralitymodified by the degradation of the man in the South whose religion isa mere matter of form or of emotionalism. The vote of the man in Mainethat is cast for the highest and purest form of government is largelyneutralised by the vote of the man in Louisiana whose ballot is stolenor cast in ignorance. Therefore, when the South is ignorant, the Northis ignorant; when the South is poor, the North is poor; when the Southcommits crime, the nation commits crime. For the citizens of the Norththere is no escape; they must help raise the character of thecivilisation in the South, or theirs will be lowered. No member of thewhite race in any part of the country can harm the weakest or meanestmember of the black race without the proudest and bluest blood of thenation being degraded. 

It seems to me that there never was a time in the history of thecountry when those interested in education should the more earnestlyconsider to what extent the mere acquiring of the ability to read andwrite, the mere acquisition of a knowledge of literature and science, makes men producers, lovers of labour, independent, honest, unselfish, and, above all, good. Call education by what name you please, if itfails to bring about these results among the masses, it falls short ofits highest end. The science, the art, the literature, that fails toreach down and bring the humblest up to the enjoyment of the fullestblessings of our government, is weak, no matter how costly thebuildings or apparatus used or how modern the methods of instructionemployed. The study of arithmetic that does not result in making menconscientious in receiving and counting the ballots of theirfellow-men is faulty. The study of art that does not result in makingthe strong less willing to oppress the weak means little. How I wishthat from the most cultured and highly endowed university in the greatNorth to the humblest log cabin school-house in Alabama, we couldburn, as it were, into the hearts and heads of all that usefulness, that service to our brother, is the supreme end of education. Puttingthe thought more directly as it applies to conditions in the South, can you make the intelligence of the North affect the South in thesame ratio that the ignorance of the South affects the North? Let ustake a not improbable case: A great national case is to be decided, one that involves peace or war, the honour or dishonour of ournation, --yea, the very existence of the government. The North and Westare divided. There are five million votes to be cast in the South;and, of this number, one-half are ignorant. Not only are one-half thevoters ignorant; but, because of the ignorant votes they cast, corruption and dishonesty in a dozen forms have crept into theexercise of the political franchise to such an extent that theconscience of the intelligent class is seared in its attempts todefeat the will of the ignorant voters. Here, then, you have on theone hand an ignorant vote, on the other an intelligent vote minus aconscience. The time may not be far off when to this kind of jury weshall have to look for the votes which shall decide in a large measurethe destiny of our democratic institutions. 

When a great national calamity stares us in the face, we are, I fear, too much given to depending on a short "campaign of education" to doon the hustings what should have been accomplished in the school. 

With this idea in view, let us examine with more care the condition ofcivilisation in the South, and the work to be done there before allclasses will be fit for the high duties of citizenship. In referenceto the Negro race, I am confronted with some embarrassment at theoutset, because of the various and conflicting opinions as to what isto be its final place in our economic and political life. 

Within the last thirty years--and, I might add, within the last threemonths, --it has been proven by eminent authority that the Negro isincreasing in numbers so fast that it is only a question of a fewyears before he will far outnumber the white race in the South, and ithas also been proven that the Negro is fast dying out, and it is onlya question of a few years before he will have completely disappeared. It has also been proven that education helps the Negro and thateducation hurts him, that he is fast leaving the South and taking uphis residence in the North and West, and that his tendency is to drifttoward the low lands of the Mississippi bottoms. It has been proventhat education unfits the Negro for work and that education makes himmore valuable as a labourer, that he is our greatest criminal and thathe is our most law-abiding citizen. In the midst of these conflictingopinions, it is hard to hit upon the truth. 

But, also, in the midst of this confusion, there are a few things ofwhich I am certain, --things which furnish a basis for thought andaction. I know that whether the Negroes are increasing or decreasing, whether they are growing better or worse, whether they are valuableor valueless, that a few years ago some fourteen of them were broughtinto this country, and that now those fourteen are nearly tenmillions. I know that, whether in slavery or freedom, they have alwaysbeen loyal to the Stars and Stripes, that no school-house has beenopened for them that has not been filled, that the 2, 000, 000 ballotsthat they have the right to cast are as potent for weal or woe as anequal number cast by the wisest and most influential men in America. Iknow that wherever Negro life touches the life of the nation it helpsor it hinders, that wherever the life of the white race touches theblack it makes it stronger or weaker. Further, I know that almostevery other race that has tried to look the white man in the face hasdisappeared. I know, despite all the conflicting opinions, and with afull knowledge of all the Negroes' weaknesses, that only a fewcenturies ago they went into slavery in this country pagans, thatthey came out Christians; they went into slavery as so much property, they came out American citizens; they went into slavery without alanguage, they came out speaking the proud Anglo-Saxon tongue; theywent into slavery with the chains clanking about their wrists, theycame out with the American ballot in their hands. 

I submit it to the candid and sober judgment of all men, if a racethat is capable of such a test, such a transformation, is not worthsaving and making a part, in reality as well as in name, of ourdemocratic government. That the Negro may be fitted for the fullestenjoyment of the privileges and responsibilities of our citizenship, it is important that the nation be honest and candid with him, whetherhonesty and candour for the time being pleases or displeases him. Itis with an ignorant race as it is with a child: it craves at firstthe superficial, the ornamental signs of progress rather than thereality. The ignorant race is tempted to jump, at one bound, to theposition that it has required years of hard struggle for others toreach. 

It seems to me that, as a general thing, the temptation in the past ineducational and missionary work has been to do for the new people thatwhich was done a thousand years ago, or that which is being done for apeople a thousand miles away, without making a careful study of theneeds and conditions of the people whom it is designed to help. Thetemptation is to run all people through a certain educational mould, regardless of the condition of the subject or the end to beaccomplished. This has been the case too often in the South in thepast, I am sure. Men have tried to use, with these simple people justfreed from slavery and with no past, no inherited traditions oflearning, the same methods of education which they have used in NewEngland, with all its inherited traditions and desires. The Negro isbehind the white man because he has not had the same chance, and notfrom any inherent difference in his nature and desires. What the raceaccomplishes in these first fifty years of freedom will at the end ofthese years, in a large measure, constitute its past. It is, indeed, aresponsibility that rests upon this nation, --the foundation laying fora people of its past, present, and future at one and the same time. 

One of the weakest points in connection with the present developmentof the race is that so many get the idea that the mere filling of thehead with a knowledge of mathematics, the sciences, and literature, means success in life. Let it be understood, in every corner of theSouth, among the Negro youth at least, that knowledge will benefitlittle except as it is harnessed, except as its power is pointed in adirection that will bear upon the present needs and condition of therace. There is in the heads of the Negro youth of the South enoughgeneral and floating knowledge of chemistry, of botany, of zoölogy, ofgeology, of mechanics, of electricity, of mathematics, to reconstructand develop a large part of the agricultural, mechanical, and domesticlife of the race. But how much of it is brought to a focus along linesof practical work? In cities of the South like Atlanta, how manycoloured mechanical engineers are there? or how many machinists? howmany civil engineers? how many architects? how many house decorators?In the whole State of Georgia, where eighty per cent. Of the colouredpeople depend upon agriculture, how many men are there who are wellgrounded in the principles and practices of scientific farming? ordairy work? or fruit culture? or floriculture?

For example, not very long ago I had a conversation with a youngcoloured man who is a graduate of one of the prominent universities ofthis country. The father of this man is comparatively ignorant, but byhard work and the exercise of common sense he has become the owner oftwo thousand acres of land. He owns more than a score of horses, cows, and mules and swine in large numbers, and is considered a prosperousfarmer. In college the son of this farmer has studied chemistry, botany, zoölogy, surveying, and political economy. In my conversationI asked this young man how many acres his father cultivated in cottonand how many in corn. With a far-off gaze up into the heavens heanswered that he did not know. When I asked him the classification ofthe soils on his father's farm, he did not know. He did not know howmany horses or cows his father owned nor of what breeds they were, andseemed surprised that he should be asked such questions. It neverseemed to have entered his mind that on his father's farm was theplace to make his chemistry, his mathematics, and his literaturepenetrate and reflect itself in every acre of land, every bushel ofcorn, every cow, and every pig. 

Let me give other examples of this mistaken sort of education. When amere boy, I saw a young coloured man, who had spent several years inschool, sitting in a common cabin in the South, studying a Frenchgrammar. I noted the poverty, the untidiness, the want of system andthrift, that existed about the cabin, notwithstanding his knowledge ofFrench and other academic studies. 

Again, not long ago I saw a coloured minister preparing his Sundaysermon just as the New England minister prepares his sermon. But thiscoloured minister was in a broken-down, leaky, rented log cabin, withweeds in the yard, surrounded by evidences of poverty, filth, andwant of thrift. This minister had spent some time in school studyingtheology. How much better it would have been to have had this ministertaught the dignity of labour, taught theoretical and practical farmingin connection with his theology, so that he could have added to hismeagre salary, and set an example for his people in the matter ofliving in a decent house, and having a knowledge of correct farming!In a word, this minister should have been taught that his condition, and that of his people, was not that of a New England community; andhe should have been so trained as to meet the actual needs andconditions of the coloured people in this community, so that afoundation might be laid that would, in the future, make a communitylike New England communities. 

Since the Civil War, no one object has been more misunderstood thanthat of the object and value of industrial education for the Negro. To begin with, it must be borne in mind that the condition thatexisted in the South immediately after the war, and that now exists, is a peculiar one, without a parallel in history. This being true, itseems to me that the wise and honest thing to do is to make a study ofthe actual condition and environment of the Negro, and do that whichis best for him, regardless of whether the same thing has been donefor another race in exactly the same way. There are those among thewhite race and those among the black race who assert, with a good dealof earnestness, that there is no difference between the white man andthe black man in this country. This sounds very pleasant and ticklesthe fancy; but, when the test of hard, cold logic is applied to it, itmust be acknowledged that there is a difference, --not an inherent one, not a racial one, but a difference growing out of unequalopportunities in the past. 

If I may be permitted to criticise the educational work that has beendone in the South, I would say that the weak point has been in thefailure to recognise this difference. 

Negro education, immediately after the war in most cases, was beguntoo nearly at the point where New England education had ended. Let meillustrate. One of the saddest sights I ever saw was the placing of athree hundred dollar rosewood piano in a country school in the Souththat was located in the midst of the "Black Belt. " Am I arguingagainst the teaching of instrumental music to the Negroes in thatcommunity? Not at all; only I should have deferred those music lessonsabout twenty-five years. There are numbers of such pianos in thousandsof New England homes. But behind the piano in the New England homethere are one hundred years of toil, sacrifice, and economy; there isthe small manufacturing industry, started several years ago by handpower, now grown into a great business; there is ownership in land, acomfortable home, free from debt, and a bank account. In this "BlackBelt" community where this piano went, four-fifths of the people ownedno land, many lived in rented one-room cabins, many were in debt forfood supplies, many mortgaged their crops for the food on which tolive, and not one had a bank account. In this case, how much wiser itwould have been to have taught the girls in this community sewing, intelligent and economical cooking, housekeeping, something ofdairying and horticulture? The boys should have been taught somethingof farming in connection with their common-school education, insteadof awakening in them a desire for a musical instrument which resultedin their parents going into debt for a third-rate piano or organbefore a home was purchased. Industrial lessons would have awakened, in this community, a desire for homes, and would have given the peoplethe ability to free themselves from industrial slavery to the extentthat most of them would have soon purchased homes. After the home andthe necessaries of life were supplied could come the piano. One pianolesson in a home of one's own is worth twenty in a rented log cabin. 

All that I have just written, and the various examples illustratingit, show the present helpless condition of my people in theSouth, --how fearfully they lack the primary training for good livingand good citizenship, how much they stand in need of a solidfoundation on which to build their future success. I believe, as Ihave many times said in my various addresses in the North and in theSouth, that the main reason for the existence of this curious stateof affairs is the lack of practical training in the ways of life. 

There is, too, a great lack of money with which to carry on theeducational work in the South. I was in a county in a Southern Statenot long ago where there are some thirty thousand coloured people andabout seven thousand whites. In this county not a single public schoolfor Negroes had been open that year longer than three months, not asingle coloured teacher had been paid more than $15 per month for histeaching. Not one of these schools was taught in a building that wasworthy of the name of school-house. In this county the State or publicauthorities do not own a single dollar's worth of schoolproperty, --not a school-house, a blackboard, or a piece of crayon. Each coloured child had had spent on him that year for his educationabout fifty cents, while each child in New York or Massachusetts hadhad spent on him that year for education not far from $20. And yeteach citizen of this county is expected to share the burdens andprivileges of our democratic form of government just as intelligentlyand conscientiously as the citizens of New York or Boston. A vote inthis county means as much to the nation as a vote in the city ofBoston. Crime in this county is as truly an arrow aimed at the heartof the government as a crime committed in the streets of Boston. 

A single school-house built this year in a town near Boston to shelterabout three hundred pupils cost more for building alone than is spentyearly for the education, including buildings, apparatus, teachers, for the whole coloured school population of Alabama. The Commissionerof Education for the State of Georgia not long ago reported to theState legislature that in that State there were two hundred thousandchildren that had entered no school the year past and one hundredthousand more who were at school but a few days, making practicallythree hundred thousand children between six and eighteen years of agethat are growing up in ignorance in one Southern State alone. The samereport stated that outside of the cities and towns, while the averagenumber of school-houses in a county was sixty, all of these sixtyschool-houses were worth in lump less than $2, 000, and the reportfurther added that many of the school-houses in Georgia were not fitfor horse stables. I am glad to say, however, that vast improvementover this condition is being made in Georgia under the inspiredleadership of State Commissioner Glenn, and in Alabama under the noless zealous leadership of Commissioner Abercrombie. 

These illustrations, so far as they concern the Gulf States, are notexceptional cases; nor are they overdrawn. 

Until there is industrial independence, it is hardly possible to havegood living and a pure ballot in the country districts. In theseStates it is safe to say that not more than one black man in twentyowns the land he cultivates. Where so large a proportion of a peopleare dependent, live in other people's houses, eat other people's food, and wear clothes they have not paid for, it is pretty hard to expectthem to live fairly and vote honestly. 

I have thus far referred mainly to the Negro race. But there isanother side. The longer I live and the more I study the question, themore I am convinced that it is not so much a problem as to what thewhite man will do with the Negro as what the Negro will do with thewhite man and his civilisation. In considering this side of thesubject, I thank God that I have grown to the point where I cansympathise with a white man as much as I can sympathise with a blackman. I have grown to the point where I can sympathise with a Southernwhite man as much as I can sympathise with a Northern white man. 

As bearing upon the future of our civilisation, I ask of the Northwhat of their white brethren in the South, --those who have sufferedand are still suffering the consequences of American slavery, forwhich both North and South were responsible? Those of the great andprosperous North still owe to their less fortunate brethren of theCaucasian race in the South, not less than to themselves, a seriousand uncompleted duty. What was the task the North asked the South toperform? Returning to their destitute homes after years of war to faceblasted hopes, devastation, a shattered industrial system, they askedthem to add to their own burdens that of preparing in education, politics, and economics, in a few short years, for citizenship, fourmillions of former slaves. That the South, staggering under theburden, made blunders, and that in a measure there has beendisappointment, no one need be surprised. The educators, thestatesmen, the philanthropists, have imperfectly comprehended theirduty toward the millions of poor whites in the South who were buffetedfor two hundred years between slavery and freedom, betweencivilisation and degradation, who were disregarded by both master andslave. It needs no prophet to tell the character of our futurecivilisation when the poor white boy in the country districts of theSouth receives one dollar's worth of education and the boy of the sameclass in the North twenty dollars' worth, when one never enters areading-room or library and the other has reading-rooms and librariesin every ward and town, when one hears lectures and sermons once intwo months and the other can hear a lecture or a sermon every day inthe year. 

The time has come, it seems to me, when in this matter we should riseabove party or race or sectionalism into the region of duty of man toman, of citizen to citizen, of Christian to Christian; and if theNegro, who has been oppressed and denied his rights in a Christianland, can help the whites of the North and South to rise, can be theinspiration of their rising, into this atmosphere of generousChristian brotherhood and self-forgetfulness, he will see in it arecompense for all that he has suffered in the past. 

CHAPTER III. 

In the heart of the Black Belt of the South in _ante-bellum_ daysthere was a large estate, with palatial mansion, surrounded by abeautiful grove, in which grew flowers and shrubbery of everydescription. Magnificent specimens of animal life grazed in thefields, and in grain and all manner of plant growth this estate was amodel. In a word, it was the highest type of the product of slavelabor. 

Then came the long years of war, then freedom, then the trying yearsof reconstruction. The master returned from the war to find thefaithful slaves who had been the bulwark of this household inpossession of their freedom. Then there began that social andindustrial revolution in the South which it is hard for any who wasnot really a part of it to appreciate or understand. Gradually, day byday, this ex-master began to realise, with a feeling almostindescribable, to what an extent he and his family had grown to bedependent upon the activity and faithfulness of his slaves; began toappreciate to what an extent slavery had sapped his sinews of strengthand independence, how his dependence upon slave labour had deprivedhim and his offspring of the benefit of technical and industrialtraining, and, worst of all, had unconsciously led him to see inlabour drudgery and degradation instead of beauty, dignity, andcivilising power. At first there was a halt in this man's life. Hecursed the North and he cursed the Negro. Then there was despair, almost utter hopelessness, over his weak and childlike condition. Thetemptation was to forget all in drink, and to this temptation therewas a gradual yielding. With the loss of physical vigour came the lossof mental grasp and pride in surroundings. There was the falling offof a piece of plaster from the walls of the house which was notreplaced, then another and still another. Gradually, the window-panesbegan to disappear, then the door-knobs. Touches of paint andwhitewash, which once helped to give life, were no more to be seen. The hinges disappeared from the gate, then a board from the fence, then others in quick succession. Weeds and unmown grass covered theonce well-kept lawn. Sometimes there were servants for domesticduties, and sometimes there were none. In the absence of servants theunsatisfactory condition of the food told that it was being preparedby hands unschooled to such duties. As the years passed by, debtsaccumulated in every direction. The education of the children wasneglected. Lower and lower sank the industrial, financial, andspiritual condition of the household. For the first time the awfultruth of Scripture, "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he alsoreap, " seemed to dawn upon him with a reality that it is hard formortal to appreciate. Within a few months the whole mistake of slaveryseemed to have concentrated itself upon this household. And this wasone of many. 

