Latest / Boys Life of Booker T. Washington / 13 - Boys Life of Booker T. Washington by Walter Clinton Jackson

Transcript

13 - Boys Life of Booker T. Washington by Walter Clinton Jackson · Boys Life of Booker T. Washington

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Chapter twelve of A Boy's Life of Booker T. Washington.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot or recording by D. Randall. A Boy's
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Life of Booker T. Washington by W. C. Jackson Leading
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: his People. Immediately following Washington's great speech in Atlanta in
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: eighteen ninety five, there came the statement from all parts
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: of the country, here is the new leader of the
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Negro race. During the last years of slavery and the
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Civil War, and on for years after the war. Frederick Douglas,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: as has been said, was the acknowledged leader of the
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Negro in the United States. Douglas had died in the
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: early part of the year eighteen ninety five. It seemed
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: that this man Washington had been raised up to take
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: his place. The Atlanta speech continued to be a topic
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: of discussion throughout the country, and coupled with this discussion
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: was invariably the statement that here was the new leader
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: of the race. Washington says that he was at a
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: great loss to know what people meant when they referred
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: to him as the leader of his people. Of course,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: this leadership was not a thing that he had sought.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: The people thrust this duty upon him, and of course
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: no man has a right to shun or dodge responsibility
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: that is thus bestowed. He was not in doubt long
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: as to what it meant to be a leader. One
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: of the first things that happened was the large number
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: of invitations that came to him to deliver addresses. These
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: requests came from all parts of the country and from
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: all sorts of organizations. A very large number of these
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: invitations he was compelled to refuse. However, when he felt
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: he could serve his institution and his people, he always accepted.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: He represented the Negro at the unveiling of the monument
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: of R. G. Shaw in Boston and at the Peace
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: Convention in Chicago in eighteen ninety eight, at which time
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: President McKinley spoke. He attended most of the large religious
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: gatherings of his people throughout the country and spoke before them.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: Almost immediately there began to pour in on him a
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: perfect flood of letters from all parts of the country,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: from white and black, high and low, rich and poor,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: asking a thousand different questions. Now it would be a
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: letter from a railroad president asking about some problem of
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: dealing with his employees. Now from a schoolman asking about
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: the segregation of their races in schools, again from a
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: legislator asking advice on some legislation. But principally the letters
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: came from his own people, asking all sorts of questions
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: about the multitude of things. One man wanted Washington to
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: use his influence to secure the adoption of a flag
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: for the Negro race. Another one in his backing for
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: a patent medicine that would take the curl out of
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: the negro's hair. Another wanted to know if the Negro
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: race was dying out, another if the race was being
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: blended with the white race. Another if he thought the
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Negro was being treated right politically. Perhaps the most remarkable request, however,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: was from a woman who wanted him to find her husband,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: who had deserted her some years before, and in order
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: that he might be easily identified. She describes him. This
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: is the height of him, five to six, light eyes,
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: dark hair, unwave shave, and a suprano voice. His age
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: fifty eight. His name Steve. To all these letters, he
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: replied in the fullest and frankest and kindest way. Whenever
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: there was race friction in the South, he was invariably
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: called upon either to go in person or to send
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: him message. For example, when the Atlanta Rise occurred in
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: nineteen o six, Washington was in the north, he took
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: the first train south. He went among his own people
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: in Atlanta first, and then he went to the white people,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: to the governor, the mayor, the leading citizens, ministers, and merchants.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Largely through his wive's council and efforts, order was restored
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: and plans were made for the future. As a spokesman
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: for his people, he wrote constantly for the press. Such
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: papers as the Montgomery Advertiser, the Atlanta Constitution, the New
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Orleans Picayune, the Louisville Courier Journal, the Chicago inter Ocean,
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: and the Boston and New York papers gladly published his articles.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: He also contributed frequent articles to the weekly journals such
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: as The Outlook, and to the monthly magazines such as
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: The Century Magazine. He carried this phase of his leadership
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: even further than the current press, and that he made
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: some notable contributions to the historical literature of his race.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: The first book he wrote was Up from Slavery. This
