Black-belt diamonds; gems from the speeches, addresses, and talks to students of Booker T. Washington ... |
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 | II. | Part II. |
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 | Black-belt diamonds; |  |
II. Part II.
"Honesty the Best Policy"
That the Negro may be fitted for the fullest
enjoyment of the privileges and responsibilities
of our country, it is important that we be
honest and candid with the Negro himself,
whether our honesty and candor for the time
being pleases him or displeases him.
Democracy and Education.
False Education
The young are not only educated without
reference to the conditions of the age, but their
minds are carefully and systematically trained
in other directions. They see no triumph of
intellect except in politics or the "learned"
professions. Progress.
Lack of Manufactories
There is hardly a county in the South that
does not contain enough hard wood to manufacture
all the wagons used in that county,
and yet by far the larger proportion of wagons
used in the South come from a distance. Even
such simple things as ax-handles are often imported.
Industrial Education in the South.
What a Thousand Dollars will Do
Any colored man with a reasonable education,
common sense, and business ability, can
take a thousand dollars in cash and go into
any Southern community and in five years be
worth five thousand. He does not meet with
the stern, relentless competition that he encounters
when he butts up against a Northern
Yankee.
The South as an Opening for a Business Career.
Generosity
Lay hold of something that will help you,
and then use it to help somebody else.
Negro Conference.
The Slave of Duty
Show me a person who merely does as a
duty what he is asked to do and I will show
you a person who is never in constant demand,
—a person who is not going to be very valuable
to humanity.
Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
Evil of Card-Playing
Do not play cards. Playing cards, you will
insist, is no more harmful than playing dominoes
or croquet; but it is a fact undeniable that
playing cards leads to something more harmful
Card-playing has a history, and it is the experience
of men who understand crime, who
understand civilization in all its grades, that
card-playing has been the source of any number
of crimes. It leads to late hours, bad
company, a betting proclivity, and, finally, it
leads to the using of other people's money.
Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
Moral Slavery
The slavery of ante-bellum times has passed
away, but there is a moral slavery existing in
the South which will take a long time to pass
away. Negroes and Mortgages.
Dependence upon the North
In the great industrial awakening that is
upon us, the skill to manage and operate our
mills and factories, and convert our crude
material into finished products, must come
from the North, unless something is done to
educate our people in the industrial arts.
Southern Tradesmen.
The Wealth of the South
The opening of the eyes of the world to the
vast material wealth of the South will simply
mean that strangers will come in and dispossess
our own people of their vintage and turn to
never learned to apply.
Board of Trade Meeting (Thomasville, Ga.).
Correct Vision
We should learn to see things in a higher
light. Pittsburg, Pa.
What is Taught at Tuskegee
The course of study at Tuskegee corresponds
with a high-school course in the North, with
foreign languages left out. Special attention is
given to the sciences, particularly the science
of teaching. It is religious, but not denominational.
In the Black Belt.
The Conqueror's Limitations
Neither the conqueror's bullet nor fiat of
law could make an ignorant voter an intelligent
voter; could make a dependent man an
independent man; could give one citizen respect
for another, nor a bank account, nor a
foot of land, nor an enlightened fireside.
Development of the South.
The Higher Law
Men may make laws to hinder and fetter
the ballot, but men cannot make laws that will
bind or stop the growth of manhood.
Century Club (Indianapolis).
What Ignorance Costs
The Georgia Legislature has before it a
bill, recently introduced, proposing to greatly
reduce the amount of money annually appropriated
for the education of the black youth of
that State, on the ground that it cannot afford
to spend so much money for Negro education.
I would reverse the proposition. I would say,
with all the earnestness of my soul, that the
State of Georgia is not able to let the 800,000
Negroes within her borders grow up in ignorance.
It will cost Georgia more not to educate
them than to educate them.
Address at Thomasville, Ga.
Intrinsic Worth
Alongside of the work of wise legislation
must go a force that will create a foundation
on which we can stand and demand our rights,
because of our intrinsic worth to the body
politic. Open Letter to T. Thos. Fortune.
The Bread and Meat Side
In spite of all talk of exodus, the Negro's
home is permanently in the South; for, coming
to the bread and meat side of the question,
the white man needs the Negro, and the
Negro needs the white.
Madison National Association.
Decrease of Crime
Crime among us decreases as ownership in
property increases. Negro Conference.
The Pilgrim Fathers
We forgot the industrial education that was
given the Pilgrim Fathers of New England in
clearing and planting the cold, bleak, and
snowy hills and valleys, in the providing of
shelter, founding the small mills and factories,
in supplying themselves with home-made products,
thus laying the foundation of an industrial
life that now keeps going a large part of the
colleges and missionary effort in the world.
Democracy and Education.
Begun by Lincoln
The North should help the South educate
the Negro, if it would finish the work begun
by Abraham Lincoln. The Rise of the Negro.
