Black-belt diamonds; gems from the speeches, addresses, and talks to students of Booker T. Washington ... |
 | I. | Part I. |
 | II. |
| III. |
| IV. |
| V. |
| VI. |
| VII. |
 | Black-belt diamonds; |  |
I. Black-Belt Diamonds
I. Part I.
Heart of the Race
General Armstrong—he was the heart
of the race; his great heart held us all so
constantly, so strongly, so tenderly, that it gave
way at a time when most men begin to live.
Memorial to Gen. Armstrong.
He must be Counted
One third of the population of the South is
of the Negro race. No enterprise seeking the
material, civil, or moral welfare of this section
can disregard this element of our population
and reach the highest success. Atlanta Speech.
The Negro's Mission
I think a part of his [the Negro's] mission
is going to be to teach white men a lesson of
patience, forbearance, and forgiveness. I think
he is going to show the people of this country
what it is possible for a race to achieve when
starting under adverse conditions. Again, I
supreme trust in God and loyalty to his country,
even when his country has not been at all times
loyal to him. I think my people will excel in
the missionary spirit. It will take the form of
reaching down after the less fortunate both at
home and abroad. Our Day.
The Negro's Home
The Negro has a genuine interest in this
country,—in the South. It is his home, and
he is going to remain in the South. He is not
here to grab a few dollars and then return to
some foreign shore.
Southern States Farm Magazine.
"We Claim Him"
It takes one hundred per cent of Caucasian
blood to make a white American. The minute
it is proven that a man possesses one one-hundredth
part of Negro blood in his veins, it
makes him a black man. He falls to our side;
we claim him. The ninety-nine per cent of
white blood counts for nothing when weighed
against one per cent of Negro blood.
Development of the Negro.
Obeying the Scriptures
If ever there was a people that have obeyed
the Scriptural injunction, "If they smite thee
has been the American Negro.
Man our Brother.
Self-Respect
Self-respect will bring the Negro many
rights now denied him. Negro Conference.
Loyalty
Whether in slavery or in freedom, we have
always been loyal to the stars and stripes.
Democracy and Education.
The Negro originally Honest
The Negro in his original native state was
an honest race; it was slavery that unmanned
him in this respect.
Twentieth Century Club (New York).
Basis of Prejudice
The prejudice against the Negro is not on
account of color, but because of the badge of
slavery,—the slavery we used to be in and the
industrial slavery we are now in.
Industrial Freedom.
Talk versus Action
It is all very well to bewail our wrongs. I
feel them as keenly as any one else. But,
I think, we have had quite enough talk about
get our rights. Duty of the Hour.
Power of Faith
You have all, doubtless, read that portion
of the Bible which tells of the woman who
touched the hem of Christ's garment, and
thereby showed her faith. That in itself was
a little thing; and yet this power of human
confidence is something that we do not always
realize. We do not always appreciate its significance.
How often do we come in contact
with men and women in whose presence we
may dwell only for a short time, but we can
never look on their countenances or be in any
way associated with them without being made
better, or lifted up, as it were.
Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
Mutual Dependence
Wherever our life touches yours we help
or we hinder. Negro's Future in America.
Education the Only Hope
Education is the sole and only hope of the
Negro race in America. Transportation, colonization,
and other schemes of misguided enthusiasts,
are impracticable and futile.
The Negro's Hope.
His Recompense
If the Negro who has been oppressed and
denied rights in a Christian land can help you,
North and South, to rise, can be a medium of
your rising into the atmosphere of generous
brotherhood and self-forgetfulness, he will see
in it a recompense for all that he has suffered
in the past.
Home Missionary Meeting (New York).
Ignorance against Intelligence
Can you make your intelligence affect us
in the same ratio that our ignorance affects
you? Democracy and Education.
Eagerness for Knowledge
No schoolhouse has been opened for us
that has not been filled.
Negro's Future in America.