We have seen how the ending of slavery and the beginning of freedomproduced not only a shock, but a stand-still, and in many cases acollapse, that lasted several years in the life of many white men. Ifthe sudden change thus affected the white man, should this not teachus that we should have more sympathy than has been shown in many caseswith the Negro in connection with his new and changed life? That theymade many mistakes, plunged into excesses, undertook responsibilitiesfor which they were not fitted, in many cases took liberty to meanlicense, is not to be wondered at. It is my opinion that the nextforty years are going to show by many per cent. A higher degree ofprogress in the life of the Negro along all lines than has been shownduring the first thirty years of his life. Certainly, the first thirtyyears of the Negro's life was one of experiment; and consequently, under such conditions, he was not able to settle down to real, earnest, hard common sense efforts to better his condition. While thiswas true in a great many cases, on the other hand a large proportionof the race, even from the first, saw what was needed for their newlife, and began to settle down to lead an industrious, frugalexistence, and to educate their children and in every way preparethemselves for the responsibilities of American citizenship. 

The wonder is that the Negro has made as few mistakes as he has, whenwe consider all the surrounding circumstances. Columns of figures havebeen gleaned from the census reports within the last quarter of acentury to show the great amount of crime committed by the Negro inexcess of that committed by other races. No one will deny the factthat the proportion of crime by the present generation of Negroes isseriously large, but I believe that any other race with the Negro'shistory and present environment would have shown about the samecriminal record. 

Another consideration which we must always bear in mind in consideringthe Negro is that he had practically no home life in slavery; that is, the mother and father did not have the responsibility, andconsequently the experience, of training their own children. Thematter of child training was left to the master and mistress. Consequently, it has only been within the last thirty years that theNegro parents have had the actual responsibility and experience oftraining their own children. That they have made some mistakes inthus training them is not to be wondered at. Many families scatteredover all parts of the United States have not yet been able to bringthemselves together. When the Negro parents shall have had thirty orforty additional years in which to found homes and get experience inthe training of their children, I believe that we will find that theamount of crime will be considerably less than it is now shown to be. 

In too large a measure the Negro race began its development at thewrong end, simply because neither white nor black understood the case;and no wonder, for there had never been such a case in the history ofthe world. 

To show where this primary mistake has led in its evil results, I wishto produce some examples showing plainly how prone we have been tomake our education formal, superficial, instead of making it meet theneeds of conditions. 

In order to emphasise the matter more fully, I repeat, at least eightyper cent. Of the coloured people in the South are found in the ruraldistricts, and they are dependent on agriculture in some form fortheir support. Notwithstanding that we have practically a whole racedependent upon agriculture, and notwithstanding that thirty years havepassed since our freedom, aside from what has been done at Hampton andTuskegee and one or two other institutions, but very little has beenattempted by State or philanthropy in the way of educating the race inthis one industry upon which its very existence depends. Boys havebeen taken from the farms and educated in law, theology, Hebrew andGreek, --educated in everything else except the very subject that theyshould know most about. I question whether among all the educatedcoloured people in the United States you can find six, if we exceptthose from the institutions named, who have received anything like athorough training in agriculture. It would have seemed that, sinceself-support, industrial independence, is the first condition forlifting up any race, that education in theoretical and practicalagriculture, horticulture, dairying, and stock-raising, should haveoccupied the first place in our system. 

Some time ago, when we decided to make tailoring a part of ourtraining at the Tuskegee Institute, I was amazed to find that it wasalmost impossible to find in the whole country an educated colouredman who could teach the making of clothing. We could find them by thescore who could teach astronomy, theology, grammar, or Latin, butalmost none who could instruct in the making of clothing, somethingthat has to be used by every one of us every day in the year. Howoften has my heart been made to sink as I have gone through the Southand into the homes of people, and found women who could converseintelligently on Grecian history, who had studied geometry, couldanalyse the most complex sentences, and yet could not analyse thepoorly cooked and still more poorly served corn bread and fat meatthat they and their families were eating three times a day! It islittle trouble to find girls who can locate Pekin or the Desert ofSahara on an artificial globe, but seldom can you find one who canlocate on an actual dinner table the proper place for the carvingknife and fork or the meat and vegetables. 

A short time ago, in one of the Southern cities, a coloured man diedwho had received training as a skilled mechanic during the days ofslavery. Later by his skill and industry he built up a great businessas a house contractor and builder. In this same city there are 35, 000coloured people, among them young men who have been well educated inthe languages and in literature; but not a single one could be foundwho had been so trained in mechanical and architectural drawing thathe could carry on the business which this ex-slave had built up, andso it was soon scattered to the wind. Aside from the work done in theinstitutions that I have mentioned, you can find almost no colouredmen who have been trained in the principles of architecture, notwithstanding the fact that a vast majority of our race are withouthomes. Here, then, are the three prime conditions for growth, forcivilisation, --food, clothing, shelter; and yet we have been theslaves of forms and customs to such an extent that we have failed in alarge measure to look matters squarely in the face and meet actualneeds. 

It may well be asked by one who has not carefully considered thematter: "What has become of all those skilled farm-hands that used tobe on the old plantations? Where are those wonderful cooks we hearabout, where those exquisitely trained house servants, those cabinetmakers, and the jacks-of-all-trades that were the pride of the South?"This is easily answered, --they are mostly dead. The survivors are tooold to work. "But did they not train their children?" is the naturalquestion. Alas! the answer is "no. " Their skill was so commonplace tothem, and to their former masters, that neither thought of it as beinga hard-earned or desirable accomplishment: it was natural, likebreathing. Their children would have it as a matter of course. Whattheir children needed was education. So they went out into the world, the ambitious ones, and got education, and forgot the necessity of theordinary training to live. 

God for two hundred and fifty years, in my opinion, prepared the wayfor the redemption of the Negro through industrial development. First, he made the Southern white man do business with the Negro fortwo hundred and fifty years in a way that no one else has donebusiness with him. If a Southern white man wanted a house or a bridgebuilt, he consulted a Negro mechanic about the plan and about theactual building of the house or bridge. If he wanted a suit of clothesor a pair of shoes made, it was to the Negro tailor or shoemaker thathe talked. Secondly, every large slave plantation in the South was, ina limited sense, an industrial school. On these plantations there werescores of young coloured men and women who were constantly beingtrained, not alone as common farmers, but as carpenters, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, plasterers, brick masons, engineers, bridge-builders, cooks, dressmakers, housekeepers, etc. I would be the last toapologise for the curse of slavery; but I am simply stating facts. This training was crude and was given for selfish purposes, and didnot answer the highest ends, because there was the absence of braintraining in connection with that of the hand. Nevertheless, thisbusiness contact with the Southern white man, and the industrialtraining received on these plantations, put the Negro at the close ofthe war into possession of all the common and skilled labour in theSouth. For nearly twenty years after the war, except in one or twocases, the value of the industrial training given by the Negroes'former masters on the plantations and elsewhere was overlooked. Negromen and women were educated in literature, mathematics, and thesciences, with no thought of what had taken place on these plantationsfor two and a half centuries. After twenty years, those who weretrained as mechanics, etc. , during slavery began to disappear bydeath; and gradually we awoke to the fact that we had no one to taketheir places. We had scores of young men learned in Greek, but few incarpentry or mechanical or architectural drawing. We had trained manyin Latin, but almost none as engineers, bridge-builders, andmachinists. Numbers were taken from the farm and educated, but wereeducated in everything else except agriculture. Hence they had nosympathy with farm life, and did not return to it. 

This last that I have been saying is practically a repetition of whatI have said in the preceding paragraph; but, to emphasise it, --andthis point is one of the most important I wish to impress on thereader, --it is well to repeat, to say the same thing twice. Oh, ifonly more who had the shaping of the education of the Negro couldhave, thirty years ago, realised, and made others realise, where theforgetting of the years of manual training and the sudden acquiringof education were going to lead the Negro race, what a saving it wouldhave been! How much less my race would have had to answer for, as wellas the white!

But it is too late to cry over what might have been. It is time tomake up, as soon as possible, for this mistake, --time for both racesto acknowledge it, and go forth on the course that, it seems to me, all must now see to be the right one, --industrial education. 

As an example of what a well-trained and educated Negro may now do, and how ready to acknowledge him a Southern white man may be, let mereturn once more to the plantation I spoke of in the first part ofthis chapter. As the years went by, the night seemed to grow darker, so that all seemed hopeless and lost. At this point relief andstrength came from an unexpected source. This Southern white man'sidea of Negro education had been that it merely meant a parrot-likeabsorption of Anglo-Saxon civilisation, with a special tendency toimitate the weaker elements of the white man's character; that itmeant merely the high hat, kid gloves, a showy walking cane, patentleather shoes, and all the rest of it. To this ex-master it seemedimpossible that the education of the Negro could produce any otherresults. And so, last of all, did he expect help or encouragement froman educated black man; but it was just from this source that helpcame. Soon after the process of decay began in this white man'sestate, the education of a certain black man began, and began on alogical, sensible basis. It was an education that would fit him to seeand appreciate the physical and moral conditions that existed in hisown family and neighbourhood, and, in the present generation, wouldfit him to apply himself to their relief. By chance this educatedNegro strayed into the employ of this white man. His employer soonlearned that this Negro not only had a knowledge of science, mathematics, and literature in his head, but in his hands as well. This black man applied his knowledge of agricultural chemistry to theredemption of the soil; and soon the washes and gulleys began todisappear, and the waste places began to bloom. New and improvedmachinery in a few months began to rob labour of its toil anddrudgery. The animals were given systematic and kindly attention. Fences were repaired and rebuilt. Whitewash and paint were made to doduty. Everywhere order slowly began to replace confusion; hope, despair; and profits, losses. As he observed, day by day, new life andstrength being imparted to every department of his property, thiswhite son of the South began revising his own creed regarding thewisdom of educating Negroes. 

Hitherto his creed regarding the value of an educated Negro had beenrather a plain and simple one, and read: "The only end that could beaccomplished by educating a black man was to enable him to talkproperly to a mule; and the Negro's education did great injustice tothe mule, since the language tended to confuse him and make himbalky. "

We need not continue the story, except to add that to-day the grasp ofthe hand of this ex-slaveholder, and the listening to his hearty wordsof gratitude and commendation for the education of the Negro, areenough to compensate those who have given and those who have workedand sacrificed for the elevation of my people through all of theseyears. If we are patient, wise, unselfish, and courageous, suchexamples will multiply as the years go by. 

Before closing this chapter, --which, I think, has clearly shown thatthere is at present a very distinct lack of industrial training inthe South among the Negroes, --I wish to say a few words in regard tocertain objections, or rather misunderstandings, which have from timeto time arisen in regard to the matter. 

Many have had the thought that industrial training was meant to makethe Negro work, much as he worked during the days of slavery. This isfar from my idea of it. If this training has any value for the Negro, as it has for the white man, it consists in teaching the Negro howrather not to work, but how to make the forces of nature--air, water, horse-power, steam, and electric power--work for him, how to liftlabour up out of toil and drudgery into that which is dignified andbeautiful. The Negro in the South works, and he works hard; but hislack of skill, coupled with ignorance, causes him too often to do hiswork in the most costly and shiftless manner, and this has kept himnear the bottom of the ladder in the business world. I repeat thatindustrial education teaches the Negro how not to drudge in his work. Let him who doubts this contrast the Negro in the South toilingthrough a field of oats with an old-fashioned reaper with the whiteman on a modern farm in the West, sitting upon a modern "harvester, "behind two spirited horses, with an umbrella over him, using a machinethat cuts and binds the oats at the same time, --doing four times asmuch work as the black man with one half the labour. Let us give theblack man so much skill and brains that he can cut oats like the whiteman, then he can compete with him. The Negro works in cotton, and hasno trouble so long as his labour is confined to the lower forms ofwork, --the planting, the picking, and the ginning; but, when the Negroattempts to follow the bale of cotton up through the higher stages, through the mill where it is made into the finer fabrics, where thelarger profit appears, he is told that he is not wanted. 

The Negro can work in wood and iron; and no one objects so long as heconfines his work to the felling of trees and sawing of boards, to thedigging of iron ore and making of pig iron. But, when the Negroattempts to follow this tree into the factory where it is made intodesks and chairs and railway coaches, or when he attempts to followthe pig iron into the factory where it is made into knife-blades andwatch-springs, the Negro's trouble begins. And what is the objection?Simply that the Negro lacks the skill, coupled with brains, necessaryto compete with the white man, or that, when white men refuse to workwith coloured men, enough skilled and educated coloured men cannot befound able to superintend and man every part of any one largeindustry; and hence, for these reasons, they are constantly beingbarred out. The Negro must become, in a larger measure, an intelligentproducer as well as a consumer. There should be a more vital andpractical connection between the Negro's educated brain and hisopportunity of earning his daily living. 

A very weak argument often used against pushing industrial trainingfor the Negro is that the Southern white man favours it, and, therefore, it is not best for the Negro. Although I was born a slave, I am thankful that I am able so far to rid myself of prejudice as tobe able to accept a good thing, whether it comes from a black man or awhite man, a Southern man or a Northern man. Industrial education willnot only help the Negro directly in the matter of industrialdevelopment, but also in bringing about more satisfactory relationsbetween him and the Southern white man. For the sake of the Negro andthe Southern white man there are many things in the relation of thetwo races that must soon be changed. We cannot depend wholly uponabuse or condemnation of the Southern white man to bring about thesechanges. Each race must be educated to see matters in a broad, high, generous, Christian spirit: we must bring the two races together, notestrange them. The Negro must live for all time by the side of theSouthern white man. The man is unwise who does not cultivate in everymanly way the friendship and good will of his next-door neighbour, whether he be black or white. I repeat that industrial training willhelp cement the friendship of the two races. The history of the worldproves that trade, commerce, is the forerunner of peace andcivilisation as between races and nations. The Jew, who was once inabout the same position that the Negro is to-day, has now recognition, because he has entwined himself about America in a business andindustrial sense. Say or think what we will, it is the tangible orvisible element that is going to tell largely during the next twentyyears in the solution of the race problem. 

CHAPTER IV. 

One of the main problems as regards the education of the Negro is howto have him use his education to the best advantage after he hassecured it. In saying this, I do not want to be understood as implyingthat the problem of simple ignorance among the masses has been settledin the South; for this is far from true. The amount of ignorance stillprevailing among the Negroes, especially in the rural districts, isvery large and serious. But I repeat, we must go farther if we wouldsecure the best results and most gratifying returns in public good forthe money spent than merely to put academic education in the Negro'shead with the idea that this will settle everything. 

In his present condition it is important, in seeking after what heterms the ideal, that the Negro should not neglect to prepare himselfto take advantage of the opportunities that are right about his door. If he lets these opportunities slip, I fear they will never be hisagain. In saying this, I mean always that the Negro should have themost thorough mental and religious training; for without it no racecan succeed. Because of his past history and environment and presentcondition it is important that he be carefully guided for years tocome in the proper use of his education. Much valuable time has beenlost and money spent in vain, because too many have not been educatedwith the idea of fitting them to do well the things which they couldget to do. Because of the lack of proper direction of the Negro'seducation, some good friends of his, North and South, have not takenthat interest in it that they otherwise would have taken. In too manycases where merely literary education alone has been given the Negroyouth, it has resulted in an exaggerated estimate of his importancein the world, and an increase of wants which his education has notfitted him to supply. 

But, in discussing this subject, one is often met with the question, Should not the Negro be encouraged to prepare himself for any stationin life that any other race fills? I would say, Yes; but the surestway for the Negro to reach the highest positions is to prepare himselfto fill well at the present time the basic occupations. This will givehim a foundation upon which to stand while securing what is called themore exalted positions. The Negro has the right to study law; butsuccess will come to the race sooner if it produces intelligent, thrifty farmers, mechanics, and housekeepers to support the lawyers. The want of proper direction of the use of the Negro's educationresults in tempting too many to live mainly by their wits, withoutproducing anything that is of real value to the world. Let me quoteexamples of this. 

Hayti, Santo Domingo, and Liberia, although among the richestcountries in natural resources in the world, are discouraging examplesof what must happen to any people who lack industrial or technicaltraining. It is said that in Liberia there are no wagons, wheelbarrows, or public roads, showing very plainly that there is apainful absence of public spirit and thrift. What is true of Liberiais also true in a measure of the republics of Hayti and Santo Domingo. The people have not yet learned the lesson of turning their educationtoward the cultivation of the soil and the making of the simplestimplements for agricultural and other forms of labour. 

Much would have been done toward laying a sound foundation for generalprosperity if some attention had been spent in this direction. Generaleducation itself has no bearing on the subject at issue, because, while there is no well-established public school system in either ofthese countries, yet large numbers of men of both Hayti and SantoDomingo have been educated in France for generations. This isespecially true of Hayti. The education has been altogether in thedirection of _belles lettres_, however, and practically little in thedirection of industrial and scientific education. 

It is a matter of common knowledge that Hayti has to send abroad evento secure engineers for her men-of-war, for plans for her bridges andother work requiring technical knowledge and skill. I should very muchregret to see any such condition obtain in any large measure asregards the coloured people in the South, and yet this will be ourfate if industrial education is much longer neglected. We have spentmuch time in the South in educating men and women in letters alone, too, and must now turn our attention more than ever toward educatingthem so as to supply their wants and needs. It is more lamentable tosee educated people unable to support themselves than to seeuneducated people in the same condition. Ambition all along this linemust be stimulated. 

If educated men and women of the race will see and acknowledge thenecessity of practical industrial training and go to work with a zealand determination, their example will be followed by others, who arenow without ambition of any kind. 

The race cannot hope to come into its own until the young coloured menand women make up their minds to assist in the general developmentalong these lines. The elder men and women trained in the hard schoolof slavery, and who so long possessed all of the labour, skilled andunskilled, of the South, are dying out; their places must be filled bytheir children, or we shall lose our hold upon these occupations. Leaders in these occupations are needed now more than ever. 

It is not enough that the idea be inculcated that coloured peopleshould get book learning; along with it they should be taught thatbook education and industrial development must go hand in hand. Norace which fails to do this can ever hope to succeed. Phillips Brooksgave expression to the sentiment: "One generation gathers thematerial, and the next generation builds the palaces. " As I understandit, he wished to inculcate the idea that one generation lays thefoundation for succeeding generations. The rough affairs of life verylargely fall to the earlier generation, while the next one has theprivilege of dealing with the higher and more æsthetic things of life. This is true of all generations, of all peoples; and, unless thefoundation is deeply laid, it is impossible for the succeeding one tohave a career in any way approaching success. As regards the colouredmen of the South, as regards the coloured men of the United States, this is the generation which, in a large measure, must gather thematerial with which to lay the foundation for future success. 

