Black-belt diamonds; gems from the speeches, addresses, and talks to students of Booker T. Washington ... |
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 | VII. | Part VII. |
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VII. Part VII.
Physical and Moral Courage
That education, whether of black man or
white man, that gives one physical courage
to stand in front of a cannon and fails to give
him moral courage to stand up in defence of
right and justice, is a failure.
Democracy and Education.
Which
Physical death comes to the one Negro
lynched In a county, but death of the morals,
death of the soul, comes to the thousands responsible
for the lynching.
Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences.
Hurts Whites more than Blacks
Any law controlling the ballot that is not
absolutely fair and just to both races will work
more permanent injury to the whites than to
the blacks. Constitutional Convention (Louisiana).
Lowering the Standard
No member of your race in any part of our
country can harm the meanest member of
of Massachusetts being degraded. When Mississippi
commits crime, New England commits
crime, and in so much lowers the standard
of our civilization. There is no escape. Man
drags man down or lifts man up.
Alumni Dinner (Harvard University).
Easy to Tear down
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 body, mind, and soul shall be made to
contribute in the highest degree to the usefulness
of the State.
Constitutional Convention (Louisiana).
The Good Part
If others choose to be mean, we can be
good; if others push us down, we can help
push them up. No harm can come to the
black man that does not harm the white man.
Home Missionary Meeting (New York).
"Time and Tide Wait for no Man"
Opportunities never come a second time,
nor do they bide our leisure. The years come
to us but once, and swiftly pass away, bearing
If we make them beautiful years, we must do
it moment by moment as they glide before us.
Heroes in Common Life.
"You must do Something"
As each of you launches out into the world,
you must do something; you must labor, you
must toil, you must expect to do real hard
work, if you expect to reap any reward. In
order to get something you must do something.
Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
"Lives of Great Men all Remind us"
If the Vanderbilts, Girards, Peabodys, and
Peter Coopers started out poverty-stricken,
with untrained minds, in competition with the
shrewd and energetic Yankee, and amassed
fortunes, what superior opportunities open up
before our young men who begin life with a
college-trained mind, and in a locality where
competition is at its minimum.
The South as an Opening for a Career.
From Dairy to Congress
Suppose you are engaged in milking cows,
—I think it better to talk of practical things,
with which you are acquainted; but I know
that many of you boys would much rather
have me tell you how you could reach Congress
suspect more of us, for a good many years to
come, will have to milk cows instead of having
a chance to go to Congress, so it won't hurt,
I think, to talk just now about milking cows,
and if the boy who milks the cow is a success
at that, he may lay that as a foundation stone
for his future congressional career.
Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
Good School-Teachers and Money
Good school-teachers and money to pay
them will be more potent in settling the race
question than many civil rights bills and investigating
committees.
Madison National Association.
From One Slavery to Another
The mortgage system, or crop lien law,
has almost taken the place of slavery, with all
the disadvantages of slavery and few of its
advantages. Our Needs.
"We Know our Rights"
In pointing you to the field, I do not do so
as one who believes that the Negro must rise
at the expense of the Southern white man, for
whatever his wrongs to us he is our neighbor,
and the Divine command, "Love thy neighbor
as thyself," is broad enough to include him
word or act, we can benefit him, let us not
withhold our help, but at the same time and
under all circumstances show him that "we
know our rights, and dare maintain them."
The South as an Opening for a Career.
Treasures of Nature
Even the treasures of nature in our Southland,
that seem to hide themselves from the
hand of man, have felt the inspiring thrill of
freedom, and coal and iron and marble have
leaped forth, and where once was the overseer's
lash, steam and electricity make go the shop,
the factory, and the furnace. The Emancipator.
"Excuses instead of Service"
There is nothing so trying and so discouraging
to any man who has the control of any
business, or who is responsible for anything,
as to be surrounded by a number of persons
who are continually giving excuses instead of
service. Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
Genius of Success
A teacher who goes into the class-room
without having planned her work ahead cannot
be a success. The same thing is true in all
spheres of life, that a person cannot succeed
unless he plans ahead; and the further an individual
going to come to him.
Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
Self-Measurement
Now, I want to ask each of you, on this
Sabbath evening, to measure yourself in this
respect: Take a little more time before you
say your prayers to-night and find out if you
are growing in your ability to make a living,
to love your studies, to control your mind so
far as concentration upon your studies is concerned,
and in that higher matter of making
yourself more useful to the world, and more
helpful and cheerful to every one who touches
your life, whether in class or bedroom, whether
in the night or day. Are you growing in the
matter of making men love you more and of
making yourself more useful to every individual?
Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
Singleness of Purpose
The only way we can make ourselves useful
to humanity and serviceable to God is: (1) by
resolving to do something; (2) to do that
something, stick to it, improve it, make a
specialty of it; and in that way we shall make
ourselves useful and reliable.
Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
Implements of the Trade
Be sure that you have gotten hold of every
book, newspaper, or other publication in which
there is something regarding your work; and
then don't be content with what you get out
of books and newspapers, for that is only the
result of somebody's else experience. By conversing
with intelligent and experienced persons
you can get much valuable information
concerning your work.
Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
Reaching the Lowest
The science, the art, the literature that fails
to reach down and bring the humblest up to
the fullest enjoyment of the blessings of our
government is weak, no matter how costly the
buildings or apparatus used, or how modern
the method of instruction employed.
Democracy and Education.
World Respects Self-Confidence
Very few people have confidence in a person
who is uncertain, constantly vacillating, who
does not say directly what he believes; but the
world has the greatest amount of respect for a
person who believes in a thing and works
toward accomplishing that thing in a confident
manner. Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
Faulty Education
The study of arithmetic that does not result
in making some one more honest and self-reliant
is defective. The study of history that does
not result in making men conscientious in receiving
and counting the ballots of their fellow-men
is most faulty. The study of art that does
not result in making the strong less willing to
oppress the weak, means little.
Trinity Church (Boston).
Child Father to the Man
If the mind is employed during youth as it
should be in getting knowledge, in strengthening
the faculties, there will follow in manhood
and old age a harvest of mental happiness.
Sowing and Reaping.
Supreme Unselfishness
Of the many noble traits exhibited by General
Armstrong, none made a deeper impression
upon me than his supreme unselfishness.
I do not believe I ever saw, in all my connection
and touch with General Armstrong, anything
in his life or actions which indicated that
he was in any degree selfish. He was interested
in a most unselfish way in the entire
work of the South, and anything he could do
or say that would benefit another institution
had spoken or acted directly for the benefit of
Hampton Institute. But for his supreme unselfishness
in this respect, Tuskegee could not
be anything like what it is to-day.
Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
Influence of Negro Minister
The minister in the Negro church has an
influence for good or evil, is looked to for
advice on all subjects, to an extent that is not
true of any other class of ministers in this
country. Centennial of A. M. E. Zion Church.
Farms Deserted
We have trained scores of young men in
Greek, but few in carpentry or mechanical or
architectural drawing. We have trained many
in Latin, but almost none as engineers, bridge-builders,
and machinists. Numbers were taken
from the farm and educated, but were educated
in everything except agriculture. Hence they
had no sympathy with farm-life, and did not
return to it. New York Independent.
Head and Hand Education
The mere pushing of knowledge into the
heads of a people without providing a medium
through the hands for its use is not always wise.
The Emancipator.
What Institutions should Teach
Educational institutions all over the South
are of little value unless they can pave the way
to make results of their work felt among the
masses of the people who are especially remote
from these institutions.
Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
Elements of Power
The man that has the property, the intelligence,
the character, is the one that is going
to have the largest share in controlling the
government, whether he is white or black,
whether in the North or in the South.
Century Club (Indianapolis).
Low Wages
How many of our race declare that they
won't work for nothing,—that wages are low!
Is n't it worse to loaf on the street-corners than
to work for nothing? You get no pay for loafing,
do you? Talk to Tuskegee Townspeople.
No Difference
An educated man on the streets with his
hands in his pockets is not one whit more
benefit to society than an ignorant man on the
streets with his hands in his pockets.
Hampton Meeting.
Safety in Employment
Something to occupy constantly, during all
seasons of the year, the masses of the people
in the South, will do as much as any other
force to solve the Southern problem.
Christian Work.
Sowing and Reaping
If you could look about the South and see
the shiftless way in which the people are living,
you would think the case almost hopeless. I
have felt so. If you could see some of those
men, you would realize as never before the
awful curse of slavery. You would realize that
"Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also
reap." The Negro's Way to Liberty.
More Costly
Ignorance is more costly to any State than
education. Constitutional Convention (Louisiana).
His Place
It is only as the black man produces something
that makes the markets of the world dependent
upon him for something will he find
his rightful place. The Emancipator.
Object Lesson
In addition to making it [Tuskegee] a place
where one can behold an object lesson in the
best development of the Negro race, in addition
want to make it a model colony or community
for colored people. Romances in Real Life.
Present Conditions
At Tuskegee this is kept uppermost,—to
train men and women in head and heart and
hand to meet conditions that exist right
about them, rather than conditions that existed
centuries ago, or that exist in communities a
thousand miles away.
Presbyterian Home Missionary Meeting.
Hard Cash
Matters of sentiment disappear when placed
side by side of the desire for cold, hard cash.
Nashville Centennial.
Erroneous
Too often, when the subject of industrial
education is mentioned, some get the idea
that industrial education is a synonyme for
limited mental development.