A New Race
We are a new race, as it were, and the time,
attention, and activity of any race are taken
up during the first fifty or one hundred years
in getting a start.
Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
"One Touch of Nature"
We are led into saying that there is no difference
between us and other people. We
by the unequal opportunities. To argue otherwise
is to discredit the effects of slavery.
Stumbling Blocks.
Ballot-Box and Schoolhouse
I beg of you, further, that, in the degree
that you close the ballot-box against the ignorant,
you open the schoolhouse.
Constitutional Convention (Louisiana).
What the Negro Needs
What are the cardinal needs among the
seven millions of colored people in the South,
most of whom are to be found on the plantations?
Roughly, these needs may be stated
as food, clothing, shelter, education, proper
habits, and a settlement of race relations.
Awakening of the Negro.
Responsibility for Slavery
The time has come, it seems to me, for
Northern men, Southern men, black men and
white men, to blot out their prejudices and
look matters squarely in the face as they are.
The whole country was responsible for slavery.
The South and Lynch-Law.
An Equal Chance
I only ask an equal chance in the world
for the Negro. The Negro's Way to Liberty.
Phillips Brooks
There are persons whose lives are so much
like that of Christ's, who have so much genuine
Christianity in them, that we cannot come in
contact with them, we cannot even steal a
glance at their faces, without being made
stronger and better. It is said that on one
cold, wintry day, when snow and rain were
falling, and the day was one to make a person
despondent, Phillips Brooks was walking
through the streets of Boston. At once those
who saw him and looked upon his countenance
saw a ray of sunshine. Why? Because that
man was so full of the "milk of human kindness,"
so overflowing with love for humanity,
that no man, however degraded and besotted
a specimen of humanity he was, could look
uppn that face without being helped, without
feeling that he, with every other human being,
had a place in the heart of great Phillips
Brooks. Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
Dishonest Voting
Study the history of the South, and you
will find that where there has been most dishonesty
in voting there you will find the lowest
moral condition of both races.
Constitutional Convention (Louisiana).
The Good Samaritans
Religion should be a thing of every-day
living,—less Levi, more Good Samaritan.
Negro Conference.
Only Two Alternatives
To the rank and file of our aspiring youth,
seeking an opening in life, to me but two alternatives
present themselves, as matters now
stand,—to live a menial in the North, or a
semi-freeman in the South. This brings us
face to face with Northern competition and
Southern prejudice, and between them I have
no hesitancy in saying that the Negro can find
his way to the front sooner through Southern
prejudice than through Northern competition.
The one decreases; the other increases.
Lincoln University.
Pagans no Longer
We went into slavery in this country pagans;
we came out Christians. Our New Citizen.
"Cast down your Bucket"
To those of my race who depend upon bettering
their condition in a foreign land, or who
underestimate the importance of cultivating
friendly relations with the Southern white man
who is their next-door neighbor, I would say:
it down in making friends, in every honorable
way, of the people of all races by whom you
are surrounded. Cast it down in agriculture,
mechanics, in commerce, in domestic service,
and in the professions." Atlanta Speech.
All Fools Alike
A fool in Africa is not better than a fool in
America. Negro Conference.
Business Opportunity
The Negro's present great opportunity in
the South is in the matter of business; and
success in the South is going to constitute the
foundation for success and relief along other
lines. The Negro's Opportunity.
Our Mother Tongue
We went into slavery without a language;
we came out speaking the proud Anglo-Saxon
tongue. Our New Citizen.
Equality of Opportunity
Let the young colored man feel that he can
be not only waiter in hotels but part proprietor,
that on Pullman cars he can be not only porter
but conductor, and he will go forward.
The Negro's Way to Liberty.
The South as the Field
It is in the South that the Negro is given a
man's chance in the commercial world.
Hamilton Club (Chicago).