Some time ago it was my misfortune to see a Negro sixty-five years oldliving in poverty and filth. I was disgusted, and said to him, "If youare worthy of your freedom, you would surely have changed yourcondition during the thirty years of freedom which you have enjoyed. "He answered: "I do want to change. I want to do something for my wifeand children; but I do not know how, --I do not know what to do. " Ilooked into his lean and haggard face, and realised more deeply thanever before the absolute need of captains of industry among the greatmasses of the coloured people. 

It is possible for a race or an individual to have mental developmentand yet be so handicapped by custom, prejudice, and lack of employmentas to dwarf and discourage the whole life. This is the condition thatprevails among the race in many of the large cities of the North; andit is to prevent this same condition in the South that I plead withall the earnestness of my heart. Mental development alone will notgive us what we want, but mental development tied to hand and hearttraining will be the salvation of the Negro. 

In many respects the next twenty years are going to be the mostserious in the history of the race. Within this period it will belargely decided whether the Negro will be able to retain the holdwhich he now has upon the industries of the South or whether his placewill be filled by white people from a distance. The only way he canprevent the industrial occupations slipping from him in all parts ofthe South, as they have already in certain parts, is for alleducators, ministers, and friends of the race to unite in pushingforward in a whole-souled manner the industrial or businessdevelopment of the Negro, whether in school or out of school. Fourtimes as many young men and women of the race should be receivingindustrial training. Just now the Negro is in a position to feel andappreciate the need of this in a way that no one else can. No one canfully appreciate what I am saying who has not walked the streets of aNorthern city day after day seeking employment, only to find everydoor closed against him on account of his colour, except in menialservice. It is to prevent the same thing taking place in the Souththat I plead. We may argue that mental development will take care ofall this. Mental development is a good thing. Gold is also a goodthing, but gold is worthless without an opportunity to make itselftouch the world of trade. Education increases greatly an individual'swants. It is cruel in many cases to increase the wants of the blackyouth by mental development alone without, at the same time, increasing his ability to supply these increased wants in occupationsin which he can find employment. 

The place made vacant by the death of the old coloured man who wastrained as a carpenter during slavery, and who since the war had beenthe leading contractor and builder in the Southern town, had to befilled. No young coloured carpenter capable of filling his place couldbe found. The result was that his place was filled by a white mechanicfrom the North, or from Europe, or from elsewhere. What is true ofcarpentry and house-building in this case is true, in a degree, inevery skilled occupation; and it is becoming true of common labour. Ido not mean to say that all of the skilled labour has been taken outof the Negro's hands; but I do mean to say that in no part of theSouth is he so strong in the matter of skilled labour as he was twentyyears ago, except possibly in the country districts and the smallertowns. In the more northern of the Southern cities, such as Richmondand Baltimore, the change is most apparent; and it is being felt inevery Southern city. Wherever the Negro has lost ground industriallyin the South, it is not because there is prejudice against him as askilled labourer on the part of the native Southern white man; theSouthern white man generally prefers to do business with the Negromechanic rather than with a white one, because he is accustomed to dobusiness with the Negro in this respect. There is almost no prejudiceagainst the Negro in the South in matters of business, so far as thenative whites are concerned; and here is the entering wedge for thesolution of the race problem. But too often, where the white mechanicor factory operative from the North gets a hold, the trades-union soonfollows, and the Negro is crowded to the wall. 

But what is the remedy for this condition? First, it is most importantthat the Negro and his white friends honestly face the facts as theyare; otherwise the time will not be very far distant when the Negro ofthe South will be crowded to the ragged edge of industrial life as heis in the North. There is still time to repair the damage and toreclaim what we have lost. 

I stated in the beginning that industrial education for the Negro hasbeen misunderstood. This has been chiefly because some have gotten theidea that industrial development was opposed to the Negro's highermental development. This has little or nothing to do with the subjectunder discussion; we should no longer permit such an idea to aid indepriving the Negro of the legacy in the form of skilled labour thatwas purchased by his forefathers at the price of two hundred and fiftyyears of slavery. I would say to the black boy what I would say to thewhite boy, Get all the mental development that your time andpocket-book will allow of, --the more, the better; but the time hascome when a larger proportion--not all, for we need professional menand women--of the educated coloured men and women should givethemselves to industrial or business life. The professional class willbe helped in so far as the rank and file have an industrialfoundation, so that they can pay for professional service. Whetherthey receive the training of the hand while pursuing their academictraining or after their academic training is finished, or whether theywill get their literary training in an industrial school or college, are questions which each individual must decide for himself. Nomatter how or where educated, the educated men and women must come tothe rescue of the race in the effort to get and hold its industrialfooting. I would not have the standard of mental development loweredone whit; for, with the Negro, as with all races, mental strength isthe basis of all progress. But I would have a large measure of thismental strength reach the Negroes' actual needs through the medium ofthe hand. Just now the need is not so much for the common carpenters, brick masons, farmers, and laundry women as for industrial leaderswho, in addition to their practical knowledge, can draw plans, makeestimates, take contracts; those who understand the latest methods oftruck-gardening and the science underlying practical agriculture;those who understand machinery to the extent that they can operatesteam and electric laundries, so that our women can hold on to thelaundry work in the South, that is so fast drifting into the hands ofothers in the large cities and towns. 

Having tried to show in previous chapters to what a condition the lackof practical training has brought matters in the South, and by theexamples in this chapter where this state of things may go if allowedto run its course, I wish now to show what practical training, even inits infancy among us, has already accomplished. 

I noticed, when I first went to Tuskegee to start the Tuskegee Normaland Industrial Institute, that some of the white people about thererather looked doubtfully at me; and I thought I could get theirinfluence by telling them how much algebra and history and science andall those things I had in my head, but they treated me about the sameas they did before. They didn't seem to care about the algebra, history, and science that were in my head only. Those people nevereven began to have confidence in me until we commenced to build alarge three-story brick building, and then another and another, untilnow we have forty buildings which have been erected largely by thelabour of our students; and to-day we have the respect and confidenceof all the white people in that section. 

There is an unmistakable influence that comes over a white man when hesees a black man living in a two-story brick house that has been paidfor. I need not stop to explain. It is the tangible evidence ofprosperity. You know Thomas doubted the Saviour after he had risenfrom the dead; and the Lord said to Thomas, "Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into myside. " The tangible evidence convinced Thomas. 

We began, soon after going to Tuskegee, the manufacture of bricks. Wealso started a wheelwright establishment and the manufacture of goodwagons and buggies; and the white people came to our institution forthat kind of work. We also put in a printing plant, and did jobprinting for the white people as well as for the blacks. 

By having something that these people wanted, we came into contactwith them, and our interest became interlinked with their interest, until to-day we have no warmer friends anywhere in the country than wehave among the white people of Tuskegee. We have found by experiencethat the best way to get on well with people is to have something thatthey want, and that is why we emphasise this Christian IndustrialEducation. 

Not long ago I heard a conversation among three white men somethinglike this. Two of them were berating the Negro, saying the Negro wasshiftless and lazy, and all that sort of thing. The third manlistened to their remarks for some time in silence, and then he said:"I don't know what your experience has been; but there is a 'nigger'down our way who owns a good house and lot with about fifty acres ofground. His house is well furnished, and he has got some splendidhorses and cattle. He is intelligent and has a bank account. I don'tknow how the 'niggers' are in your community, but Tobe Jones is agentleman. Once, when I was hard up, I went to Tobe Jones and borrowedfifty dollars; and he hasn't asked me for it yet. I don't know whatkind of 'niggers' you have down your way, but Tobe Jones is agentleman. "

Now what we want to do is to multiply and place in every communitythese Tobe Joneses; and, just in so far as we can place themthroughout the South this race question will disappear. 

Suppose there was a black man who had business for the railroads tothe amount of ten thousand dollars a year. Do you suppose that, whenthat black man takes his family aboard the train, they are going toput him into a Jim Crow car and run the risk of losing that tenthousand dollars a year? No, they will put on a Pullman palace car forhim. 

Some time ago a certain coloured man was passing through the streetsof one of the little Southern towns, and he chanced to meet two whitemen on the street. It happened that this coloured man owns two orthree houses and lots, has a good education and a comfortable bankaccount. One of the white men turned to the other, and said: "By Gosh!It is all I can do to keep from calling that 'nigger' Mister. " That'sthe point we want to get to. 

Nothing else so soon brings about right relations between the tworaces in the South as the commercial progress of the Negro. Frictionbetween the races will pass away as the black man, by reason of hisskill, intelligence, and character, can produce something that thewhite man wants or respects in the commercial world. This is anotherreason why at Tuskegee we push industrial training. We find that asevery year we put into a Southern community coloured men who can starta brickyard, a saw-mill, a tin-shop, or a printing-office, --men whoproduce something that makes the white man partly dependent upon theNegro instead of all the dependence being on the other side, --a changefor the better takes place in the relations of the races. It isthrough the dairy farm, the truck-garden, the trades, the commerciallife, largely, that the Negro is to find his way to respect andconfidence. 

What is the permanent value of the Hampton and Tuskegee system oftraining to the South, in a broader sense? In connection with this, itis well to bear in mind that slavery unconsciously taught the whiteman that labour with the hands was something fit for the Negro only, and something for the white man to come into contact with just aslittle as possible. It is true that there was a large class of poorwhite people who laboured with the hands, but they did it because theywere not able to secure Negroes to work for them; and these poorwhites were constantly trying to imitate the slaveholding class inescaping labour, as they, too, regarded it as anything but elevating. But the Negro, in turn, looked down upon the poor whites with acertain contempt because they had to work. The Negro, it is to beborne in mind, worked under constant protest, because he felt that hislabour was being unjustly requited; and he spent almost as much effortin planning how to escape work as in learning how to work. Labour withhim was a badge of degradation. The white man was held up before himas the highest type of civilisation, but the Negro noted that thishighest type of civilisation himself did little labour with the hand. Hence he argued that, the less work he did, the more nearly he wouldbe like the white man. Then, in addition to these influences, theslave system discouraged labour-saving machinery. To use labour-savingmachinery, intelligence was required; and intelligence and slaverywere not on friendly terms. Hence the Negro always associated labourwith toil, drudgery, something to be escaped. When the Negro firstbecame free, his idea of education was that it was something thatwould soon put him in the same position as regards work that hisrecent master had occupied. Out of these conditions grew the habit ofputting off till to-morrow and the day after the duty that should bedone promptly to-day. The leaky house was not repaired while the sunshone, for then the rain did not come through. While the rain wasfalling, no one cared to expose himself to stop the rain. The plough, on the same principle, was left where the last furrow was run, to rotand rust in the field during the winter. There was no need to repairthe wooden chimney that was exposed to the fire, because water couldbe thrown on it when it was on fire. There was no need to troubleabout the payment of a debt to-day, because it could be paid as wellnext week or next year. Besides these conditions, the whole South atthe close of the war was without proper food, clothing, andshelter, --was in need of habits of thrift and economy and of somethinglaid up for a rainy day. 

To me it seemed perfectly plain that here was a condition of thingsthat could not be met by the ordinary process of education. AtTuskegee we became convinced that the thing to do was to make acareful, systematic study of the condition and needs of the South, especially the Black Belt, and to bend our efforts in the direction ofmeeting these needs, whether we were following a well-beaten track orwere hewing out a new path to meet conditions probably without aparallel in the world. After eighteen years of experience andobservation, what is the result? Gradually, but surely, we find thatall through the South the disposition to look upon labour as adisgrace is on the wane; and the parents who themselves sought toescape work are so anxious to give their children training inintelligent labour that every institution which gives training in thehandicrafts is crowded, and many (among them Tuskegee) have to refuseadmission to hundreds of applicants. The influence of Hampton andTuskegee is shown again by the fact that almost every little schoolat the remotest cross-road is anxious to be known as an industrialschool, or, as some of the coloured people call it, an "industrous"school. 

The social lines that were once sharply drawn between those wholaboured with the hands and those who did not are disappearing. Thosewho formerly sought to escape labour, now when they see that brainsand skill rob labour of the toil and drudgery once associated with it, instead of trying to avoid it, are willing to pay to be taught how toengage in it. The South is beginning to see labour raised up, dignified and beautified, and in this sees its salvation. Inproportion as the love of labour grows, the large idle class, whichhas long been one of the curses of the South, disappears. As peoplebecome absorbed in their own affairs, they have less time to attend toeverybody's else business. 

The South is still an undeveloped and unsettled country, and for thenext half-century and more the greater part of the energy of themasses will be needed to develop its material resources. Any forcethat brings the rank and file of the people to have a greater love ofindustry is therefore especially valuable. This result industrialeducation is surely bringing about. It stimulates production andincreases trade, --trade between the races; and in this new andengrossing relation both forget the past. The white man respects thevote of a coloured man who does ten thousand dollars' worth ofbusiness; and, the more business the coloured man has, the morecareful he is how he votes. 

Immediately after the war there was a large class of Southern peoplewho feared that the opening of the free schools to the freedmen andthe poor whites--the education of the head alone--would result merelyin increasing the class who sought to escape labour, and that theSouth would soon be overrun by the idle and vicious. But, as theresults of industrial combined with academic training begin to showthemselves in hundreds of communities that have been lifted up, theseformer prejudices against education are being removed. Many of thosewho a few years ago opposed Negro education are now among its warmestadvocates. 

This industrial training, emphasising, as it does, the idea ofeconomic production, is gradually bringing the South to the pointwhere it is feeding itself. After the war, what profit the South madeout of the cotton crop it spent outside of the South to purchase foodsupplies, --meat, bread, canned vegetables, and the like, --but theimproved methods of agriculture are fast changing this custom. Withthe newer methods of labour, which teach promptness and system andemphasise the worth of the beautiful, the moral value of thewell-painted house, the fence with every paling and nail in its place, is bringing to bear upon the South an influence that is making it anew country in industry, education, and religion. 

It seems to me I cannot do better than to close this chapter on theneeds of the Southern Negro than by quoting from a talk given to thestudents at Tuskegee:--

 "I want to be a little more specific in showing you what you have to do and how you must do it. 

 "One trouble with us is--and the same is true of any young people, no matter of what race or condition--we have too many stepping-stones. We step all the time, from one thing to another. You find a young man who is learning to make bricks; and, if you ask him what he intends to do after learning the trade, in too many cases he will answer, 'Oh, I am simply working at this trade as a stepping-stone to something higher. ' You see a young man working at the brick-mason's trade, and he will be apt to say the same thing. And young women learning to be milliners and dressmakers will tell you the same. All are stepping to something higher. And so we always go on, stepping somewhere, never getting hold of anything thoroughly. Now we must stop this stepping business, having so many stepping-stones. Instead, we have got to take hold of these important industries, and stick to them until we master them thoroughly. There is no nation so thorough in their education as the Germans. Why? Simply because the German takes hold of a thing, and sticks to it until he masters it. Into it he puts brains and thought from morning to night. He reads all the best books and journals bearing on that particular study, and he feels that nobody else knows so much about it as he does. 

 "Take any of the industries I have mentioned, that of brick-making, for example. Any one working at that trade should determine to learn all there is to be known about making bricks; read all the papers and journals bearing upon the trade; learn not only to make common hand-bricks, but pressed bricks, fire-bricks, --in short, the finest and best bricks there are to be made. And, when you have learned all you can by reading and talking with other people, you should travel from one city to another, and learn how the best bricks are made. And then, when you go into business for yourself, you will make a reputation for being the best brick-maker in the community; and in this way you will put yourself on your feet, and become a helpful and useful citizen. When a young man does this, goes out into one of these Southern cities and makes a reputation for himself, that person wins a reputation that is going to give him a standing and position. And, when the children of that successful brick-maker come along, they will be able to take a higher position in life. The grandchildren will be able to take a still higher position. And it will be traced back to that grandfather who, by his great success as a brick-maker, laid a foundation that was of the right kind. 

 "What I have said about these two trades can be applied with equal force to the trades followed by women. Take the matter of millinery. There is no good reason why there should not be, in each principal city in the South, at least three or four competent coloured women in charge of millinery establishments. But what is the trouble?

 "Instead of making the most of our opportunities in this industry, the temptation, in too many cases, is to be music-teachers, teachers of elocution, or something else that few of the race at present have any money to pay for, or the opportunity to earn money to pay for, simply because there is no foundation. But, when more coloured people succeed in the more fundamental occupations, they will then be able to make better provision for their children in what are termed the higher walks of life. 

 "And, now, what I have said about these important industries is especially true of the important industry of agriculture. We are living in a country where, if we are going to succeed at all, we are going to do so largely by what we raise out of the soil. The people in those backward countries I have told you about have failed to give attention to the cultivation of the soil, to the invention and use of improved agricultural implements and machinery. Without this no people can succeed. No race which fails to put brains into agriculture can succeed; and, if you want to realize the truth of this statement, go with me into the back districts of some of our Southern States, and you will find many people in poverty, and yet they are surrounded by a rich country. 

 "A race, like an individual, has got to have a reputation. Such a reputation goes a long way toward helping a race or an individual; and, when we have succeeded in getting such a reputation, we shall find that a great many of the discouraging features of our life will melt away. 

 "Reputation is what people think we are, and a great deal depends on that. When a race gets a reputation along certain lines, a great many things which now seem complex, difficult to attain, and are most discouraging, will disappear. 

 "When you say that an engine is a Corliss engine, people understand that that engine is a perfect piece of mechanical work, --perfect as far as human skill and ingenuity can make it perfect. You say a car is a Pullman car. That is all; but what does it mean? It means that the builder of that car got a reputation at the outset for thorough, perfect work, for turning out everything in first-class shape. And so with a race. You cannot keep back very long a race that has the reputation for doing perfect work in everything that it undertakes. And then we have got to get a reputation for economy. Nobody cares to associate with an individual in business or otherwise who has a reputation for being a trifling spendthrift, who spends his money for things that he can very easily get along without, who spends his money for clothing, gewgaws, superficialities, and other things, when he has not got the necessaries of life. We want to give the race a reputation for being frugal and saving in everything. Then we want to get a reputation for being industrious. Now, remember these three things: Get a reputation for being skilled. It will not do for a few here and there to have it: the race must have the reputation. Get a reputation for being so skilful, so industrious, that you will not leave a job until it is as nearly perfect as any one can make it. And then we want to make a reputation for the race for being honest, --honest at all times and under all circumstances. A few individuals here and there have it, a few communities have it; but the race as a mass must get it. 

