Black-belt diamonds; gems from the speeches, addresses, and talks to students of Booker T. Washington ... |
 | I. |
| II. |
| III. |
| IV. |
| V. |
 | VI. | Part VI. |
| VII. |
 | Black-belt diamonds; |  |
VI. Part VI.
The Pure and the Chaste
Don't get into the habit of using ugly or
low language with each other. Young ladies
and young men, get into the habit of being
satisfied with nothing short of that which is
pure and chaste in your conversation; and let
others feel when they come into your presence
that they must show you respect by being pure
in their conversation, and that you love only
those things that are high.
Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
The Little Green Ballot
There are reports to the effect that in some
sections the black man has difficulty in voting
and having counted the little white ballot which
he has the privilege of depositing about once
in two years; but there is a little green ballot
that he can vote through the teller's window
it out or refuse to count it.
Century Club (Indianapolis).
Hunger and Politics
Many of the Negroes in the South are hungry;
and when a man is hungry, he cannot get
his political rights.
One Solution of the Negro Problem.
From Sentiment to Business
The Negro problem in the South is fast
passing from a question of sentiment into one
of business, into one of commercial and industrial
values. Address (Thomasville, Ga.).
The Fault-Finder
Instead of picking flaws, and making unjust
and uncalled-for criticisms on persons and their
work, we should contrive to encourage them,
that they may improve in it. If there is any
good in a thing or a person, let us seek to find
the good, and the evil will take care of itself.
Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
Indecision
If you have failed thus far to plan out how
you are going to spend your time, you are
making a mistake and you will find that kind
of a mistake largely contributing to your failure
miss on some chance, but plan now.
Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
Great Need it is
The great need of the Negro to-day is intelligent,
unselfish leadership in his industrial
life. Schoolmasters' Club (Massachusetts).
Two Tyrants
I know not who is the worse,—the ex-slave-holder,
who compelled his slaves to work without
compensation, or the man who by violence
and strikes compels the Negro to refrain from
working for compensation.
Democracy and Education.
In Freedom's Holy Cause
I cannot forget, as an humble representative
of my race, the vacant seat, the empty sleeve,
the lives offered up on Southern battlefields
that we might have a united country, and that
our flag should shelter none but freemen.
Our New Citizen.
Pre-eminence of the South
Despite her faults, when it comes to business
pure and simple, the South presents an opportunity
for business that no other section of the
country does. Negro Conference.
Evidence of Growth
You are growing when you get to the point
where you can do your best, seen or unseen.
Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
Easier of Two Difficulties
The Negro can sooner conquer Southern
prejudices in the civil world than learn to compete
with the North in the business world.
Dedication Address (Cincinnati, O.).
Ham always on Hand
Wherever there is any business being done,
any money to be earned or spent, the son of
Ham is found somewhere near by, and he is
going to get some of that money, and is going
to spend some.
Mass Meeting (Washington, D. C.).
Idealizing Life
There is a beauty, a transformation, as it
were, a regeneration, that takes place in the
physical make-up of a young man or young
woman who gets into the habit of living on the
high side of life rather than on the lower side.
Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
The New Emancipation
This is the new emancipation we seek at
Tuskegee, to emancipate the white man to love
of thrift, skill, economy, and substantial
character. Hamilton Club (Brooklyn).
A Self-Evident Truth
I propose that no man shall drag me down
by making me hate him. No race can hate
another without itself being narrowed and
hated. Carnegie Hall (New York.).
His Christian Love
I thank God I have grown to the point
where I can sympathize with a white man as
much as I can with a black man; where I can
sympathize with a Southern white man as
much as with a Northern white man.
Hawaiian Gazette.
Wisdom of Stupidity
If you are milking cows and feel that you
know all that there is to be known about it, you
have simply reached the point where you are
useless and unfitted for the work.
Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
A Two-Edged Sword
With the exception of preaching the Gospel
of Christ, there is no work that will contribute
more largely to the elevation of the race in the
South than a first-class business enterprise.
or individuals, a business success cuts as a
two-edged sword,—bringing from the white
man confidence and respect, giving the Negro
faith in the fidelity and ability of his own
people, and creating at the same time an inspiration
that will lead to a higher mental, moral,
and material development of the whole race.