Advice to White Men
To those of the white race who look to the
incoming of those of foreign birth and strange
tongue and habits for the prosperity of the
South, I would repeat what I say to my own
race, "Cast down your bucket where you are.
Cast it down among the eight million Negroes,
whose habits you know, whose fidelity you have
tested in days when to have proved treacherous
meant the ruin of your firesides."
Atlanta Speech.
He Learned to Labor
If in the providence of God the Negro got
any good out of slavery, he got the habit of
work. Carnegie Hall (New York).
New Industrial Era
The South is about to enter an era of industrial
development that will be almost without a
parallel. Our New Citizen.
What Education Does
We teach the Negro that labor is not degrading.
This education multiplies his wants,
desires by giving him the skill to satisfy them.
The Rise of the Negro.
Fate of Laggards
We must catch the spirit of modern progress
and achievement, or be shut out by those who
have. Educational Meeting (Milwaukee).
Serious Mistakes
Immediately after freedom we made serious
mistakes. We began at the top. We made
these mistakes, not because we were black
people, but because we were ignorant and
inexperienced. Association Hall (Philadelphia).
The One Drawback
The one great drawback to the development
of the South is the lack of skilled and educated
labor. Industrial Development.
Adaptability Needed
We must adjust ourselves to the changed
conditions, or be left behind in the march of
progress. Spirit of the Coming One.
Heritage of Slavery
Look at the vast wealth of undeveloped resources
that encompasses almost every Southern
community,—look at the fertile fields or
labor and the ante-bellum agricultural system.
Industrial Growth.
What Law cannot Do
The mere fiat of the law could not make a
dependent man independent; it could not make
an ignorant voter an intelligent voter, could
not make one man respect another man.
These results come by beginning at the bottom,
and working upwards, by recognizing our
weaknesses as well as our strength, by tangible
evidences of our worthiness to occupy the
highest position. The Emancipator.
Correct Education
We are training colored men to be self-supporting,
saving, and business-like.
The Rise of the Negro.
The Shirker
Never get into a rut. You cannot afford to
do a thing poorly. You are more injured in
shirking your work or half-doing a job than the
person for whom you are working.
Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
How Life is Measured
Do not think life consists of dress and show.
Remember that every one's life is measured by
world better,—this is all life is.
Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
"What we Want"
What we want, and it is what America
honors, is the man who can teach his followers
how to overcome obstacles, how to find a way
or make one.
Taking Advantage of our Disadvantages.
Trained Head and Hand
The hand, as well as the head, of every
black boy and girl of the South should be
trained to some useful occupation.
Age-Herald.
The Acceptable Thing
The acceptable thing is to do the most good
in the shortest time at the least expense. It
cannot be done by a single law, in a single
day, with a single gift. Our school is a lever
which has made of several hundred young men
and women levers in their turn to lift up their
race. The masses of colored people have got
the habit of work, and only need a teacher, an
object lesson. In the Black Belt.
The Old Washerwoman
Without industrial education, when the
black woman washes a shirt, she washes with
both hands, both feet, and her whole body. An
machine that washes ten times as many shirts in
a given time with almost no expenditure of
physical force; steam, electricity, or water doing
the work. Dedicatory Services (Avondale, O.).
The Fate of the Pauper
No one cares for a man with empty head
and pocket, no matter what his color is.
Sunday Evening Tuskegee Talks.
Where Profits Appear
We must not only teach the Negro to improve
the methods of what are now classed as
the lower forms of labor, but the Negro must
be put in a position, by the use of intelligence
and skill, to take his part in the higher forms
of labor, up in the region where the profits
appear. Industrial Training.
What the World Desires
The world desires to know what a man can
do, not what he knows. Dignity of Labor.
The Lyncher and the Lynched
Lynchings and burnings, which are often
witnessed by numbers of young and tender
children, do the race that inflicts these punishments,
many times more harm, by blunting
its moral sense, than the race or individual
against whom they are directed.
The South and Lynch-Law.
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