 "You recall that story of Abraham Lincoln, how, when he was postmaster at a small village, he had left on his hands $1. 50 which the government did not call for. Carefully wrapping up this money in a handkerchief, he kept it for ten years. Finally, one day, the government agent called for this amount; and it was promptly handed over to him by Abraham Lincoln, who told him that during all those ten years he had never touched a cent of that money. He made it a principle of his life never to use other people's money. That trait of his character helped him along to the Presidency. The race wants to get a reputation for being strictly honest in all its dealings and transactions, --honest in handling money, honest in all its dealings with its fellow-men. 

 "And then we want to get a reputation for being thoughtful. This I want to emphasise more than anything else. We want to get a reputation for doing things without being told to do them every time. If you have work to do, think about it so constantly, investigate and read about it so thoroughly, that you will always be finding ways and means of improving that work. The average person going to work becomes a regular machine, never giving the matter of improving the methods of his work a thought. He is never at his work before the appointed time, and is sure to stop the minute the hour is up. The world is looking for the person who is thoughtful, who will say at the close of work hours: 'Is there not something else I can do for you? Can I not stay a little later, and help you?'

 "Moreover, it is with a race as it is with an individual: it must respect itself if it would win the respect of others. There must be a certain amount of unity about a race, there must be a great amount of pride about a race, there must be a great deal of faith on the part of a race in itself. An individual cannot succeed unless he has about him a certain amount of pride, --enough pride to make him aspire to the highest and best things in life. An individual cannot succeed unless that individual has a great amount of faith in himself. 

 "A person who goes at an undertaking with the feeling that he cannot succeed is likely to fail. On the other hand, the individual who goes at an undertaking, feeling that he can succeed, is the individual who in nine cases out of ten does succeed. But, whenever you find an individual that is ashamed of his race, trying to get away from his race, apologising for being a member of his race, then you find a weak individual. Where you find a race that is ashamed of itself, that is apologising for itself, there you will find a weak, vacillating race. Let us no longer have to apologise for our race in these or other matters. Let us think seriously and work seriously: then, as a race, we shall be thought of seriously, and, therefore, seriously respected. "

CHAPTER V. 

In this chapter I wish to show how, at Tuskegee, we are trying to workout the plan of industrial training, and trust I shall be pardoned theseeming egotism if I preface the sketch with a few words, by way ofexample, as to the expansion of my own life and how I came toundertake the work at Tuskegee. 

My earliest recollection is of a small one-room log hut on a slaveplantation in Virginia. After the close of the war, while working inthe coal mines of West Virginia for the support of my mother, I heard, in some accidental way, of the Hampton Institute. When I learned thatit was an institution where a black boy could study, could have achance to work for his board, and at the same time be taught how towork and to realise the dignity of labor, I resolved to go there. Bidding my mother good-by, I started out one morning to find my wayto Hampton, although I was almost penniless and had no definite ideaas to where Hampton was. By walking, begging rides, and paying for aportion of the journey on the steam-cars, I finally succeeded inreaching the city of Richmond; Virginia. I was without money orfriends. I slept on a sidewalk; and by working on a vessel the nextday I earned money enough to continue my way to the institute, where Iarrived with a capital of fifty cents. At Hampton I found theopportunity--in the way of buildings, teachers, and industriesprovided by the generous--to get training in the classroom and bypractical touch with industrial life, --to learn thrift, economy, andpush. I was surrounded by an atmosphere of business, Christianinfluence, and spirit of self-help, that seemed to have awakened everyfaculty in me, and caused me for the first time to realise what itmeant to be a man instead of a piece of property. 

While there, I resolved, when I had finished the course of training, Iwould go into the Far South, into the Black Belt of the South, andgive my life to providing the same kind of opportunity forself-reliance, self-awakening, that I had found provided for me atHampton. 

My work began at Tuskegee, Alabama, in 1881, in a small shanty church, with one teacher and thirty students, without a dollar's worth ofproperty. The spirit of work and of industrial thrift, with aid fromthe State and generosity from the North, have enabled us to develop aninstitution which now has about one thousand students, gathered fromtwenty-three States, and eighty-eight instructors. Counting students, instructors, and their families, we have a resident population uponthe school grounds of about twelve hundred persons. 

The institution owns two thousand three hundred acres of land, sevenhundred of which are cultivated by student labor. There are sixhundred head of live-stock, including horses, mules, cows, hogs, andsheep. There are over forty vehicles that have been made, and are nowused, by the school. Training is given in twenty-six industries. Thereis work in wood, in iron, in leather, in tin; and all forms ofdomestic economy are engaged in. Students are taught mechanical andarchitectural drawing, receive training as agriculturists, dairymen, masons, carpenters, contractors, builders, as machinists, electricians, printers, dressmakers, and milliners, and in otherdirections. 

The value of the property is $300, 000. There are forty-two buildings, counting large and small, all of which, with the exception of four, have been erected by the labour of the students. 

Since this work started, there has been collected and spent for itsfounding and support $800, 000. The annual expense is now not far from$75, 000. In a humble, simple manner the effort has been to place agreat object-lesson in the heart of the South for the elevation of thecoloured people, where there should be, in a high sense, that union ofhead, heart, and hand which has been the foundation of the greatnessof all races since the world began. 

What is the object of all this outlay? It must be first borne in mindthat we have in the South a peculiar and unprecedented state ofthings. The cardinal needs among the eight million coloured people inthe South, most of whom are to be found on the plantations, may bestated as food, clothing, shelter, education, proper habits, and asettlement of race relations. These millions of coloured people of theSouth cannot be reached directly by any missionary agent; but they canbe reached by sending out among them strong, selected young men andwomen, with the proper training of head, hand, and heart, who willlive among them and show them how to lift themselves up. 

The problem that the Tuskegee Institute keeps before itself constantlyis how to prepare these leaders. From the outset, in connection withreligious and academic training, it has emphasised industrial, orhand, training as a means of finding the way out of presentconditions. First, we have found the industrial teaching useful ingiving the student a chance to work out a portion of his expenseswhile in school. Second, the school furnishes labour that has aneconomic value and at the same time gives the student a chance toacquire knowledge and skill while performing the labour. Most of all, we find the industrial system valuable in teaching economy, thrift, and the dignity of labour and in giving moral backbone to students. The fact that a student goes into the world conscious of his power tobuild a house or a wagon or to make a set of harness gives him acertain confidence and moral independence that he would not possesswithout such training. 

A more detailed example of our methods at Tuskegee may be of interest. For example, we cultivate by student labour seven hundred acres ofland. The object is not only to cultivate the land in a way to make itpay our boarding department, but at the same time to teach thestudents, in addition to the practical work, something of thechemistry of the soil, the best methods of drainage, dairying, cultivation of fruit, the care of live-stock and tools, and scores ofother lessons needed by people whose main dependence is onagriculture. 

Friends some time ago provided means for the erection of a large newchapel at Tuskegee. Our students made the bricks for this chapel. Alarge part of the timber was sawed by the students at our saw-mill, the plans were drawn by our teacher of architectural and mechanicaldrawing, and students did the brick-masonry, the plastering, thepainting, the carpentry work, the tinning, the slating, and made mostof the furniture. Practically, the whole chapel was built andfurnished by student labour. Now the school has this building forpermanent use, and the students have a knowledge of the tradesemployed in its construction. 

While the young men do the kinds of work I have mentioned, young womento a large extent make, mend, and laundry the clothing of the youngmen. They also receive instruction in dairying, horticulture, andother valuable industries. 

One of the objections sometimes urged against industrial education forthe Negro is that it aims merely to teach him to work on the sameplan that he worked on when in slavery. This is far from being theobject at Tuskegee. At the head of each of the twenty-six industrialdivisions we have an intelligent and competent instructor, just as wehave in our history classes, so that the student is taught not onlypractical brick-masonry, for example, but also the underlyingprinciples of that industry, the mathematics and the mechanical andarchitectural drawing. Or he is taught how to become master of theforces of nature, so that, instead of cultivating corn in the old way, he can use a corn cultivator that lays off the furrows, drops the corninto them, and covers it; and in this way he can do more work thanthree men by the old process of corn planting, while at the same timemuch of the toil is eliminated and labour is dignified. In a word, theconstant aim is to show the student how to put brains into everyprocess of labour, how to bring his knowledge of mathematics and thesciences in farming, carpentry, forging, foundry work, how to dispenseas soon as possible with the old form of _ante-bellum_ labour. In theerection of the chapel referred to, instead of letting the money whichwas given to us go into outside hands, we made it accomplish threeobjects: first, it provided the chapel; second, it gave the students achance to get a practical knowledge of the trades connected with thebuilding; and, third, it enabled them to earn something toward thepayment of their board while receiving academic and industrialtraining. 

Having been fortified at Tuskegee by education of mind, skill of hand, Christian character, ideas of thrift, economy, and push, and a spiritof independence, the student is sent out to become a centre ofinfluence and light in showing the masses of our people in the BlackBelt of the South how to lift themselves up. Can this be done? I givebut one or two examples. Ten years ago a young coloured man came tothe institute from one of the large plantation districts. He studiedin the class-room a portion of the time, and received practical andtheoretical training on the farm the remainder of the time. Havingfinished his course at Tuskegee, he returned to his plantation home, which was in a county where the coloured people outnumbered the whitessix to one, as is true of many of the counties in the Black Belt ofthe South. He found the Negroes in debt. Ever since the war they hadbeen mortgaging their crops for the food on which to live while thecrops were growing. The majority of them were living fromhand-to-mouth on rented land, in small one-room log cabins, andattempting to pay a rate of interest on their advances that rangedfrom fifteen to forty per cent. Per annum. The school had been taughtin a wreck of a log cabin, with no apparatus, and had never been insession longer than three months out of twelve. He found the people, as many as eight or ten persons, of all ages and conditions and ofboth sexes, huddled together and living in one-room cabins year afteryear, and with a minister whose only aim was to work upon theemotions. One can imagine something of the moral and religious stateof the community. 

But the remedy! In spite of the evil the Negro got the habit of workfrom slavery. The rank and file of the race, especially those on theSouthern plantations, work hard; but the trouble is that what theyearn gets away from them in high rents, crop mortgages, whiskey, snuff, cheap jewelry, and the like. The young man just referred to hadbeen trained at Tuskegee, as most of our graduates are, to meet justthis condition of things. He took the three months' public school asa nucleus for his work. Then he organized the older people into aclub, or conference, that held meetings every week. In these meetingshe taught the people, in a plain, simple manner, how to save theirmoney, how to farm in a better way, how to sacrifice, --to live onbread and potatoes, if necessary, till they could get out of debt, andbegin the buying of lands. 

Soon a large proportion of the people were in a condition to makecontracts for the buying of homes (land is very cheap in the South)and to live without mortgaging their crops. Not only this; under theguidance and leadership of this teacher, the first year that he wasamong them they learned how and built, by contributions in money andlabour, a neat, comfortable school-house that replaced the wreck of alog cabin formerly used. The following year the weekly meetings werecontinued, and two months were added to the original three months ofschool. The next year two more months were added. The improvement hasgone on until these people have every year an eight months' school. 

I wish my readers could have the chance that I have had of going intothis community. I wish they could look into the faces of the people, and see them beaming with hope and delight. I wish they could see thetwo or three room cottages that have taken the place of the usualone-room cabin, see the well-cultivated farms and the religious lifeof the people that now means something more than the name. The teacherhas a good cottage and well-kept farm that serve as models. In a word, a complete revolution has been wrought in the industrial, educational, and religious life of this whole community by reason of the fact thatthey have had this leader, this guide and object-lesson, to show themhow to take the money and effort that had hitherto been scattered tothe wind in mortgages and high rents, in whiskey and gewgaws, and howto concentrate it in the direction of their own uplifting. Onecommunity on its feet presents an object-lesson for the adjoiningcommunities, and soon improvements show themselves in other places. 

Another student, who received academic and industrial training atTuskegee, established himself, three years ago, as a blacksmith andwheelwright in a community; and, in addition to the influence of hissuccessful business enterprise, he is fast making the same kind ofchanges in the life of the people about him that I have justrecounted. It would be easy for me to fill many pages describing theinfluence of the Tuskegee graduates in every part of the South. Wekeep it constantly in the minds of our students and graduates thatthe industrial or material condition of the masses of our people mustbe improved, as well as the intellectual, before there can be anypermanent change in their moral and religious life. We find it apretty hard thing to make a good Christian of a hungry man. No matterhow much our people "get happy" and "shout" in church, if they go homeat night from church hungry, they are tempted to find something to eatbefore morning. This is a principle of human nature, and is notconfined alone to the Negro. The Negro has within him immense powerfor self-uplifting, but for years it will be necessary to guide himand stimulate his energies. 

The recognition of this power led us to organise, five years ago, whatis known as the Tuskegee Negro Conference, --a gathering thatmeets every February, and is composed of about eight hundredrepresentatives, coloured men and women, from all sections of theBlack Belt. They come in ox-carts, mule-carts, buggies, on mulebackand horseback, on foot, by railroad. Some travel all night in order tobe present. The matters considered at the conference are those thatthe coloured people have it in their own power to control, --such asthe evils of the mortgage system, the one-room cabin, buying oncredit, the importance of owning a home and of putting money in thebank, how to build school-houses and prolong the school term, and toimprove their moral and religious condition. As a single example ofthe results, one delegate reported that since the conference wasstarted, seven years ago, eleven people in his neighbourhood hadbought homes, fourteen had gotten out of debt, and a number hadstopped mortgaging their crops. Moreover, a school-house had beenbuilt by the people themselves, and the school term had been extendedfrom three to six months; and, with a look of triumph, he exclaimed, "We's done libin' in de ashes. "

Besides this Negro Conference for the masses of the people, we nowhave a gathering at the same time known as the Tuskegee Workers'Conference, composed of the officers and instructors of the leadingcoloured schools in the South. After listening to the story of theconditions and needs from the people themselves, the Workers'Conference finds much food for thought and discussion. Let me repeat, from its beginning, this institution has kept in mind the giving ofthorough mental and religious training, along with such industrialtraining as would enable the student to appreciate the dignity oflabour and become self-supporting and valuable as a producing factor, keeping in mind the occupations open in the South to the average manof the race. 

This institution has now reached the point where it can begin to judgeof the value of its work as seen in its graduates. Some years ago wenoted the fact, for example, that there was quite a movement in manyparts of the South to organise and start dairies. Soon after this, weopened a dairy school where a number of young men could receivetraining in the best and most scientific methods of dairying. Atpresent we have calls, mainly from Southern white men, for twice asmany dairymen as we are able to supply. The reports indicate that ouryoung men are giving the highest satisfaction, and are fast changingand improving the dairy product in the communities where they labour. I have used the dairy industry simply as an example. What I have saidof this industry is true in a larger or less degree of the others. 

I cannot but believe, and my daily observation and experience confirmme in it, that, as we continue placing men and women of intelligence, religion, modesty, conscience, and skill in every community in theSouth, who will prove by actual results their value to the community, this will constitute the solution for many of the present politicaland sociological difficulties. It is with this larger and morecomprehensive view of improving present conditions and laying thefoundation wisely that the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute istraining men and women as teachers and industrial leaders. 

Over four hundred students have finished the course of training atthis institution, and are now scattered throughout the South, doinggood work. A recent investigation shows that about 3, 000 students whohave taken only a partial course are doing commendable work. One youngman, who was able to remain in school but two years, has been teachingin one community for ten years. During this time he has built a newschool-house, extended the school term from three to seven months, and has bought a nice farm upon which he has erected a neat cottage. The example of this young man has inspired many of the coloured peoplein this community to follow his example in some degree; and this isone of many such examples. 

Wherever our graduates and ex-students go, they teach by precept andexample the necessary lesson of thrift, economy, and property-getting, and friendship between the races. 

CHAPTER VI. 

It has become apparent that the effort to put the rank and file of thecoloured people into a position to exercise the right of franchise hasnot been the success that was expected in those portions of ourcountry where the Negro is found in large numbers. Either the Negrowas not prepared for any such wholesale exercise of the ballot as ourrecent amendments to the Constitution contemplated or the Americanpeople were not prepared to assist and encourage him to use theballot. In either case the result has been the same. 

On an important occasion in the life of the Master, when it fell tohim to pronounce judgment on two courses of action, these memorablewords fell from his lips: "And Mary hath chosen the better part. " Thiswas the supreme test in the case of an individual. It is the highesttest in the case of a race or a nation. Let us apply this test to theAmerican Negro. 

In the life of our Republic, when he has had the opportunity tochoose, has it been the better or worse part? When in the childhood ofthis nation the Negro was asked to submit to slavery or choose deathand extinction, as did the aborigines, he chose the better part, thatwhich perpetuated the race. 

When, in 1776, the Negro was asked to decide between Britishoppression and American independence, we find him choosing the betterpart; and Crispus Attucks, a Negro, was the first to shed his blood onState Street, Boston, that the white American might enjoy libertyforever, though his race remained in slavery. When, in 1814, at NewOrleans, the test of patriotism came again, we find the Negro choosingthe better part, General Andrew Jackson himself testifying that noheart was more loyal and no arm was more strong and useful in defenceof righteousness. 

When the long and memorable struggle came between union andseparation, when he knew that victory meant freedom, and defeat hiscontinued enslavement, although enlisting by the thousands, asopportunity presented itself, to fight in honourable combat for thecause of the Union and liberty, yet, when the suggestion and thetemptation came to burn the home and massacre wife and children duringthe absence of the master in battle, and thus insure his liberty, wefind him choosing the better part, and for four long years protectingand supporting the helpless, defenceless ones intrusted to his care. 

When, during our war with Spain, the safety and honour of the Republicwere threatened by a foreign foe, when the wail and anguish of theoppressed from a distant isle reached our ears, we find the Negroforgetting his own wrongs, forgetting the laws and customs thatdiscriminate against him in his own country, and again choosing thebetter part. And, if any one would know how he acquitted himself inthe field at Santiago, let him apply for answer to Shafter andRoosevelt and Wheeler. Let them tell how the Negro faced death andlaid down his life in defence of honour and humanity. When the fullstory of the heroic conduct of the Negro in the Spanish-American Warhas been heard from the lips of Northern soldier and Southern soldier, from ex-abolitionist and ex-master, then shall the country decidewhether a race that is thus willing to die for its country should notbe given the highest opportunity to live for its country. 

In the midst of all the complaints of suffering in the camp and fieldduring the Spanish-American War, suffering from fever and hunger, where is the official or citizen that has heard a word of complaintfrom the lips of a black soldier? The only request that came from theNegro soldier was that he might be permitted to replace the whitesoldier when heat and malaria began to decimate the ranks of the whiteregiments, and to occupy at the same time the post of greater danger. 