Meeting of Directors of Capital Savings Bank
(Washington, D. C.).
Stand up for the Right
General Armstrong's life purpose was a
great lesson,—that of showing the world what
it means to stand out for a purpose. If you
believe a thing is right, the world will honor
you all the more for your standing squarely for
it. Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
Narrows and Degrades
I claim it narrows and degrades the Negro
for him to cherish ill-will for the Southern
whites. Open Letter to T. Thomas Fortune.
Angels and Devils in Parties
The sooner the colored man South learns
that one political party is not composed altogether
of angels, and the other altogether of
devils, and that all his enemies do not live in
his own town or neighborhood, and all his
country, the sooner will educational advantages
be enhanced manifold.
Madison National Association.
The North's Debt
What of your brother in the South! Those
who suffered and are still suffering the consequences
of American slavery, for which you
and they were responsible,—what was the task
you asked them to perform? You of the
great and prosperous North still owe to your
less fortunate Caucasian brethren of the South,
not less than to yourselves, a serious and uncompleted
duty. Returning to their destitute
homes after years of war, to face blasted hopes,
devastation, and a shattered industrial system,
you asked them to add to their own burden
that of preparing in education, politics, and
economics, in a few short years, for citizenship,
four or five millions of former slaves. That
the South, staggering under the burden, made
blunders, that in some measure there has been
disappointment, no one need be surprised.
Home Missionary Meeting (New York).
"An Eye for an Eye"
No person can give out life without receiving
in return life for himself. When we give out
the Christ-like spirit, something of the healing
will find that we shall not only be helping some
one else whole, but shall be growing and receiving
strength at all times ourselves.
Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
How Success is Achieved
We very often hear it said that the one who
has succeeded has been fortunate. It is not
so. The fortunate persons, in nine cases out
of ten, are those who have had sense enough to
lay their plans and bend all their energies
toward accomplishing what they have laid out.
Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
It Takes Time
You cannot graft a fifteenth-century civilization
on to a twentieth-century civilization by
the mere performance of mental gymnastics.
Democracy and Education.
Doing Right Unseen
It is not very hard to find people who will
thoroughly clean a room that is going to be
occupied, or to wash a dish that is to be
handled by strangers; but it is a hard thing to
find a person who will do a thing right when
the eye of the world is not likely to rest upon
whatever is done. The cleaning of rooms has
a great deal to do with forming one's character.
Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
Mental Strength the Basis
I would not have the standard of mental
development lowered one whit, for with the
Negro, as with all races, mental strength is the
basis of all progress; but I would have a
larger proportion of this mental strength reach
the Negro's actual needs through the medium
of the hand. Industrial Training for the Negro.
"Barbers" and "Tonsorial Artists"
During the past twenty-five or thirty years
we have let some golden opportunities slip
from us, and I fear we have not had enough
plain talk right on these lines. If you ever
have the opportunity to go into the large cities
of the North, you will see some striking
examples of this kind of thing. I remember
the first time I went North—and it has n't
been so many years ago—it was not an uncommon
thing to see the barber shops in the
hands of colored men. I know colored men
who could have gotten comfortably rich. You
cannot find to-day a first-class barber-shop in
New York or Boston in the hands of a colored
man. Something is wrong. That opportunity
is gone. Coming home, in Montgomery,
Memphis, or New Orleans, you will find that
the barber-shops are gradually slipping from
the hands of the colored men, and they are
holes. These opportunities have slipped from
us largely because we have not learned to
dignify labor. The colored man puts a little
dirty chair and a pair of razors into a dirtier-looking
hole, while the white man opens up
his shop in connection with some fashionable
hotel, fits it up in fine style with carpets, fine
mirrors, etc., and calls that a Tonsorial Parlor.
The proprietor sits up at his desk? keeps his
books, and takes the cash. Thus he transforms
what we call a drudgery into a paying
business. Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
Not Easily Forgotten
It is charity and wisdom to keep in mind,
in dealing with the two races, the two hundred
years of schooling and prejudice against the
Negro which the whites are called upon to
conquer. Southern Prejudices.
"Know Thyself"
It is an encouraging sign when an individual
grows to the point where he can hold himself
up for personal analysis and study. It is
equally encouraging for a race to be able to
study itself,—to know its weaknesses as well
as its strength. It is not in the highest degree
helpful to a race to be continually praised, and
thus have its weaknesses overlooked; neither
alone continually dwelt upon. What is needed
is downright, straightforward honesty in both
directions. Development of the Negro.