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: is one of the greatest pieces of literature published in America.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: The Honorable Walter H. Page, late Ambassador to Great Britain, said,
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: the only books that I have read a second time,
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: or ever cared to read in the whole list of
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: literature relating to the Negro are Uncle Remus and Up
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: from Slavery, For these are the great literature of the subject.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: Believing the accomplishments of the race should be better known
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: to his own people, Washington determined to write a history
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: of the Negro. The Story of the Negro, the Rise
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: of the Race from Slavery, was the title of the
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: book he wrote, setting forth the wonderful progress of his people.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: Other books by him were My Larger Education, Learning with
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: the Hands. About eleven titles. In all these books are
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: of high literary marritas. And in no other way perhaps
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: did Washington so definitely place himself as a leader of
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: his people as in the realm of authorship. These books,
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: in addition to their literary value, were of great benefit
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: to the white race as well as to his own race,
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: and getting before all the people a proper estimate of
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: the real accomplishments of the Negro. One of the most
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: important phases of his leadership of the Negro was in
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: the organization of the National Negro Business League. It was
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: one of Washington's strongest beliefs that the Negro must prove
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: himself able to exist and prosper in business matters. The
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: race individually and collectively must demonstrate its ability to take
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: care of itself in all phases of industrial life. Another
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: of his important principles was that the Negro should emphasize
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: his opportunities rather than his drawbacks. As he went about
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: the country, he noted the wonderful progress made by the
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: Negro in all lines of business. He felt that it
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: would be a great inspiration to those who had achieved
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: success or leadership to know each other, and a still
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: greater encouragement to all the people if they knew the
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: real progress being made. Acting upon these ideas, he called
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: a meeting of representatives of a large number of businesses
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: to be held in Boston in August nineteen hundred. Here
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: was organized the National Negro Business League. Washington was made
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: present and continued to hold this office until his death
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: in nineteen fifteen. The organization brought together, from year to
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: year all the representative Negro businessmen of the country. They
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: made reports of their progress and planned for future advancement.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: The League has been a wonderful factor in the development
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: of the business life of the Negro. Several other organizations,
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: such as the Negro Press Association, the Negro Bar Association,
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: the Negro Funeral Directors Association, and others, have grown out
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: of this League. It was through this League, as perhaps
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: through no other agency, that the Negro learned of his
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: own great wealth, of his success in banking, in manufacturing
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: and merchandise, in the undertaking business, and in a large
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: number of other industries. It gave him a wonderful pride
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: in the accomplishments of his race. He knew that the
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: Negro was proving to the world that he possessed all
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: the elements necessary for handling any phase of his economic life.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: He could take care of himself in the business world.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: Washington did a great deal for the Negro farmer. It
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: has already been pointed out how he served the people
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: of his county and how the extension work of the
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: Institute was used to help the farmer. In addition to this,
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: he organized the Tuskegee Negro Conference in the beginning. This
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: was a sort of agricultultural experience meeting on a large scale.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: The good farmers from all the surrounding country were brought in,
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: and each was asked to relate his successful experience. Every
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: phase of farm life was covered. Every person present was
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: profited by the experience and the success of his neighbor.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: This conference has greatly broughten in scope and has grown
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: to be of large proportions and great influence. Washington was
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: truly the Moses of his people, as Andrew Carnegie has said,
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: He led them with great wisdom in their thought and
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: their conduct. He was their spokesman, their interpreter. He guided
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: them to higher and better things. He made the white
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: man and the Negro know each other better and understand
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: each other better. He lessened the friction between their races
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: and increased the good will. He brought encouragement and inspiration
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: to his own race, and gained the sympathy and cooperation
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: of the white race. Everywhere. He opposed ignorance and prejudice,
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: and injustice in any form. Because of his wisdom and
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: tact as a leader, not only the Negro, but the
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: entire nation was held end of Chapter twelve