But, when all this is said, it remains true that the efforts on thepart of his friends and the part of himself to share actively in thecontrol of State and local government in America have not been asuccess in all sections. What are the causes of this partial failure, and what lessons has it taught that we may use in regard to the futuretreatment of the Negro in America?

In my mind there is no doubt but that we made a mistake at thebeginning of our freedom of putting the emphasis on the wrong end. Politics and the holding of office were too largely emphasised, almost to the exclusion of every other interest. 

I believe the past and present teach but one lesson, --to the Negro'sfriends and to the Negro himself, --that there is but one way out, thatthere is but one hope of solution; and that is for the Negro in everypart of America to resolve from henceforth that he will throw asideevery non-essential and cling only to essential, --that his pillar offire by night and pillar of cloud by day shall be property, economy, education, and Christian character. To us just now these are thewheat, all else the chaff. The individual or race that owns theproperty, pays the taxes, possesses the intelligence and substantialcharacter, is the one which is going to exercise the greatest controlin government, whether he lives in the North or whether he lives inthe South. 

I have often been asked the cause of and the cure for the riots thathave taken place recently in North Carolina and South Carolina. [1] Iam not at all sure that what I shall say will answer these questionsin a satisfactory way, nor shall I attempt to narrow my expressions toa mere recital of what has taken place in these two States. I preferto discuss the problem in a broader manner. 

[1] November, 1898. 

In the first place, in politics I am a Republican, but have alwaysrefrained from activity in party politics, and expect to pursue thispolicy in the future. So in this connection I shall refrain, as Ialways have done, from entering upon any discussion of mere partypolitics. What I shall say of politics will bear upon the race problemand the civilisation of the South in the larger sense. In no casewould I permit my political relations to stand in the way of myspeaking and acting in the manner that I believe would be for thepermanent interest of my race and the whole South. 

In 1873 the Negro in the South had reached the point of greatestactivity and influence in public life, so far as the mere holding ofelective office was concerned. From that date those who have kept upwith the history of the South have noticed that the Negro has steadilylost in the number of elective offices held. In saying this, I do notmean that the Negro has gone backward in the real and more fundamentalthings of life. On the contrary, he has gone forward faster than hasbeen true of any other race in history, under anything like similarcircumstances. 

If we can answer the question as to why the Negro has lost ground inthe matter of holding elective office in the South, perhaps we shallfind that our reply will prove to be our answer also as to the causeof the recent riots in North Carolina and South Carolina. Beforebeginning a discussion of the question I have asked, I wish to saythat this change in the political influence of the Negro has continuedfrom year to year, notwithstanding the fact that for a long time hewas protected, politically, by force of federal arms and the mostrigid federal laws, and still more effectively, perhaps, by the voiceand influence in the halls of legislation of such advocates of therights of the Negro race as Thaddeus Stevens, Charles Sumner, BenjaminF. Butler, James M. Ashley, Oliver P. Morton, Carl Schurz, and RoscoeConkling, and on the stump and through the public press by those greatand powerful Negroes, Frederick Douglass, John M. Langston, Blanche K. Bruce, John R. Lynch, P. B. S. Pinchback, Robert Browne Elliot, T. Thomas Fortune, and many others; but the Negro has continued fortwenty years to have fewer representatives in the State and nationallegislatures. The reduction has continued until now it is at the pointwhere, with few exceptions, he is without representatives in thelaw-making bodies of the State and of the nation. 

Now let us find, if we can, a cause for this. The Negro is fond ofsaying that his present condition is due to the fact that the Stateand federal courts have not sustained the laws passed for theprotection of the rights of his people; but I think we shall have togo deeper than this, because I believe that all agree that courtdecisions, as a rule, represent the public opinion of the community ornation creating and sustaining the court. 

At the beginning of his freedom it was unfortunate that those of thewhite race who won the political confidence of the Negro were not, with few exceptions, men of such high character as would lead them toassist him in laying a firm foundation for his development. Theirmain purpose appears to have been, for selfish ends in too manyinstances, merely to control his vote. The history of thereconstruction era will show that this was unfortunate for all theparties in interest. 

It would have been better, from any point of view, if the nativeSouthern white man had taken the Negro, at the beginning of hisfreedom, into his political confidence, and exercised an influence andcontrol over him before his political affections were alienated. 

The average Southern white man has an idea to-day that, if the Negrowere permitted to get any political power, all the mistakes of thereconstruction period would be repeated. He forgets or ignores thefact that thirty years of acquiring education and property andcharacter have produced a higher type of black man than existed thirtyyears ago. 

But, to be more specific, for all practical purposes, there are twopolitical parties in the South, --a black man's party and a white man'sparty. In saying this, I do not mean that all white men are Democrats;for there are some white men in the South of the highest character whoare Republicans, and there are a few Negroes in the South of thehighest character who are Democrats. It is the general understandingthat all white men are Democrats or the equivalent, and that all blackmen are Republicans. So long as the colour line is the dividing linein politics, so long will there be trouble. 

The white man feels that he owns most of the property, furnishes theNegro most of his employment, thinks he pays most of the taxes, andhas had years of experience in government. There is no mistaking thefact that the feeling which has heretofore governed the Negro--that, to be manly and stand by his race, he must oppose the Southern whiteman with his vote--has had much to do with intensifying the oppositionof the Southern white man to him. 

The Southern white man says that it is unreasonable for the Negro tocome to him, in a large measure, for his clothes, board, shelter, andeducation, and for his politics to go to men a thousand miles away. Hevery properly argues that, when the Negro votes, he should try toconsult the interests of his employer, just as the Pennsylvaniaemployee tries to vote for the interests of his employer. Further, that much of the education which has been given the Negro has beendefective, in not preparing him to love labour and to earn his livingat some special industry, and has, in too many cases, resulted intempting him to live by his wits as a political creature or bytrusting to his "influence" as a political time-server. 

Then, there is no mistaking the fact, that much opposition to theNegro in politics is due to the circumstance that the Southern whiteman has not become accustomed to seeing the Negro exercise politicalpower either as a voter or as an office-holder. Again, we want to bearit in mind that the South has not yet reached the point where there isthat strict regard for the enforcement of the law against either blackor white men that there is in many of our Northern and Western States. This laxity in the enforcement of the laws in general, and especiallyof criminal laws, makes such outbreaks as those in North Carolina andSouth Carolina of easy occurrence. 

Then there is one other consideration which must not be overlooked. Itis the common opinion of almost every black man and almost every whiteman that nearly everybody who has had anything to do with the makingof laws bearing upon the protection of the Negro's vote has proceededon the theory that all the black men for all time will vote theRepublican ticket and that all the white men in the South will votethe Democratic ticket. In a word, all seem to have taken it forgranted that the two races are always going to oppose each other intheir voting. 

In all the foregoing statements I have not attempted to define my ownviews or position, but simply to describe conditions as I haveobserved them, that might throw light upon the cause of our politicaltroubles. As to my own position, I do not favour the Negro's giving upanything which is fundamental and which has been guaranteed to him bythe Constitution of the United States. It is not best for him torelinquish any of his rights; nor would his doing so be best for theSouthern white man. Every law placed in the Constitution of theUnited States was placed there to encourage and stimulate the highestcitizenship. If the Negro is not stimulated and encouraged by justState and national laws to become the highest type of citizen, theresult will be worse for the Southern white man than for the Negro. Take the State of South Carolina, for example, where nearly two-thirdsof the population are Negroes. Unless these Negroes are encouraged byjust election laws to become tax-payers and intelligent producers, thewhite people of South Carolina will have an eternal millstone abouttheir necks. 

In an open letter to the State Constitutional Convention of Louisiana, I wrote:

 "I am no politician. On the other hand, I have always advised my race to give attention to acquiring property, intelligence, and character, as the necessary bases of good citizenship, rather than to mere political agitation. But the question upon which I write is out of the region of ordinary politics. It affects the civilisation of two races, not for to-day alone, but for a very long time to come. 

 "Since the war, no State has had such an opportunity to settle, for all time, the race question, so far as it concerns politics, as is now given to Louisiana. Will your convention set an example to the world in this respect? Will Louisiana take such high and just grounds in respect to the Negro that no one can doubt that the South is as good a friend to him as he possesses elsewhere? In all this, gentlemen of the convention, I am not pleading for the Negro alone, but for the morals, the higher life, of the white man as well. 

 "The Negro agrees with you that it is necessary to the salvation of the South that restrictions be put upon the ballot. I know that you have two serious problems before you; ignorant and corrupt government, on the one hand; and, on the other, a way to restrict the ballot so that control will be in the hands of the intelligent, without regard to race. With the sincerest sympathy with you in your efforts to find a good way out of the difficulty, I want to suggest that no State in the South can make a law that will provide an opportunity or temptation for an ignorant white man to vote, and withhold the opportunity or temptation from an ignorant coloured man, without injuring both men. No State can make a law that can thus be executed without dwarfing, for all time, the morals of the white man in the South. Any law controlling the ballot that is not absolutely just and fair to both races will work more permanent injury to the whites than to the blacks. 

 "The Negro does not object to an educational and property test, but let the law be so clear that no one clothed with State authority will be tempted to perjure and degrade himself by putting one interpretation upon it for the white man and another for the black man. Study the history of the South, and you will find that, where there has been the most dishonesty in the matter of voting, there you will find to-day the lowest moral condition of both races. First, there was the temptation to act wrongly with the Negro's ballot. From this it was an easy step to act dishonestly with the white man's ballot, to the carrying of concealed weapons, to the murder of a Negro, and then to the murder of a white man, and then to lynching. I entreat you not to pass a law that will prove an eternal millstone about the necks of your children. No man can have respect for the government and officers of the law when he knows, deep down in his heart, that the exercise of the franchise is tainted with fraud. 

 "The road that the South has been compelled to travel during the last thirty years has been strewn with thorns and thistles. It has been as one groping through the long darkness into the light. The time is not far distant when the world will begin to appreciate the real character of the burden that was imposed upon the South in giving the franchise to four millions of ignorant and impoverished ex-slaves. No people was ever before given such a problem to solve. History has blazed no path through the wilderness that could be followed. For thirty years we have wandered in the wilderness. We are now beginning to get out. But there is only one road out; and all makeshifts, expedients, profit and loss calculations, but lead into swamps, quicksands, quagmires, and jungles. There is a highway that will lead both races out into the pure, beautiful sunshine, where there will be nothing to hide and nothing to explain, where both races can grow strong and true and useful in every fibre of their being. I believe that your convention will find this highway, that it will enact a fundamental law that will be absolutely just and fair to white and black alike. 

 "I beg of you, further, that in the degree that you close the ballot-box against the ignorant you will open the school-house. More than one-half of the population of your State are Negroes. No State can long prosper when a large part of its citizenship is in ignorance and poverty, and has no interest in the government. I beg of you that you do not treat us as an alien people. We are not aliens. You know us. You know that we have cleared your forests, tilled your fields, nursed your children, and protected your families. There is an attachment between us that few understand. While I do not presume to be able to advise you, yet it is in my heart to say that, if your convention would do something that would prevent for all time strained relations between the two races, and would permanently settle the matter of political relations in one Southern State at least, let the very best educational opportunities be provided for both races; and add to this an election law that shall be incapable of unjust discrimination, at the same time providing that, in proportion as the ignorant secure education, property, and character, they will be given the right of citizenship. Any other course will take from one-half your citizens interest in the State, and hope and ambition to become intelligent producers and tax-payers, and useful and virtuous citizens. Any other course will tie the white citizens of Louisiana to a body of death. 

 "The Negroes are not unmindful of the fact that the poverty of the State prevents it from doing all that it desires for public education; yet I believe that you will agree with me that ignorance is more costly to the State than education, that it will cost Louisiana more not to educate the Negroes than it will to educate them. In connection with a generous provision for public schools, I believe that nothing will so help my own people in your State as provision at some institution for the highest academic and normal training, in connection with thorough training in agriculture, mechanics, and domestic economy. First-class training in agriculture, horticulture, dairying, stock-raising, the mechanical arts, and domestic economy, would make us intelligent producers, and not only help us to contribute our honest share as tax-payers, but would result in retaining much money in the State that now goes outside for that which can be as well produced at home. An institution which will give this training of the hand, along with the highest mental culture, would soon convince our people that their salvation is largely in the ownership of property and in industrial and business development, rather than in mere political agitation. 

 "The highest test of the civilisation of any race is in its willingness to extend a helping hand to the less fortunate. A race, like an individual, lifts itself up by lifting others up. Surely, no people ever had a greater chance to exhibit the highest Christian fortitude and magnanimity than is now presented to the people of Louisiana. It requires little wisdom or statesmanship to repress, to crush out, to retard the hopes and aspirations of a people; but the highest and most profound statesmanship is shown in guiding and stimulating a people, so that every fibre in the body and soul shall be made to contribute in the highest degree to the usefulness and ability of the State. It is along this line that I pray God the thoughts and activities of your convention may be guided. "

As to such outbreaks as have recently occurred in North Carolina andSouth Carolina, the remedy will not be reached by the Southern whiteman merely depriving the Negro of his rights and privileges. Thismethod is but superficial, irritating, and must, in the nature ofthings, be short-lived. The statesman, to cure an evil, resorts toenlightenment, to stimulation; the politician, to repression. I havejust remarked that I favour the giving up of nothing that isguaranteed to us by the Constitution of the United States, or that isfundamental to our citizenship. While I hold to these views asstrongly as any one, I differ with some as to the method of securingthe permanent and peaceful enjoyment of all the privileges guaranteedto us by our fundamental law. 

In finding a remedy, we must recognise the world-wide fact that theNegro must be led to see and feel that he must make every effortpossible, in every way possible, to secure the friendship, theconfidence, the co-operation of his white neighbour in the South. Todo this, it is not necessary for the Negro to become a truckler or atrimmer. The Southern white man has no respect for a Negro who doesnot act from principle. In some way the Southern white man must be ledto see that it is to his interest to turn his attention more and moreto the making of laws that will, in the truest sense, elevate theNegro. At the present moment, in many cases, when one attempts to getthe Negro to co-operate with the Southern white man, he asks thequestion, "Can the people who force me to ride in a Jim Crow car, andpay first-class fare, be my best friends?" In answering suchquestions, the Southern white man, as well as the Negro, has a duty toperform. In the exercise of his political rights I should advise theNegro to be temperate and modest, and more and more to do his ownthinking. 

I believe the permanent cure for our present evils will come through aproperty and educational test for voting that shall apply honestly andfairly to both races. This will cut off the large mass of ignorantvoters of both races that is now proving so demoralising a factor inthe politics of the Southern States. 

But, most of all, it will come through industrial development of theNegro. Industrial education makes an intelligent producer of theNegro, who becomes of immediate value to the community rather thanone who yields to the temptation to live merely by politics orother parasitical employments. It will make him soon become aproperty-holder; and, when a citizen becomes a holder of property, hebecomes a conservative and thoughtful voter. He will more carefullyconsider the measures and individuals to be voted for. In proportionas he increases his property interests, he becomes important as atax-payer. 

There is little trouble between the Negro and the white man in mattersof education; and, when it comes to his business development, theblack man has implicit faith in the advice of the Southern white man. When he gets into trouble in the courts, which requires a bond to begiven, in nine cases out of ten, he goes to a Southern white man foradvice and assistance. Every one who has lived in the South knowsthat, in many of the church troubles among the coloured people, theministers and other church officers apply to the nearest whiteminister for assistance and instruction. When by reason of mutualconcession we reach the point where we shall consult the Southernwhite man about our politics as we now consult him about ourbusiness, legal, and religious matters, there will be a change for thebetter in the situation. 

The object-lesson of a thousand Negroes in every county in the Southwho own neat and comfortable homes, possessing skill, industry, andthrift, with money in the bank, and are large tax-payers co-operatingwith the white men in the South in every manly way for the developmentof their own communities and counties, will go a long way, in a fewyears, toward changing the present status of the Negro as a citizen, as well as the attitude of the whites toward the blacks. 

As the Negro grows in industrial and business directions, he willdivide in his politics on economic issues, just as the white man inother parts of the country now divides his vote. As the South grows inbusiness prosperity it will divide its vote on economic issues, justas other sections of the country divide their vote. When we can enactlaws that result in honestly cutting off the large ignorant andnon-tax-paying vote, and when we can bring both races to the pointwhere they will co-operate with each other in politics, as they do nowin matters of business, religion, and education, the problem will bein a large measure solved, and political outbreaks will cease. 

CHAPTER VII. 

One of the great questions which Christian education must face in theSouth is the proper adjustment of the new relations of the two races. It is a question which must be faced calmly, quietly, dispassionately;and the time has now come to rise above party, above race, abovecolour, above sectionalism, into the region of duty of man to man, ofAmerican to American, of Christian to Christian. 

I remember not long ago, when about five hundred coloured peoplesailed from the port of Savannah bound for Liberia, that the news wasflashed all over the country, "The Negro has made up his mind toreturn to his own country, " and that, "in this was the solution of therace problem in the South. " But these short-sighted people forgot thefact that before breakfast that morning about five hundred more Negrochildren were born in the South alone. 

And then, once in a while, somebody is so bold as to predict that theNegro will be absorbed by the white race. Let us look at this phase ofthe question for a moment. It is a fact that, if a person is known tohave one per cent. Of African blood in his veins, he ceases to be awhite man. The ninety-nine per cent. Of Caucasian blood does not weighby the side of the one per cent. Of African blood. The white bloodcounts for nothing. The person is a Negro every time. So it will be avery difficult task for the white man to absorb the Negro. 

Somebody else conceived the idea of colonising the coloured people, ofgetting territory where nobody lived, putting the coloured peoplethere, and letting them be a nation all by themselves. There are twoobjections to that. First, you would have to build one wall to keepthe coloured people in, and another wall to keep the white peopleout. If you were to build ten walls around Africa to-day you could notkeep the white people out, especially as long as there was a hope offinding gold there. 

I have always had the highest respect for those of our race who, intrying to find a solution for our Southern problem, advised a returnof the race to Africa, and because of my respect for those who havethus advised, especially Bishop Henry M. Turner, I have tried to makea careful and unbiassed study of the question, during a recent sojournin Europe, to see what opportunities presented themselves in Africafor self-development and self-government. 

I am free to say that I see no way out of the Negro's presentcondition in the South by returning to Africa. Aside from otherinsurmountable obstacles, there is no place in Africa for him to gowhere his condition would be improved. All Europe--especially England, France, and Germany--has been running a mad race for the last twentyyears, to see which could gobble up the greater part of Africa; andthere is practically nothing left. Old King Cetewayo put it prettywell when he said, "First come missionary, then come rum, then cometraders, then come army"; and Cecil Rhodes has expressed theprevailing sentiment more recently in these words, "I would ratherhave land than 'niggers. '" And Cecil Rhodes is directly responsiblefor the killing of thousands of black natives in South Africa, that hemight secure their land. 