Work in the Black Belt
I believe that the majority of students who
graduate from Tuskegee should work in what
is known as the "Black Belt" of the South,
and I am glad that the majority of our graduates
have done so thus far, and are working in
one way and another for the elevation of those
about them. You will hear many students,
they intend to practise medicine, study law,
or something else, when they graduate; but
the majority, after all, will be found in these
fields of work that lie about in the black belt
of the South, where our best talent and influence
are needed.
Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
Leadership of the Masses
Can you afford to put alongside the advantages
and stimulus that the race will derive from
your example of leaders in the field of letters,
professional life, and as financiers, such considerations
as personal inconveniences and the
curtailment of political privileges; considerations
which exist but for a day, while the good
influence that a single one may exert in some
department of life at this auspicious time may
incite the youth of far-off ages to new life and
hope, by rekindling their faith and aspirations?
Negro's Future.
A Refined Family
A quiet development of ourselves and the
influence of an educated, refined colored
family would gradually and insensibly wear
off a prejudice that could never be argued
away. Negro Conference.
Foresight
A race of people is a success just in proportion
as that race is able to plan to-day for
a hundred years to come.
Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
Swine-Raising
Swine-Raising has almost become a science
or profession. Ignorant labor can no more
produce the finest Berkshire and Jersey red
hogs than ignorant labor can operate the finest
machinery. Industrial Education in the South.
The New Plough
One man in the West, riding behind two
fine horses, sitting upon a machine that laps off
two furrows at a time, and drops and covers the
corn at the same time, does as much work as
four Southern corn-planters of the present
method of planting corn. So long as this is
true, so long will the South buy corn from the
West. Annual Tradesmen.
Sound Mind and Body
A person cannot succeed in anything without
a good, sound body—a body that is able
to stand up against hardships, that is able to
endure. A great many of our young men and
women, especially in the larger cities, undermine
throw away their usefulness, because they do
not understand how to take care of their
bodies. Do not keep late hours. Have a
time to go to bed, and have enough self-control
to say to those who would persuade you
to dissipate, "My time for rest has come, and
you must excuse me."
Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
Where Resistance Begins
As long as the Negro will be about the
streets drunk, lazy, and shiftless, there is no
resistance to him. The resistance comes when
he begins to move forward.
The Negro's Way to Liberty.
The Great Problem
The great problem is, how to get the masses
to the point where they can be sure of a comfortable
living, and be prepared to save a little
something each year. This can be accomplished
only by putting among the masses, as
fast as possible, strong, well-trained leaders in
the industrial walks of life. Public Opinion.
Most Competent Workman
The man most competent to render efficient
service is that man who comprehends
most completely the mental as well as the
as a workman whose mental development
has had the most attention.
Greater Opportunities.
The Higher Education
The colored boy has been taken from the
farm and taught astronomy—how to locate
Jupiter and Mars—learned to measure Venus,
taught about everything except that which he
depends upon for daily bread.
Why Push Industrial Education in the Soutth?
Misdirected Effort
It seems to me that the temptation in education
and missionary effort is to do for people
that which was done a thousand years ago, or
is being done for people a thousand miles
away, without always making a careful study of
the needs and conditions of the people whom
we are trying to help. The temptation is to
run all the people through a certain educational
mould, regardless of the condition of
the subject or the end to be accomplished.
Democracy and Education.
His Inheritance
The prime condition of slavery was to keep
closed every avenue to knowledge. The
sole inheritance was his body.
The Negro's Way to Liberty.
Art and Music in Log-Cabins
Art and music to people who live in rented
houses and with no bank account are not the
most important subjects to which attention can
be given. Such education creates wants without
a corresponding ability to supply these
increased wants. Christian Work.
The Saddest Sight
One of the saddest sights I ever saw in the
South was a colored girl, recently returned
from college, sitting in a rented one-room log-cabin
attempting day by day to extract some
music from a second-hand piano, when all
about her indicated want of thrift and
cleanliness. Increased Wants.
How to Unite High and Low
It seems to me that one of the most vital
questions that touches our American life is
how to bring the strong, the wealthy, and
learned into helpful touch with the poorest,
most ignorant, and humble, and at the same
time make the one appreciate the vitalizing, the
strengthening influences of the other.
Alumni Dinner (Harvard University).
Poverty and Ignorance
Among the masses there is a great amount
of poverty and ignorance, and much need of
moral and religious training.
Touching the Masses.
The White Neighbor
If the colored woman would make a more
attractive home than her white neighbor, that
white woman would in time at least be hanging
on her gate to make inquiries; and if the
colored man knew how to raise forty bushels
of corn where the white man could only raise
twenty, he would soon be inside the gate to
find out the method. Negro Conference.
A Contrast
Is there not as much mental discipline in
having a student think out and put on paper a
plan for a modern dairy building as having him
merely commit to memory poetry that somebody
else thought out years ago? Christian Work.