Right to Earn and Spend
The opportunity to earn a dollar in a factory
just now is worth more than an opportunity to
spend a dollar in an opera house.
Atlanta Speech.
Ownership of the Soil
The salvation of the black man in the South
is in his owning the soil that he cultivates.
Negro Conference.
Difficult Tasks
It is a pretty hard thing to give a man much
culture when he has no house to live in; and
it is equally hard to make a good Christian of
a hungry man. Public Opinion.
Virtue in the Log-Cabin
In that church organization of a hundred
members, in the cotton-fields of Alabama,
where nine-tenths are in debt for food and
clothing, and live from hand to mouth in one-room
cabins, there may be much morality and
religion, but I had rather take my chances in
the community where the minister has taught
them to buy land, build comfortable homes
religious zeal plenty of well-cooked, nourishing
food, habits of thrift and economy, so that
they are able to stand on their feet and look
the world in the face, as independent men, in
their business and political life.
Centennial A. M. E. Zion Church.
Religion
Religion is supposed to be the first business
of a church. In proportion to our
numbers, intelligence, and wealth, I do not
speak irreverently when I say that we have
more religion than anything else; and in many
sections this seems to be the only article of
possession. Negro and Religion.
True Religion
Our people need to be taught that it is better
to be a Christian than to be a Methodist or
a Baptist; that it is better to save a soul than
to subscribe to a creed. Negro and Religion.
Growth of an Idea
Throughout this country we find a system
of industrial education entering into all kinds
of educational work. If you trace the growth of
industrial work, you will find that in nearly
every case it owes its existence to the principles
so ably defended and started by that
Hampton Institute, years ago.
Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
Not at all Possible
Until there is industrial independence it is
hardly possible to have a pure ballot.
Democracy and Education.
"Love thy Neighbor"
The greatest thing you can learn is the lesson
of brotherly love, of usefulness, and of
Charity. Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
Freed the North and South
To the white man who landed at Jamestown,
years ago, with hopes as bright and prospects
as cheering as had those who stepped ashore
on Plymouth Rock, Lincoln, for the first time,
gave an opportunity to breathe the air of unfettered
freedom.
The South as an Opening for a Career.
The Common Highway
There is a highway that shall 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.
Constitutional Convention (Louisiana).
Dignifying Labor
The South is beginning to see labor raised
up, dignified, and beautified, and in this sees its
salvation. In proportion as the love of labor
grows the large idle class, which has long been
one of the curses of the South, disappears.
Awakening of the Negro.
Where the Negro Disappears
When it comes to the production of cotton,
the Negro is the main factor; when it comes
to the working of the cotton into finer fabrics,
where the profit appears, the Negro disappears
as a factor. Public Opinion.
Scientific Education
As a race, we should devote ourselves
largely to the sciences, because of the practical
use we can get out of them, because of the
connection we can make with our knowledge
of science and our ability to earn a living.
Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
The Great Benefactor
Yes, to us all, your race and mine, Lincoln
has been a great emancipator.
The Emancipator.
Poor Whites of the South
The educators, the statesmen, the philanthropists,
have never comprehended their duty
South, who were buffeted for two hundred
years between slavery and freedom, between
civilization and degradation, who were disregarded
by both master and slave.
Democracy and Education.
Half Free
The black man who cannot let love and
sympathy go out to the white man is but
half free. Shaw Monument Unveiling (Boston).
The Negro's Salvation
General Armstrong felt that the education
of the hand was the surest salvation for
the Negro race, and his faith in the practicability
of his plan was implicit And that
principle, started by General Armstrong years
ago, when it was small, and he was misunderstood
and harshly criticised, has gradually
worked its way into the whole educational
system of not only the South, but of the North
and West, for white and black boys and girls
alike. Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
What we shall Do
It is said we shall be hewers of wood
and drawers of water, but we shall be more;
we shall turn the wood into houses, into machinery,
into implements of commerce and
civilization; we shall turn the water into electricity,
into food and raiment.
Our New Citizen (Hamilton Club, Chicago).
| Black-belt diamonds; | |