In a talk with Henry M. Stanley, the explorer, he told me that he knewno place in Africa where the Negroes of the United States might go toadvantage; but I want to be more specific. Let us see how Africa hasbeen divided, and then decide whether there is a place left for us. On the Mediterranean coast of Africa, Morocco is an independent State, Algeria is a French possession, Tunis is a French protectorate, Tripoli is a province of the Ottoman Empire, Egypt is a province ofTurkey. On the Atlantic coast, Sahara is a French protectorate, Adraris claimed by Spain, Senegambia is a French trading settlement, Gambiais a British crown colony, Sierra Leone is a British crown colony. Liberia is a republic of freed Negroes, Gold Coast and Ashanti areBritish colonies and British protectorates, Togoland is a Germanprotectorate, Dahomey is a kingdom subject to French influence, SlaveCoast is a British colony and British protectorate, Niger Coast is aBritish protectorate, the Cameroons are trading settlements protectedby Germany, French Congo is a French protectorate, Congo Free State isan international African Association, Angola and Benguela arePortuguese protectorates, and the inland countries are controlled asfollows: The Niger States, Masina, etc. , are under French protection;Land Gandu is under British protection, administered by the RoyalHaussan Niger Company. 

South Africa is controlled as follows: Damara and Namaqua Land areGerman protectorates, Cape Colony is a British colony, Basutoland is aCrown colony, Bechuanaland is a British protectorate, Natal is aBritish colony, Zululand is a British protectorate, Orange Free Stateis independent, the South African Republic is independent, and theZambesi is administered by the British South African Company. LourenceMarques is a Portuguese possession. 

East Africa has also been disposed of in the following manner:Mozambique is a Portuguese possession, British Central Africa is aBritish protectorate, German East Africa is in the German sphere ofinfluence, Zanzibar is a sultanate under British protection, BritishEast Africa is a British protectorate, Somaliland is under British andItalian protection, Abyssinia is independent. East Soudan (includingNubia, Kordofan, Darfur, and Wadai) is in the British sphere ofinfluence. It will be noted that, when one of these European countriescannot get direct control over any section of Africa, it at once givesit out to the world that the country wanted is in the "sphere of itsinfluence, "--a very convenient term. If we are to go to Africa, and beunder the control of another government, I think we should prefer totake our chances in the "sphere of influence" of the United States. 

All this shows pretty conclusively that a return to Africa for theNegro is out of the question, even provided that a majority of theNegroes wished to go back, which they do not. The adjustment of therelations of the two races must take place here; and it is takingplace slowly, but surely. As the Negro is educated to make homes andto respect himself, the white man will in turn respect him. 

It has been urged that the Negro has inherent in him certain traits ofcharacter that will prevent his ever reaching the standard ofcivilisation set by the whites, and taking his place among them as anequal. It may be some time before the Negro race as a whole can standcomparison with the white in all respects, --it would be mostremarkable, considering the past, if it were not so; but the idea thathis objectionable traits and weaknesses are fundamental, I think, is amistake. For, although there are elements of weakness about the Negrorace, there are also many evidences of strength. 

It is an encouraging sign, however, when an individual grows to thepoint where he can hold himself up for personal analysis and study. Itis equally encouraging for a race to be able to study itself, --tomeasure its weakness and strength. It is not helpful to a race to becontinually praised and have its weakness overlooked, neither is itthe most helpful thing to have its faults alone continually dweltupon. What is needed is downright, straightforward honesty in bothdirections; and this is not always to be obtained. 

There is little question that one of the Negroes' weak points isphysical. Especially is this true regarding those who live in thelarge cities, North and South. But in almost every case this physicalweakness can be traced to ignorant violation of the laws of health orto vicious habits. The Negro, who during slavery lived on the largeplantations in the South, surrounded by restraints, at the close ofthe war came to the cities, and in many cases found the freedom andtemptations of the city too much for him. The transition was toosudden. 

When we consider what it meant to have four millions of people slavesto-day and freemen to-morrow, the wonder is that the race has notsuffered more physically than it has. I do not believe that statisticscan be so marshalled as to prove that the Negro as a race isphysically or numerically on the decline. On the other hand, the Negroas a race is increasing in numbers by a larger percentage than is trueof the French nation. While the death-rate is large in the cities, thebirth-rate is also large; and it is to be borne in mind thateighty-five per cent. Of these people in the Gulf States are in thecountry districts and smaller towns, and there the increase is alonghealthy and normal lines. As the Negro becomes educated, the highdeath-rate in the cities will disappear. For proof of this, I haveonly to mention that a few years ago no coloured man could getinsurance in the large first-class insurance companies. Now there arefew of these companies which do not seek the insurance of educatedcoloured men. In the North and South the physical intoxication thatwas the result of sudden freedom is giving way to an encouraging, sobering process; and, as this continues, the high death-rate willdisappear even, in the large cities. 

Another element of weakness which shows itself in the present stage ofthe civilisation of the Negro is his lack of ability to form a purposeand stick to it through a series of years, if need be, --years thatinvolve discouragement as well as encouragement, --till the end shallbe reached. Of course there are brilliant exceptions to this rule; butthere is no question that here is an element of weakness, and thesame, I think, would be true of any race with the Negro's history. 

Few of the resolutions which are made in conventions, etc. , areremembered and put into practice six months after the warmth andenthusiasm of the debating hall have disappeared. This, I know, is anelement of the white man's weakness, but it is the Negro I amdiscussing, not the white man. Individually, the Negro is strong. Collectively, he is weak. This is not to be wondered at. The abilityto succeed in organised bodies is one of the highest points incivilisation. There are scores of coloured men who can succeed in anyline of business as individuals, or will discuss any subject in a mostintelligent manner, yet who, when they attempt to act in an organisedbody, are utter failures. 

But the weakness of the Negro which is most frequently held up to thepublic gaze is that of his moral character. No one who wants to behonest and at the same time benefit the race will deny that here iswhere the strengthening is to be done. It has become universallyaccepted that the family is the foundation, the bulwark, of any race. It should be remembered, sorrowfully withal, that it was the constanttendency of slavery to destroy the family life. All through twohundred and fifty years of slavery, one of the chief objects was toincrease the number of slaves; and to this end almost all thought ofmorality was lost sight of, so that the Negro has had only aboutthirty years in which to develop a family life; while the Anglo-Saxonrate, with which he is constantly being compared, has had thousands ofyears of training in home life. The Negro felt all through the yearsof bondage that he was being forcibly and unjustly deprived of thefruits of his labour. Hence he felt that anything he could get fromthe white man in return for this labour justly belonged to him. Sincethis was true, we must be patient in trying to teach him a differentcode of morals. 

From the nature of things, all through slavery it was life in thefuture world that was emphasised in religious teaching rather thanlife in this world. In his religious meetings in _ante-bellum_ daysthe Negro was prevented from discussing many points of practicalreligion which related to this world; and the white minister, who washis spiritual guide, found it more convenient to talk about heaventhan earth, so very naturally that to-day in his religious meeting itis the Negro's feelings which are worked upon mostly, and it isdescription of the glories of heaven that occupy most of the time ofhis sermon. 

Having touched upon some of the weak points of the Negro, what arehis strong characteristics? The Negro in America is different frommost people for whom missionary effort is made, in that he works. Heis not ashamed or afraid of work. When hard, constant work isrequired, ask any Southern white man, and he will tell you that inthis the Negro has no superior. He is not given to strikes or tolockouts. He not only works himself, but he is unwilling to preventother people from working. 

Of the forty buildings of various kinds and sizes on the grounds ofthe Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, in Alabama, as I havestated before, almost all of them are the results of the labourperformed by the students while securing their academic education. Oneday the student is in his history class. The next day the samestudent, equally happy, with his trowel and in overalls, is working ona brick wall. 

While at present the Negro may lack that tenacious mental grasp whichenables one to pursue a scientific or mathematical investigationthrough a series of years, he has that delicate, mental feeling whichenables him to succeed in oratory, music, etc. 

While I have spoken of the Negro's moral weakness, I hope it will bekept in mind that in his original state his is an honest race. It wasslavery that corrupted him in this respect. But in morals he also hashis strong points. 

Few have ever found the Negro guilty of betraying a trust. There arealmost no instances in which the Negro betrayed either a Federal or aConfederate soldier who confided in him. There are few instances wherethe Negro has been entrusted with valuables when he has not beenfaithful. This country has never had a more loyal citizen. He hasnever proven himself a rebel. Should the Southern States, which solong held him in slavery, be invaded by a foreign foe, the Negro wouldbe among the first to come to the rescue. 

Perhaps the most encouraging thing in connection with the lifting upof the Negro in this country is the fact that he knows that he is downand wants to get up, he knows that he is ignorant and wants to getlight. He fills every school-house and every church which is openedfor him. He is willing to follow leaders, when he is once convincedthat the leaders have his best interest at heart. 

Under the constant influence of the Christian education which beganthirty-five years ago, his religion is every year becoming lessemotional and more rational and practical, though I, for one, hopethat he will always retain in a large degree the emotional element inreligion. 

During the two hundred and fifty years that the Negro spent inslavery he had little cause or incentive to accumulate money orproperty. Thirty-five years ago this was something which he had tobegin to learn. While the great bulk of the race is still withoutmoney and property, yet the signs of thrift are evident on every hand. Especially is this noticeable in the large number of neat little homeswhich are owned by these people on the outer edges of the towns andcities in the South. 

I wish to give an example of the sort of thing the Negro has tocontend with, however, in his efforts to lift himself up. 

Not long ago a mother, a black mother, who lived in one of ourNorthern States, had heard it whispered around in her community foryears that the Negro was lazy, shiftless, and would not work. So, whenher only boy grew to sufficient size, at considerable expense andgreat self-sacrifice, she had her boy thoroughly taught themachinist's trade. A job was secured in a neighbouring shop. Withdinner bucket in hand and spurred on by the prayers of the nowhappy-hearted mother, the boy entered the shop to begin his firstday's work. What happened? Every one of the twenty white men threwdown his tools, and deliberately walked out, swearing that he wouldnot give a black man an opportunity to earn an honest living. Anothershop was tried with the same result, and still another, the resultever the same. To-day this once promising, ambitious black man is awreck, --a confirmed drunkard, --with no hope, no ambition. I ask, Whoblasted the life of this young man? On whose hands does his lifebloodrest? The present system of education, or rather want of education, isresponsible. 

Public schools and colleges should turn out men who will throw openthe doors of industry, so that all men, everywhere, regardless ofcolour, shall have the same opportunity to earn a dollar that they nowhave to spend it. I know of a good many kinds of cowardice andprejudice, but I know none equal to this. I know not which is theworst, --the slaveholder who perforce compelled his slave to workwithout compensation or the man who, by force and strikes, compels hisneighbour to refrain from working for compensation. 

The Negro will be on a different footing in this country when itbecomes common to associate the possession of wealth with a blackskin. It is not within the province of human nature that the man whois intelligent and virtuous, and owns and cultivates the best farm inhis county, is the largest tax-payer, shall very long be denied properrespect and consideration. Those who would help the Negro mosteffectually during the next fifty years can do so by assisting in hisdevelopment along scientific and industrial lines in connection withthe broadest mental and religious culture. 

From the results of the war with Spain let us learn this, that God hasbeen teaching the Spanish nation a terrible lesson. What is it? Simplythis, that no nation can disregard the interest of any portion of itsmembers without that nation becoming weak and corrupt. The penalty maybe long delayed. God has been teaching Spain that for every one of hersubjects that she has left in ignorance, poverty, and crime the pricemust be paid; and, if it has not been paid with the very heart of thenation, it must be paid with the proudest and bluest blood of her sonsand with treasure that is beyond computation. From this spectacle Ipray God that America will learn a lesson in respect to the tenmillion Negroes in this country. 

The Negroes in the United States are, in most of the elements ofcivilisation, weak. Providence has placed them here not without apurpose. One object, in my opinion, is that the stronger race mayimbibe a lesson from the weaker in patience, forbearance, andchildlike yet supreme trust in the God of the Universe. This race hasbeen placed here that the white man might have a great opportunity oflifting himself by lifting it up. 

Out from the Negro colleges and industrial schools in the South thereare going forth each year thousands of young men and women into darkand secluded corners, into lonely log school-houses, amidst povertyand ignorance; and though, when they go forth, no drums beat, nobanners fly, no friends cheer, yet they are fighting the battles ofthis country just as truly and bravely as those who go forth to dobattle against a foreign enemy. 

If they are encouraged and properly supported in their work ofeducating the masses in the industries, in economy, and in morals, aswell as mentally, they will, before many years, get the race upon suchan intellectual, industrial, and financial footing that it will beable to enjoy without much trouble all the rights inherent in Americancitizenship. 

Now, if we wish to bring the race to a point where it should be, whereit will be strong, and grow and prosper, we have got to, in every waypossible, encourage it. We can do this in no better way than bycultivating that amount of faith in the race which will make uspatronise its own enterprises wherever those enterprises are worthpatronising. I do not believe much in the advice that is often giventhat we should patronise the enterprises of our race without regard tothe worth of those enterprises. I believe that the best way to bringthe race to the point where it will compare with other races is tolet it understand that, whenever it enters into any line of business, it will be patronised just in proportion as it makes that business assuccessful, as useful, as is true of any business enterprise conductedby any other race. The race that would grow strong and powerful musthave the element of hero-worship in it that will, in the largestdegree, make it honour its great men, the men who have succeeded inthat race. I think we should be ashamed of the coloured man or womanwho would not venerate the name of Frederick Douglass. No race thatwould not look upon such a man with honour and respect and pride couldever hope to enjoy the respect of any other race. I speak of this, notthat I want my people to regard themselves in a narrow, bigoted sense, because there is nothing so hurtful to an individual or to a race asto get into the habit of feeling that there is no good except in itsown race, but because I wish that it may have reasonable pride in allthat is honourable in its history. Whenever you hear a coloured mansay that he hates the people of the other race, there, in mostinstances, you will find a weak, narrow-minded coloured man. And, whenever you find a white man who expresses the same sentiment towardthe people of other races, there, too, in almost every case, you willfind a narrow-minded, prejudiced white man. 

That person is the broadest, strongest, and most useful who seessomething to love and admire in all races, no matter what theircolour. 

If the Negro race wishes to grow strong, it must learn to respectitself, not to be ashamed. It must learn that it will only grow inproportion as its members have confidence in it, in proportion as theybelieve that it is a coming race. 

We have reached a period when educated Negroes should give moreattention to the history of their race; should devote more time tofinding out the true history of the race, and in collecting in somemuseum the relics that mark its progress. It is true of all races ofculture and refinement and civilisation that they have gathered insome place the relics which mark the progress of their civilisation, which show how they lived from period to period. We should have somuch pride that we would spend more time in looking into the historyof the race, more effort and money in perpetuating in some durableform its achievements, so that from year to year, instead of lookingback with regret, we can point to our children the rough path throughwhich we grew strong and great. 

We have a very bright and striking example in the history of the Jewsin this and other countries. There is, perhaps, no race that hassuffered so much, not so much in America as in some of the countriesin Europe. But these people have clung together. They have had acertain amount of unity, pride, and love of race; and, as the years goon, they will be more and more influential in this country, --a countrywhere they were once despised, and looked upon with scorn andderision. It is largely because the Jewish race has had faith initself. Unless the Negro learns more and more to imitate the Jew inthese matters, to have faith in himself, he cannot expect to have anyhigh degree of success. 

I wish to speak upon another subject which largely concerns thewelfare of both races, especially in the South, --lynching. It is anunpleasant subject; but I feel that I should be omitting some part ofmy duty to both races did I not say something on the subject. 

For a number of years the South has appealed to the North and tofederal authorities, through the public press, from the publicplatform, and most eloquently through the late Henry W. Grady, toleave the whole matter of the rights and protection of the Negro tothe South, declaring that it would see to it that the Negro would bemade secure in his citizenship. During the last half-dozen years thewhole country, from the President down, has been inclined more thanever to pursue this policy, leaving the whole matter of the destiny ofthe Negro to the Negro himself and to the Southern white people, amongwhom the great bulk of Negroes live. 

By the present policy of non-interference on the part of the North andthe federal government the South is given a sacred trust. How will sheexecute this trust? The world is waiting and watching to see. Thequestion must be answered largely by the protection it gives to thelife of the Negro and the provisions that are made for his developmentin the organic laws of the State. I fear that but few people in theSouth realise to what an extent the habit of lynching, or the takingof life without due process of law, has taken hold of us, and ishurting us, not only in the eyes of the world, but in our own moraland material growth. 

Lynching was instituted some years ago with the idea of punishing andchecking criminal assaults upon women. Let us examine the facts, andsee where it has already led us and is likely further to carry us, ifwe do not rid ourselves of the evil. Many good people in the South, and also out of the South, have gotten the idea that lynching isresorted to for one crime only. I have the facts from an authoritativesource. During last year one hundred and twenty-seven persons werelynched in the United States. Of this number, one hundred andeighteen were executed in the South and nine in the North and West. Ofthe total number lynched, one hundred and two were Negroes, twenty-three were whites, and two Indians. Now, let every oneinterested in the South, his country, and the cause of humanity, notethis fact, --that only twenty-four of the entire number were charged inany way with the crime of rape; that is, twenty-four out of onehundred and twenty-seven cases of lynching. Sixty-one of the remainingcases were for murder, thirteen for being suspected of murder, six fortheft, etc. During one week last spring, when I kept a careful record, thirteen Negroes were lynched in three of our Southern States; and notone was even charged with rape. All of these thirteen were accused ofmurder or house-burning; but in neither case were the men allowed togo 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 inour country in one year are for some crime other than rape, we can nolonger plead and explain that we lynch for one crime alone. 

Let us take another year, that of 1892, for example, when 241 personswere lynched in the whole United States. Of this number 36 werelynched in Northern and Western States, and 205 in our SouthernStates; 160 were Negroes, 5 of these being women. The facts show that, out of the 241 lynched, only 57 were even charged with rape orattempted rape, leaving in this year alone 184 persons who werelynched for other causes than that of rape. 