White Rose Mission (New York).
Leap from Slavery to Freedom
Our greatest danger is that in the great leap
from slavery to freedom we may overlook the
fact that the masses of us are to live by the production
of our hands, and fail to keep in mind
to dignify and glorify common labor, and put
brains and skill into the common occupations
of life. Atlanta Speech.
How?
It is natural and praiseworthy for a person
to be looking for a higher and better position:
no one is to be condemned for that. Now
arises the question: How are you going to put
yourself in demand for these higher and more
important positions?
Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
Fitness as the Test
No one should expect, demand, or be given
a position by virtue of his color, but because
of his fitness to fill it.
The South as an Opening for a Career.
The Highest Civilization
To accord the highest justice to the most
humble is a sign of the highest civilization.
To withhold it is a sign of a want of Christian
culture. Future of the Negro Race.
"What Happened?"
A black mother in a Northern State had her
boy taught the machinist trade. A job was
secured. What happened? Every one of
deliberately walked out, swearing they would
not give a black man an opportunity to earn
an honest living. Democracy and Education.
A National Evil
The epidemic of lynching that has prevailed
in the South for some time, and seems to be
extending into the West, should convince all
that the Southern problem cannot be solved
by a mere wave of the hand.
The South and Lynch-Law.
Faith in God
Never since the days that we left Africa's
shores have we lost faith in you or in God. We
are a patient people. There is plenty in this
country for us to do. We can afford to work
and wait.
Presbyterian Home Missionary Meeting.
"Worth Makes the Man"
We mean to prove our worth not by mere
talk, or complaints, or fault-finding, and the
rest we leave to you. The Emancipator.
Fruits of his Labors
It is a great thing for a person to accomplish
something in this world. I think General
was that he had a mission which he had seen
bear fair fruit. He had a great work and he
had the supreme satisfaction of seeing the fruits
of that work in the lives of the men and women
he trained and scattered all over the country.
Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
The Negro's Rights
I claim for the Negro all the rights and
privileges enjoyed by any other race, but I
also maintain that we must have a foundation
on which to rest our claims. Public Opinion.
Why the South is Bound to a Body of Death
Why is it that the South to-day is bound to
a body of death? Five cent cotton is like the
man hugging the bear, and can't turn him
loose, simply because the farmers of the South
are not intelligent enough to raise a diversified
crop. Educational Meeting (Topeka, Kansas).
Social Equality
The wisest among my race understand that
the agitation of the question of social equality
is the extremest folly, and that progress in the
enjoyment of all the privileges that will come
to us, must be the result of severe and constant
struggle rather than of artificial forcing. No
markets of the world is long in any degree
ostracized. Atlanta Speech.
King Cotton
The Negro and the mule are the only forces
so far discovered that can produce cotton.
Board of Directors, Capital Savings Bank
(Washington, D. C.).
Self-Knowledge
We should know our weaknesses as well as
our strength if we would attain to the best in
our civilization. Trinity Church (Boston).
Right Thing to be Done
I have always gone on the plan of finding
the right of a thing to be done, then working
in that direction until I have accomplished it.
Best Way of Building up a Model School.
What would Mother Say?
There is no better way to test an act than
to ask yourself the questions, "What would
my mother or father think of this? Would
he or she approve of this, or should I be
ashamed to let them know that I have been
guilty of such a performance?" Ask yourselves
such questions day by day. I think you
questions. Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
Lifting up our Fellows
The only thing worth living for is the lifting
up of our fellow-men.
Address to Graduating Class of '92.
The White South's Needs
The white people of the South know the
colored people as servants, cooks, waiters, or
as chicken thieves. The trouble is they do
not come in contact with the black man in the
way to know him in the highest sense.
Unitarian Association (Saratoga).
Industrial Education
Industrial education is meant to take the
boy who has been following a mule behind a
plough, making corn at the rate of ten bushels
per acre, and set him upon a machine under
an umbrella behind two fine horses, so that he
can make four times as much corn as by the
old process, with less labor.
Twentieth Century Club (New York).
Harmony
Harmony between the two races will come
in proportion as the black man gets something
the white man wants. Quinn Chapel (Chicago).
Competing with the World
At the end of two hundred and fifty years of
enforced labor, the Negro finds himself without
warning, and with no preparation, competing
with the world for a market for his labor.
Mass Meeting (St. Paul).
Unostentatious Charity
It is the quiet, unseen giving, which never
reaches the ear of the world, that makes possible
the existence of the best things of the
world. Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
The Best Labor
Sooner or later this country is going to
realize that it has at its very doors the best
labor that the world has seen.
Southern States Farm Magazine.
The Negro's Guiding Star
Progress, progress is the law of God, and
under Him it is going to be the Negro's guiding
star in this country. Chautauqua Assembly.
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