Disposing of the Negro
It has been said that the whites will absorb
the blacks, and thus settle the " Negro
Problem." Still another proposition is to put
the colored people in a part of the country
entirely by themselves. This would require
and another wall to keep the whites out. The
only way to settle the question is to treat the
Negro as you would treat any other man; treat
him as a brother and a citizen, and there will
be no further talk about the much vexed
"Negro Problem." The Rise of the Negro.
Sound Advice
We must keep out of debt, avoid lawsuits,
and treat our women better.
Negro Conference.
How to Fight Prejudice
The most effective ammunition with which
to fight prejudice is men who, in every act and
thought, give the lie to the assertion of his
enemies, North and South, that the Negro is
inferior to the white man.
The South as an Opening for a Career.
The Great American Heart
My part is to help speed the day, now fast
approaching, when there shall not be a
Northern heart and a Southern heart, a black
heart and a white heart, but all shall be melted
by deeds of sympathy, patience, and forbearance
into one heart—the great American heart
—whose highest aspirations shall be to give to
for the fullest growth and prosperity.
Hamilton Club (Chicago).
"A Condition, not a Theory"
The black man who spends ten thousand a
year in freight charges can select his own seat
in a railroad train, else a Pullman palace car
will be put on for him. Race Progress.
The Conscientious Worker
You will gain a great deal if you will resolve
that in all work you perform, whether sweeping
a floor, laying off a furrow, building a
house, drawing a plan, or studying a lesson,
you are going to be perfectly conscientious.
If you choose those three lines on which to rest
your lives,—truthfulness, honesty, and conscientious
performance of duty,—your future
success is assured.
Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
Gains against Losses
Though the line of progress may seem at
times to waver, now advancing, now retreating,
now on the mountains, now in the valley, now
in the sunshine, now in the shadow, the aim
has ever been forward, and we have gained
more than we have lost. If to-day we have
fewer political conventions, we have more
clubs, we have more building and loan associations.
If we cherish fewer air-castles, we
own more acres of land and more homes than
has ever been true in the history of the Negro
race. If we have fewer men in Congress, we
have more merchants and more leaders in
commerce. Hampton Institute Anniversary, '98.
Christian Heathen
Many of our people without knowing it are
Christian heathen, and demand as much missionary
effort as the heathen of foreign fields.
New England Woman's Club.
Basis of Success
There are a few things that we must recognize
in the beginning if we would succeed, and
if we do not recognize that we must have certain
qualities and elements in us, we cannot succeed.
We cannot succeed unless we recognize
that we must have a certain amount of groundwork
and foundation, and without good foundation
we shall find all our efforts largely in vain.
Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
A Century's Meaning
One hundred years in the life of a state
means much. One hundred years in the life
of any church means more. One hundred
poverty, in the midnight of bondage, amidst
the throes and groans of slavery, surrounded
and penetrated by oppression and lack of opportunity,
furnishes an occasion for supreme
thanksgiving and congratulations. Then thirty
dollars in property, now three million five
hundred thousand dollars; then twenty in
church-membership, now five hundred thousand;
then one minister of the Gospel, now
four thousand, besides nine bishops; but the
record is not complete. Blot out this property
and these numbers, and the church with
such a birth, that could within a century produce
a Price, a Dancy, a Hood, or a Walters,
and set the world an example in its ability for
self-dependence and self-government, would
have, with these achievements alone, more
than justified its existence.
Centennial A. M. E. Zion Church.
Specialization
Learn all you can, but learn to do something,
or your learning will be useless.
Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
What Makes Social Mudsills
The Negro, no less than his Caucasian
brother, must predicate his future wealth, progress,
and power upon the industrial system
the skilled trades and avocations, or he will in
the future have to live upon wages which will
be exceedingly meagre, and at last find himself
face to face with conditions which will
push him to the wall. Industrial Basis.
Self-Confidence
The fact that a man goes into the world
conscious that he has within himself the power
to create a wagon or a house gives him a certain
moral backbone and independence in the
world that he could not possess without it.
Century Club (Indianapolis).
Help Ignorant Ministers
Because a minister is ignorant or immoral,
I don't believe you gain anything by attempting
to get rid of him. I don't believe you
gain anything by that kind of procedure. You
gain more by helping him get rid of his faults,
trying to help him become more intelligent;
and in that way, instead of having to spend
your force in fighting somebody, you spend it
in making a friend that is going to be of some
value to you and the people in the community.
This is the method which many foreign missionaries
are adopting. Instead of their going
to Africa, China, and other heathen countries
fighting the religious customs of the natives,
and get out of it whatever is good upon which
they can build a stronger and better religion.
Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
New Wine in Old Bottles
Not much religion can exist in a one-room
log-cabin or on an empty stomach.
Progress of the Negro.
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