If it were necessary, I could produce figures for other years. Withina period of six years about 900 persons have been lynched in ourSouthern States. This is but a few hundred short of the total numberof soldiers who lost their lives in Cuba during the Spanish-AmericanWar. If we would realise still more fully how far this unfortunateevil is leading us on, note the classes of crime during a few monthsfor which the local papers and the Associated Press say that lynchinghas been inflicted. They include "murder, " "rioting, " "incendiarism, ""robbery, " "larceny, " "self-defence, " "insulting women, " "allegedstock-poisoning, " "malpractice, " "alleged barn-burning, " "suspectedrobbery, " "race prejudice, " "attempted murder, " "horse-stealing, ""mistaken identity, " etc. 

The evil has so grown that we are now at the point where not onlyblacks are lynched in the South, but white men as well. Not only this, but within the last six years at least a half-dozen coloured womenhave been lynched. And there are a few cases where Negroes havelynched members of their own race. What is to be the end of all this?Furthermore, every lynching drives hundreds of Negroes out of thefarming districts of the South, where they make the best living andwhere their services are of greatest value to the country, into thealready over-crowded cities. 

I know that some argue that the crime of lynching Negroes is notconfined to the South. This is true; and no one can excuse such acrime as the shooting of innocent black men in Illinois, who wereguilty of nothing, except seeking labour. But my words just now are tothe South, where my home is and a part of which I am. Let othersections act as they will; I want to see our beautiful Southland freefrom this terrible evil of lynching. Lynching does not stop crime. Inthe vicinity in the South where a coloured man was alleged recently tohave committed the most terrible crime ever charged against a memberof my race, but a few weeks previously five coloured men had beenlynched for supposed incendiarism. If lynching was a cure for crime, surely the lynching of those five would have prevented another Negrofrom committing a most heinous crime a few weeks later. 

We might as well face the facts bravely and wisely. Since thebeginning of the world crime has been committed in all civilised anduncivilised countries, and a certain percentage of it will always becommitted both in the North and in the South; but I believe that thecrime of rape can be stopped. In proportion to the numbers andintelligence of the population of the South, there exists little morecrime than in several other sections of the country; but, because ofthe lynching evil, we are constantly advertising ourselves to theworld as a lawless people. We cannot disregard the teachings of thecivilised world for eighteen hundred years, that the only way topunish crime is by law. When we leave this anchorage chaos begins. 

I am not pleading for the Negro alone. Lynching injures, hardens, andblunts the moral sensibilities of the young and tender manhood of theSouth. Never shall I forget the remark by a little nine-year-old whiteboy, with blue eyes and flaxen hair. The little fellow said to hismother, after he had returned from a lynching: "I have seen a manhanged; now I wish I could see one burned. " Rather than hear such aremark from one of my little boys, I would prefer to see him in hisgrave. This is not all. Every community guilty of lynching says in somany words to the governor, to the legislature, to the sheriff, to thejury, and to the judge: "We have no faith in you and no respect foryou. We have no respect for the law which we helped to make. "

In the South, at the present time, there is less excuse for notpermitting the law to take its course where a Negro is to be triedthan anywhere else in the world; for, almost without exception, thegovernors, the sheriffs, the judges, the juries, and the lawyers areall 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 properly to punish crime, letthe laws be changed; but that the punishment may be by lawfullyconstituted authorities is the plea I make. The history of the worldproves that where the law is most strictly enforced there is the leastcrime: where people take the administration of the law into their ownhands there is the most crime. 

But there is still another side. The white man in the South has notonly a serious duty and responsibility, but the Negro has a duty andresponsibility in this matter. In speaking of my own people, I wantto be equally frank; but I speak with the greatest kindness. There istoo much crime among them. The figures for a given period show that inthe United States thirty per cent. Of the crime committed is byNegroes, while we constitute only about twelve per cent. Of the entirepopulation. This proportion holds good not only in the South, but alsoin Northern States and cities. 

No race that is so largely ignorant and so recently out of slaverycould, perhaps, show a better record, but we must face these plainfacts. He is most kind to the Negro who tells him of his faults aswell as of his virtues. A large percentage of the crime among us growsout of the idleness of our young men and women. It is for this reasonthat I have tried to insist upon some industry being taught inconnection with their course of literary training. It is vitallyimportant now that every parent, every teacher and minister of thegospel, should teach with unusual emphasis morality and obedience tothe law. At the fireside, in the school-room, in the Sunday-school, from the pulpit, and in the Negro press, there should be such asentiment created regarding the committing of crime against women thatno such crime could be charged against any member of the race. Let itbe understood, for all time, that no one guilty of rape can findsympathy or shelter with us, and that none will be more active than wein bringing to justice, through the proper authorities, those guiltyof crime. Let the criminal and vicious element of the race have, atall times, our most severe condemnation. Let a strict line be drawnbetween the virtuous and the criminal. I condemn, with all theindignation of my soul, any beast in human form guilty of assaulting awoman. I am sure I voice the sentiment of the thoughtful of my racein this condemnation. 

We should not, as a race, become discouraged. We are making progress. No race has ever gotten upon its feet without discouragements andstruggles. 

I should be a great hypocrite and a coward if I did not add that whichmy daily experience has taught me to be true; namely, that the Negrohas among many of the Southern whites as good friends as he hasanywhere in the world. These friends have not forsaken us. They willnot do so. Neither will our friends in the North. If we make ourselvesintelligent, industrious, economical, and virtuous, of value to thecommunity in which we live, we can and will work out our salvationright here in the South. In every community, by means of organisedeffort, we should seek, in a manly and honourable way, the confidence, the co-operation, the sympathy, of the best white people in the Southand in our respective communities. With the best white people and thebest black people standing together, in favour of law and order andjustice, I believe that the safety and happiness of both races will bemade secure. 

We are one in this country. The question of the highest citizenshipand the complete education of all concerns nearly ten millions of mypeople and sixty millions of the white race. When one race is strong, the other is strong; when one is weak, the other is weak. There is nopower that can separate our destiny. Unjust laws and customs whichexist in many places injure the white man and inconvenience the Negro. No race can wrong another race, simply because it has the power to doso, without being permanently injured in its own morals. The Negro canendure the temporary inconvenience, but the injury to the white man ispermanent. It is for the white man to save himself from thisdegradation that I plead. If a white man steals a Negro's ballot, itis the white man who is permanently injured. Physical death comes tothe one Negro lynched in a county; but death of the morals--death ofthe soul--comes to those responsible for the lynching. 

Those who fought and died on the battlefield for the freedom of theslaves performed their duty heroically and well, but a duty remains tothose left. The mere fiat of law cannot make an ignorant voter anintelligent voter, cannot make a dependent man an independent man, cannot make one citizen respect another. These results will come tothe Negro, as to all races, by beginning at the bottom and graduallyworking up to the highest possibilities of his nature. 

In the economy of God there is but one standard by which an individualcan succeed: there is but one for a race. This country expects thatevery race shall measure itself by the American standard. During thenext half-century, and more, the Negro must continue passing throughthe severe American crucible. He is to be tested in his patience, hisforbearance, his perseverance, his power to endure wrong, --towithstand temptations, to economise, to acquire and use skill, --hisability to compete, to succeed in commerce, to disregard thesuperficial for the real, the appearance for the substance, to begreat and yet small, learned and yet simple, high and yet the servantof all. This, --this is the passport to all that is best in the life ofour Republic; and the Negro must possess it or be barred out. 

In working out his own destiny, while the main burden of activity mustbe with the Negro, he will need in the years to come, as he has neededin the past, the help, the encouragement, the guidance, that thestrong can give the weak. Thus helped, those of both races in theSouth will soon throw off the shackles of racial and sectionalprejudice, and rise above the clouds of ignorance, narrowness, andselfishness into that atmosphere, that pure sunshine, where it will bethe highest ambition to serve man, our brother, regardless of race orprevious condition. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Before ending this volume, I have deemed it wise and fitting to sum upin the following chapter all that I have attempted to say in theprevious chapters, and to speak at the same time a little moredefinitely about the Negro's future and his relation to the whiterace. 

All attempts to settle the question of the Negro in the South by hisremoval from this country have so far failed, and I think that theyare likely to fail. The next census will probably show that we haveabout ten millions of Negroes in the United States. About eightmillions of these are in the Southern States. We have almost a nationwithin a nation. The Negro population within the United States lacksbut two millions of being as large as the whole population of Mexico. It is nearly twice as large as the population of the Dominion ofCanada. It is equal to the combined population of Switzerland, Greece, Honduras, Nicaragua, Cuba, Uruguay, Santo Domingo, Paraguay, and Costa Rica. When we consider, in connection with these facts, thatthe race has doubled itself since its freedom, and is stillincreasing, it hardly seems possible for any one to consider seriouslyany scheme of emigration from America as a method of solution of ourvexed race problem. At most, even if the government were to providethe means, but a few hundred thousand could be transported each year. The yearly increase in population would more than overbalance thenumber transplanted. Even if it did not, the time required to get ridof the Negro by this method would perhaps be fifty or seventy-fiveyears. The idea is chimerical. 

Some have advised that the Negro leave the South and take up hisresidence in the Northern States. I question whether this would leavehim any better off than he is in the South, when all things areconsidered. It has been my privilege to study the condition of ourpeople in nearly every part of America; and I say, without hesitation, that, with some exceptional cases, the Negro is at his best in theSouthern States. While he enjoys certain privileges in the North thathe does not have in the South, when it comes to the matter of securingproperty, enjoying business opportunities and employment, the Southpresents a far better opportunity than the North. Few coloured menfrom the South are as yet able to stand up against the severe andincreasing competition that exists in the North, to say nothing of theunfriendly influence of labour organisations, which in some wayprevents black men in the North, as a rule, from securing employmentin skilled labour occupations. 

Another point of great danger for the coloured man who goes North isin the matter of morals, owing to the numerous temptations by whichhe finds himself surrounded. He has more ways in which he can spendmoney than in the South, but fewer avenues of employment are open tohim. The fact that at the North the Negro is confined to almost oneline of employment often tends to discourage and demoralise thestrongest who go from the South, and to make them an easy prey totemptation. A few years ago I made an examination into the conditionof a settlement of Negroes who left the South and went to Kansas abouttwenty years ago, when there was a good deal of excitement in theSouth concerning emigration to the West. This settlement, I found, wasmuch below the standard of that of a similar number of our people inthe South. The only conclusion, therefore, it seems to me, which anyone can reach, is that the Negroes, as a mass, are to remain in theSouthern States. As a race, they do not want to leave the South, andthe Southern white people do not want them to leave. We must thereforefind some basis of settlement that will be constitutional, just, manly, that will be fair to both races in the South and to the wholecountry. This cannot be done in a day, a year, or any short period oftime. We can, it seems to me, with the present light, decide upon areasonably safe method of solving the problem, and turn our strengthand effort in that direction. In doing this, I would not have theNegro deprived of any privilege guaranteed to him by the Constitutionof the United States. It is not best for the Negro that he relinquishany of his constitutional rights. It is not best for the Southernwhite man that he should. 

In order that we may, without loss of time or effort, concentrate ourforces in a wise direction, I suggest what seems to me and many othersthe wisest policy to be pursued. I have reached these conclusions byreason of my own observations and experience, after eighteen years ofdirect contact with the leading and influential coloured and white menin most parts of our country. But I wish first to mention someelements of danger in the present situation, which all who desire thepermanent welfare of both races in the South should carefullyconsider. 

_First. _--There is danger that a certain class of impatient extremistsamong the Negroes, who have little knowledge of the actual conditionsin the South, may do the entire race injury by attempting to advisetheir brethren in the South to resort to armed resistance or the useof the torch, in order to secure justice. All intelligent andwell-considered discussion of any important question or condemnationof any wrong, both in the North and the South, from the publicplatform and through the press, is to be commended and encouraged;but ill-considered, incendiary utterances from black men in the Northwill tend to add to the burdens of our people in the South rather thanrelieve them. 

_Second. _--Another danger in the South, which should be guardedagainst, is that the whole white South, including the wide, conservative, law-abiding element, may find itself represented beforethe bar of public opinion by the mob, or lawless element, which givesexpression to its feelings and tendency in a manner that advertisesthe South throughout the world. Too often those who have no sympathywith such disregard of law are either silent or fail to speak in asufficiently emphatic manner to offset, in any large degree, theunfortunate reputation which the lawless have too often made for manyportions of the South. 

_Third. _--No race or people ever got upon its feet without severe andconstant struggle, often in the face of the greatest discouragement. While passing through the present trying period of its history, thereis danger that a large and valuable element of the Negro race maybecome discouraged in the effort to better its condition. Everypossible influence should be exerted to prevent this. 

_Fourth. _--There is a possibility that harm may be done to the Southand to the Negro by exaggerated newspaper articles which are writtennear the scene or in the midst of specially aggravating occurrences. Often these reports are written by newspaper men, who give theimpression that there is a race conflict throughout the South, andthat all Southern white people are opposed to the Negro's progress, overlooking the fact that, while in some sections there is trouble, inmost parts of the South there is, nevertheless, a very large measureof peace, good will, and mutual helpfulness. In this same relationmuch can be done to retard the progress of the Negro by a certainclass of Southern white people, who, in the midst of excitement, speakor write in a manner that gives the impression that all Negroes arelawless, untrustworthy, and shiftless. As an example, a Southernwriter said not long ago, in a communication to the New York_Independent_: "Even in small towns the husband cannot venture toleave his wife alone for an hour at night. At no time, in no place, isthe white woman safe from insults and assaults of these creatures. "These statements, I presume, represented the feelings and theconditions that existed at the time they were written in one communityor county in the South. But thousands of Southern white men and womenwould be ready to testify that this is not the condition throughoutthe South, nor throughout any one State. 

_Fifth. _--Under the next head I would mention that, owing to the lackof school opportunities for the Negro in the rural districts of theSouth, there is danger that ignorance and idleness may increase to theextent of giving the Negro race a reputation for crime, and thatimmorality may eat its way into the moral fibre of the race, so as toretard its progress for many years. In judging the Negro in thisregard, we must not be too harsh. We must remember that it has onlybeen within the last thirty-four years that the black father andmother have had the responsibility, and consequently the experience, of training their own children. That they have not reached perfectionin one generation, with the obstacles that the parents have beencompelled to overcome, is not to be wondered at. 

_Sixth. _--As a final source of danger to be guarded against, I wouldmention my fear that some of the white people of the South may be ledto feel that the way to settle the race problem is to repress theaspirations of the Negro by legislation of a kind that confers certainlegal or political privileges upon an ignorant and poor white man andwithholds the same privileges from a black man in the same condition. Such legislation injures and retards the progress of both races. It isan injustice to the poor white man, because it takes from himincentive to secure education and property as prerequisites forvoting. He feels that, because he is a white man, regardless of hispossessions, a way will be found for him to vote. I would label allsuch measures, "Laws to keep the poor white man in ignorance andpoverty. "

As the Talladega _News Reporter_, a Democratic newspaper of Alabama, recently said: "But it is a weak cry when the white man asks odds onintelligence over the Negro. When nature has already so handicappedthe African in the race for knowledge, the cry of the boastedAnglo-Saxon for still further odds seems babyish. What wonder that theworld looks on in surprise, if not disgust. It cannot help but say, ifour contention be true that the Negro is an inferior race, that theodds ought to be on the other side, if any are to be given. And whynot? No, the thing to do--the only thing that will stand the test oftime--is to do right, exactly right, let come what will. And thatright thing, as it seems to me, is to place a fair educationalqualification before every citizen, --one that is self-testing, and notdependent on the wishes of weak men, letting all who pass the teststand in the proud ranks of American voters, whose votes shall becounted as cast, and whose sovereign will shall be maintained as lawby all the powers that be. Nothing short of this will do. Everyexemption, on whatsoever ground, is an outrage that can only rob somelegitimate voter of his rights. "

Such laws as have been made--as an example, in Mississippi--with the"understanding" clause hold out a temptation for the election officerto perjure and degrade himself by too often deciding that the ignorantwhite man does understand the Constitution when it is read to him andthat the ignorant black man does not. By such a law the State not onlycommits a wrong against its black citizens; it injures the morals ofits white citizens by conferring such a power upon any white man whomay happen to be a judge of elections. 

Such laws are hurtful, again, because they keep alive in the heart ofthe black man the feeling that the white man means to oppress him. Theonly safe way out is to set a high standard as a test of citizenship, and require blacks and whites alike to come up to it. When this isdone, both will have a higher respect for the election laws and thosewho make them. I do not believe that, with his centuries of advantageover the Negro in the opportunity to acquire property and education asprerequisites for voting, the average white man in the South desiresthat any special law be passed to give him advantage over the Negro, who has had only a little more than thirty years in which to preparehimself for citizenship. In this relation another point of danger isthat the Negro has been made to feel that it is his duty to opposecontinually the Southern white man in politics, even in matters whereno principle is involved, and that he is only loyal to his own raceand acting in a manly way when he is opposing him. Such a policy hasproved most hurtful to both races. Where it is a matter of principle, where a question of right or wrong is involved, I would advise theNegro to stand by principle at all hazards. A Southern white man hasno respect for or confidence in a Negro who acts merely for policy'ssake; but there are many cases--and the number is growing--where theNegro has nothing to gain and much to lose by opposing the Southernwhite man in many matters that relate to government. 

Under these six heads I believe I have stated some of the main pointswhich all high-minded white men and black men, North and South, willagree need our most earnest and thoughtful consideration, if we wouldhasten, and not hinder, the progress of our country. 

As to the policy that should be pursued in a larger sense, --on thissubject I claim to possess no superior wisdom or unusual insight. Imay be wrong; I may be in some degree right. 

In the future, more than in the past, we want to impress upon theNegro the importance of identifying himself more closely with theinterests of the South, --the importance of making himself part of theSouth and at home in it. Heretofore, for reasons which were naturaland for which no one is especially to blame, the coloured people havebeen too much like a foreign nation residing in the midst of anothernation. If William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, and George L. Stearns were alive to-day, I feel sure that each one of them wouldadvise the Negroes to identify their interests as far as possible withthose of the Southern white man, always with the understanding thatthis should be done where no question of right and wrong is involved. In no other way, it seems to me, can we get a foundation for peace andprogress. He who advises against this policy will advise the Negro todo that which no people in history who have succeeded have done. Thewhite man, North or South, who advises the Negro against it adviseshim to do that which he himself has not done. The bed-rock upon whichevery individual rests his chances of success in life is securing thefriendship, the confidence, the respect, of his next-door neighbour ofthe little community in which he lives. Almost the whole problem ofthe Negro in the South rests itself upon the fact as to whether theNegro can make himself of such indispensable service to his neighbourand the community that no one can fill his place better in the bodypolitic. There is at present no other safe course for the black man topursue. If the Negro in the South has a friend in his white neighbourand a still larger number of friends in his community, he has aprotection and a guarantee of his rights that will be more potent andmore lasting than any our Federal Congress or any outside power canconfer. 

In a recent editorial the London _Times_, in discussing affairs in theTransvaal, South Africa, where Englishmen have been denied certainprivileges by the Boers, says: "England is too sagacious not toprefer a gradual reform from within, even should it be less rapid thanmost of us might wish, to the most sweeping redress of grievancesimposed from without. Our object is to obtain fair play for theoutlanders, but the best way to do it is to enable them to helpthemselves. " This policy, I think, is equally safe when applied toconditions in the South. The foreigner who comes to America, as soonas possible, identifies himself in business, education, politics, andsympathy with the community in which he settles. As I have said, wehave a conspicuous example of this in the case of the Jews. Also, theNegro in Cuba has practically settled the race question there, becausehe has made himself a part of Cuba in thought and action. 

What I have tried to indicate cannot be accomplished by any suddenrevolution of methods, but it does seem that the tendency more andmore should be in this direction. If a practical example is wanted inthe direction that I favour, I will mention one. The North sendsthousands of dollars into the South each year, for the education ofthe Negro. The teachers in most of the academic schools of the Southare supported by the North, or Northern men and women of the highestChristian culture and most unselfish devotion. The Negro owes them adebt of gratitude which can never be paid. The various missionarysocieties in the North have done a work which, in a large degree, hasbeen the salvation of the South; and the result will appear in futuregenerations more than in this. We have now reached the point in theSouth where, I believe, great good could be accomplished by changingthe attitude of the white people toward the Negro and of the Negrotoward the whites, if a few white teachers of high character wouldtake an active interest in the work of these high schools. Can thisbe done? Yes. The medical school connected with Shaw University atRaleigh, North Carolina, has from the first had as instructors andprofessors, almost exclusively, Southern white doctors, who reside inRaleigh; and they have given the highest satisfaction. This gives thepeople of Raleigh the feeling that this is their school, and notsomething located in, but not a part of, the South. In Augusta, Georgia, the Payne Institute, one of the best colleges for our people, is officered and taught almost wholly by Southern white men and women. The Presbyterian Theological School at Tuscaloosa, Alabama, has allSouthern white men as instructors. Some time ago, at the CalhounSchool in Alabama, one of the leading white men in the county wasgiven an important position in the school. Since then the feeling ofthe white people in the county has greatly changed toward the school. 

We must admit the stern fact that at present the Negro, through nochoice of his own, is living among another race which is far ahead ofhim in education, property, experience, and favourable condition;further, that the Negro's present condition makes him dependent uponthe white people for most of the things necessary to sustain life, aswell as for his common school education. In all history, those whohave possessed the property and intelligence have exercised thegreatest control in government, regardless of colour, race, orgeographical location. This being the case, how can the black man inthe South improve his present condition? And does the Southern whiteman want him to improve it?

The Negro in the South has it within his power, if he properlyutilises the forces at hand, to make of himself such a valuable factorin the life of the South that he will not have to seek privileges, they will be freely conferred upon him. To bring this about, the Negromust begin at the bottom and lay a sure foundation, and not be luredby any temptation into trying to rise on a false foundation. While theNegro is laying this foundation he will need help, sympathy, andsimple justice. Progress by any other method will be but temporary andsuperficial, and the latter end of it will be worse than thebeginning. American slavery was a great curse to both races, and Iwould be the last to apologise for it; but, in the presence of God, Ibelieve that slavery laid the foundation for the solution of theproblem that is now before us in the South. During slavery the Negrowas taught every trade, every industry, that constitutes thefoundation for making a living. Now, if on this foundation--laid inrather a crude way, it is true, but a foundation, nevertheless--we cangradually build and improve, the future for us is bright. Let me bemore specific. Agriculture is, or has been, the basic industry ofnearly every race or nation that has succeeded. The Negro got aknowledge of this during slavery. Hence, in a large measure, he is inpossession of this industry in the South to-day. The Negro can buyland in the South, as a rule, wherever the white man can buy it, andat very low prices. Now, since the bulk of our people already have afoundation in agriculture, they are at their best when living in thecountry, engaged in agricultural pursuits. Plainly, then, the bestthing, the logical thing, is to turn the larger part of our strengthin a direction that will make the Negro among the most skilledagricultural people in the world. The man who has learned to dosomething better than any one else, has learned to do a common thingin an uncommon manner, is the man who has a power and influence thatno adverse circumstances can take from him. The Negro who can makehimself so conspicuous as a successful farmer, a large tax-payer, awise helper of his fellow-men, as to be placed in a position of trustand honour, whether the position be political or otherwise, by naturalselection, is a hundred-fold more secure in that position than oneplaced there by mere outside force or pressure. I know a Negro, Hon. Isaiah T. Montgomery, in Mississippi, who is mayor of a town. It istrue that this town, at present, is composed almost wholly of Negroes. Mr. Montgomery is mayor of this town because his genius, thrift, andforesight have created the town; and he is held and supported in hisoffice by a charter, granted by the State of Mississippi, and by thevote and public sentiment of the community in which he lives. 

Let us help the Negro by every means possible to acquire such aneducation in farming, dairying, stock-raising, horticulture, etc. , aswill enable him to become a model in these respects and place him nearthe top in these industries, and the race problem would in a largepart be settled, or at least stripped of many of its most perplexingelements. This policy would also tend to keep the Negro in the countryand smaller towns, where he succeeds best, and stop the influx intothe large cities, where he does not succeed so well. The race, likethe individual, that produces something of superior worth that has acommon human interest, makes a permanent place for itself, and isbound to be recognised. 

At a county fair in the South not long ago I saw a Negro awarded thefirst prize by a jury of white men, over white competitors, for theproduction of the best specimen of Indian corn. Every white man atthis fair seemed to be pleased and proud of the achievement of thisNegro, because it was apparent that he had done something that wouldadd to the wealth and comfort of the people of both races in thatcounty. At the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama wehave a department devoted to training men in the science ofagriculture; but what we are doing is small when compared with whatshould be done at Tuskegee and at other educational centres. In amaterial sense the South is still an undeveloped country. While raceprejudice is strongly exhibited in many directions, in the matter ofbusiness, of commercial and industrial development, there is verylittle obstacle in the Negro's way. A Negro who produces or has forsale something that the community wants finds customers among whitepeople as well as black people. A Negro can borrow money at the bankwith equal security as readily as a white man can. A bank inBirmingham, Alabama, that has now existed ten years, is officered andcontrolled wholly by Negroes. This bank has white borrowers and whitedepositors. A graduate of the Tuskegee Institute keeps awell-appointed grocery store in Tuskegee, and he tells me that hesells about as many goods to the one race as to the other. What I havesaid of the opening that awaits the Negro in the direction ofagriculture is almost equally true of mechanics, manufacturing, andall the domestic arts. The field is before him and right about him. Will he occupy it? Will he "cast down his bucket where he is"? Willhis friends North and South encourage him and prepare him to occupyit? Every city in the South, for example, would give support to afirst-class architect or house-builder or contractor of our race. Thearchitect and contractor would not only receive support, but, throughhis example, numbers of young coloured men would learn such trades ascarpentry, brick-masonry, plastering, painting, etc. , and the racewould be put into a position to hold on to many of the industrieswhich it is now in danger of losing, because in too many cases brains, skill, and dignity are not imparted to the common occupations of lifethat are about his very door. Any individual or race that does not fititself to occupy in the best manner the field or service that is rightabout it will sooner or later be asked to move on, and let some oneelse occupy it. 

But it is asked, Would you confine the Negro to agriculture, mechanics, and domestic arts, etc. ? Not at all; but along the linesthat I have mentioned is where the stress should be laid just now andfor many years to come. We will need and must have many teachers andministers, some doctors and lawyers and statesmen; but theseprofessional men will have a constituency or a foundation from whichto draw support just in proportion as the race prospers along theeconomic lines that I have mentioned. During the first fifty or onehundred years of the life of any people are not the economicoccupations always given the greater attention? This is not only thehistoric, but, I think, the common-sense view. If this generation willlay the material foundation, it will be the quickest and surest wayfor the succeeding generation to succeed in the cultivation of thefine arts, and to surround itself even with some of the luxuries oflife, if desired. What the race now most needs, in my opinion, is awhole army of men and women well trained to lead and at the same timeinfuse themselves into agriculture, mechanics, domestic employment, and business. As to the mental training that these educated leadersshould be equipped with, I should say, Give them all the mentaltraining and culture that the circumstances of individuals willallow, --the more, the better. No race can permanently succeed untilits mind is awakened and strengthened by the ripest thought. But Iwould constantly have it kept in the thoughts of those who areeducated in books that a large proportion of those who are educatedshould be so trained in hand that they can bring this mental strengthand knowledge to bear upon the physical conditions in the South whichI have tried to emphasise. 

Frederick Douglass, of sainted memory, once, in addressing his race, used these words: "We are to prove that we can better our owncondition. One way to do this is to accumulate property. This maysound to you like a new gospel. You have been accustomed to hearthat money is the root of all evil, etc. On the other hand, property--money, if you please--will purchase for us the onlycondition by which any people can rise to the dignity of genuinemanhood; for without property there can be no leisure, without leisurethere can be no thought, without thought there can be no invention, without invention there can be no progress. "

The Negro should be taught that material development is not an end, but simply a means to an end. As Professor W. E. B. DuBois puts it, "The idea should not be simply to make men carpenters, but to makecarpenters men. " The Negro has a highly religious temperament; butwhat he needs more and more is to be convinced of the importance ofweaving his religion and morality into the practical affairs of dailylife. Equally as much does he need to be taught to put so muchintelligence into his labour that he will see dignity and beauty inthe occupation, and love it for its own sake. The Negro needs to betaught that more of the religion that manifests itself in hishappiness in the prayer-meeting should be made practical in theperformance of his daily task. The man who owns a home and is in thepossession of the elements by which he is sure of making a dailyliving has a great aid to a moral and religious life. What bearingwill all this have upon the Negro's place in the South as a citizenand in the enjoyment of the privileges which our government confers?

To state in detail just what place the black man will occupy in theSouth as a citizen, when he has developed in the direction named, isbeyond the wisdom of any one. Much will depend upon the sense ofjustice which can be kept alive in the breast of the American people. Almost as much will depend upon the good sense of the Negro himself. That question, I confess, does not give me the most concern just now. The important and pressing question is, Will the Negro with his ownhelp and that of his friends take advantage of the opportunities thatnow surround him? When he has done this, I believe that, speaking ofhis future in general terms, he will be treated with justice, will begiven the protection of the law, and will be given the recognition ina large measure which his usefulness and ability warrant. If, fiftyyears ago, any one had predicted that the Negro would have receivedthe recognition and honour which individuals have already received, hewould have been laughed at as an idle dreamer. Time, patience, andconstant achievement are great factors in the rise of a race. 

I do not believe that the world ever takes a race seriously, in itsdesire to enter into the control of the government of a nation in anylarge degree, until a large number of individuals, members of thatrace, have demonstrated, beyond question, their ability to controland develop individual business enterprises. When a number of Negroesrise to the point where they own and operate the most successfulfarms, are among the largest tax-payers in their county, are moral andintelligent, I do not believe that in many portions of the South suchmen need long be denied the right of saying by their votes how theyprefer their property to be taxed and in choosing those who are tomake and administer the laws. 

In a certain town in the South, recently, I was on the street incompany with the most prominent Negro in the town. While we weretogether, the mayor of the town sought out the black man, and said, "Next week we are going to vote on the question of issuing bonds tosecure water-works for this town; you must be sure to vote on the dayof election. " The mayor did not suggest whether he must vote "yes" or"no"; he knew from the very fact that this Negro man owned nearly ablock of the most valuable property in the town that he would cast asafe, wise vote on this important proposition. This white man knewthat, because of this Negro's property interests in the city, he wouldcast his vote in the way he thought would benefit every white andblack citizen in the town, and not be controlled by influences athousand miles away. But a short time ago I read letters from nearlyevery prominent white man in Birmingham, Alabama, asking that the Rev. W. R. Pettiford, a Negro, be appointed to a certain important federaloffice. What is the explanation of this? Mr. Pettiford for nine yearshas been the president of the Negro bank in Birmingham to which I havealluded. During these nine years these white citizens have had theopportunity of seeing that Mr. Pettiford could manage successfully aprivate business, and that he had proven himself a conservative, thoughtful citizen; and they were willing to trust him in a publicoffice. Such individual examples will have to be multiplied until theybecome the rule rather than the exception. While we are multiplyingthese examples, the Negro must keep a strong and courageous heart. Hecannot improve his condition by any short-cut course or by artificialmethods. Above all, he must not be deluded into the temptation ofbelieving that his condition can be permanently improved by a merebattledore and shuttlecock of words or by any process of mere mentalgymnastics or oratory alone. What is desired, along with a logicaldefence of his cause, are deeds, results, --multiplied results, --in thedirection of building himself up, so as to leave no doubt in the mindsof any one of his ability to succeed. 

An important question often asked is, Does the white man in the Southwant the Negro to improve his present condition? I say, "Yes. " Fromthe Montgomery (Alabama) _Daily Advertiser_ I clip the following inreference to the closing of a coloured school in a town in Alabama:--

 "EUFAULA, May 25, 1899. 

 "The closing exercises of the city coloured public school were held at St. Luke's A. M. E. Church last night, and were witnessed by a large gathering, including many white. The recitations by the pupils were excellent, and the music was also an interesting feature. Rev. R. T. Pollard delivered the address, which was quite an able one; and the certificates were presented by Professor T. L. McCoy, white, of the Sanford Street School. The success of the exercises reflects great credit on Professor S. M. Murphy, the principal, who enjoys a deservedly good reputation as a capable and efficient educator. "

I quote this report, not because it is the exception, but because suchmarks of interest in the education of the Negro on the part of theSouthern white people can be seen almost every day in the localpapers. Why should white people, by their presence, words, and manyother things, encourage the black man to get education, if they do notdesire him to improve his condition?

The Payne Institute in Augusta, Georgia, an excellent institution, towhich I have already referred, is supported almost wholly by theSouthern white Methodist church. The Southern white Presbyterianssupport a theological school at Tuscaloosa, Alabama, for Negroes. Fora number of years the Southern white Baptists have contributed towardNegro education. Other denominations have done the same. If thesepeople do not want the Negro educated to a high standard, there is noreason why they should act the hypocrite in these matters. 

As barbarous as some of the lynchings in the South have been, Southern white men here and there, as well as newspapers, have spokenout strongly against lynching. I quote from the address of the Rev. Mr. Vance, of Nashville, Tennessee, delivered before the NationalSunday School Union in Atlanta, not long since, as an example:--

 "And yet, as I stand here to-night, a Southerner speaking for my section, and addressing an audience from all sections, there is one foul blot upon the fair fame of the South, at the bare mention of which the heart turns sick and the cheek is crimsoned with shame. I want to lift my voice to-night in loud and long and indignant protest against the awful horror of mob violence, which the other day reached the climax of its madness and infamy in a deed as black and brutal and barbarous as can be found in the annals of human crime. 

 "I have a right to speak on the subject, and I propose to be heard. The time has come for every lover of the South to set the might of an angered and resolute manhood against the shame and peril of the lynch demon. These people, whose fiendish glee taunts their victim as his flesh crackles in the flames, do not represent the South. I have not a syllable of apology for the sickening crime they meant to avenge. But it is high time we were learning that lawlessness is no remedy for crime. For one, I dare to believe that the people of my section are able to cope with crime, however treacherous and defiant, through their courts of justice; and I plead for the masterful sway of a righteous and exalted public sentiment that shall class lynch law in the category with crime. "

It is a notable and praiseworthy fact that no Negro educated in any ofour larger institutions of learning in the South has been charged withany of the recent crimes connected with assaults upon females. 

If we go on making progress in the directions that I have tried toindicate, more and more the South will be drawn to one course. As Ihave already said, it is not for the best interests of the white raceof the South that the Negro be deprived of any privilege guaranteedhim by the Constitution of the United States. This would put upon theSouth a burden under which no government could stand and prosper. Every article in our federal Constitution was placed there with a viewof stimulating and encouraging the highest type of citizenship. Topermanently tax the Negro without giving him the right to vote as fastas he qualifies himself in education and property for voting wouldwork the alienation of the affections of the Negro from the States inwhich he lives, and would be the reversal of the fundamentalprinciples of government for which our States have stood. In otherways than this the injury would be as great to the white man as to theNegro. Taxation without the hope of becoming a voter would take awayfrom one-third the citizens of the Gulf States their interest ingovernment and their stimulant to become tax-payers or to secureeducation, and thus be able and willing to bear their share of thecost of education and government, which now weighs so heavily upon thewhite tax-payers of the South. The more the Negro is stimulated andencouraged, the sooner will he be able to bear a larger share of theburdens of the South. We have recently had before us an example, inthe case of Spain, of a government that left a large portion of itscitizens in ignorance, and neglected their highest interests. 

As I have said elsewhere, there is no escape through law of man or Godfrom the inevitable:--

 "The laws of changeless justice bind Oppressor with opprest; And, close as sin and suffering joined, We march to fate abreast. "

 "Nearly sixteen millions of hands will aid you in pulling the load upward or they will pull against you the load downward. We shall constitute one-third and more of the ignorance and crime of the South or one-third its intelligence and progress. We shall contribute one-third to the business and industrial prosperity of the South or we shall prove a veritable body of death, stagnating, depressing, retarding, every effort to advance the body politic. "

My own feeling is that the South will gradually reach the point whereit will see the wisdom and the justice of enacting an educational orproperty qualification, or both, for voting, that shall be made toapply honestly to both races. The industrial development of the Negroin connection with education and Christian character will help tohasten this end. When this is done, we shall have a foundation, in myopinion, upon which to build a government that is honest and that willbe in a high degree satisfactory to both races. 

I do not suffer myself to take too optimistic a view of the conditionsin the South. The problem is a large and serious one, and will requirethe patient help, sympathy, and advice of our most patriotic citizens, North and South, for years to come. But I believe that, if theprinciples which I have tried to indicate are followed, a solution ofthe question will come. So long as the Negro is permitted to geteducation, acquire property, and secure employment, and is treatedwith respect in the business or commercial world, --as is now true inthe greater part of the South, --I shall have the greatest faith in hisworking out his own destiny in our Southern States. The education andpreparing for citizenship of nearly eight millions of people is atremendous task, and every lover of humanity should count it aprivilege to help in the solution of a great problem for which ourwhole country is responsible.