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

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  Speaker 1: Chapter thirteen of A Boy's Life of Booker T. Washington.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Dave Fixon. A Boy's
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  Speaker 1: Life of Booker T. Washington by W. C. Jackson, Chapter thirteen,
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  Speaker 1: Political Experiences. Most of the Negroes who gained any prominence
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  Speaker 1: or influence in the years just after the Civil War
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  Speaker 1: entered politics. Bruce and Revels had been United States Senators
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  Speaker 1: Elliott and Smalls, and a dozen others had been Congressmen. Pinchback, Lynch, Langston, Gibbs,
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  Speaker 1: and Greener had been sent for diplomatic service to foreign countries,
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  Speaker 1: and others had held high state offices. In a multitude
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  Speaker 1: of Negroes had been county and city officials of various kinds.
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  Speaker 1: Everybody expected Washington to accept some kind of political position,
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  Speaker 1: but he steadfastly refused. Time after time, men of his
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  Speaker 1: own race and white men urged him to run for
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  Speaker 1: office or accept an appointment by the president to high office.
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  Speaker 1: This he absolutely refused to do. He said that his service,
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  Speaker 1: whatever it was worth, would be given, not in politics,
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  Speaker 1: but in education. He believed that entirely too much emphasis
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  Speaker 1: had been placed on holding office by the Negro just
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  Speaker 1: after the war. He was more concerned about whether or
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  Speaker 1: not his people could have the opportunity to earn an
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  Speaker 1: honest living than he was about getting some political job.
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  Speaker 1: He was often misunderstood about his ideas on holding office
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  Speaker 1: and the whole question of the part the Negro should
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  Speaker 1: take in politics, for he was concerned that there were
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  Speaker 1: other things far more important at that time to the
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  Speaker 1: Negro than the matter of voting. There was one phase
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  Speaker 1: of politics, however, that Washington did keep in close touch with.
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  Speaker 1: This can be best explained by giving some of his
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  Speaker 1: correspondents Theodore Roosevelt immediately after taking the oath of office
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  Speaker 1: as President of the United States in Buffalo, after the
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  Speaker 1: death of President, McKinley wrote mister Washington the following note, Buffalo,
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  Speaker 1: New York, September fourteenth, nineteen o one. Dear mister Washington,
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  Speaker 1: I write you at once to say that, to my
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  Speaker 1: deep regret, my visit South must now be given up.
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  Speaker 1: When are you coming north? I must see you as
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  Speaker 1: soon as possible. I want to talk over the question
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  Speaker 1: of possible appointments in the South exactly on the lines
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  Speaker 1: of our last conversation together. I hope my visit to
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  Speaker 1: Tuskegee is merely deferred for a short season. Faithfully, Yours,
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  Speaker 1: signed Theodore Roosevelt Borker T. Washington, Esquire, Tuskegee, Alabama. In
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  Speaker 1: response to the above note, mister Washington went to the
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  Speaker 1: White House and discussed with the President possible future appointments
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  Speaker 1: in the South. Immediately following this conference with the President,
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  Speaker 1: there was a vacant judgeship in Alabama, which gave the
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  Speaker 1: President an opportunity to carry out his ideas about Southern appointments.
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  Speaker 1: He called upon Washington for advice, and Washington, being unable
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  Speaker 1: to go himself at the time, sent his secretary emm A. J.
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  Speaker 1: Scott to Washington as his representative. Largely upon the recommendation
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  Speaker 1: of Washington, Judge George Jones, a Democrat, was appointed to
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  Speaker 1: this position. This was an event of great significance. Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: when republican president of the United States appointed a Southern
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  Speaker 1: Democrat to office, it was done in accordance with the
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  Speaker 1: ideas of both the President and Washington that only men
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  Speaker 1: of the highest fitness, regardless of color, or party should
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  Speaker 1: receive appointment. From this time on, Washington was one of
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  Speaker 1: the president's chief advisers in Southern appointments. President Roosevelt of
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  Speaker 1: course appointed many Negroes. Also, he believed that when negroes
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  Speaker 1: possessed the proper qualifications for office, they should have a
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  Speaker 1: share in them. Washington did not try to get very
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  Speaker 1: many negroes appointed, but he did try to get the
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  Speaker 1: very best Negro when one was appointed. In other words,
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  Speaker 1: he was trying to improve the quality, rather than increase
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  Speaker 1: the quantity of Negro office holders. After one of Washington's
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  Speaker 1: speeches in which he laid special emphasis on this idea,
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  Speaker 1: President Roosevelt sent him the following letter, My dear Washington,
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  Speaker 1: that is excellent, and you have put epigrammatically just what
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  Speaker 1: I am doing. That is, though I have rather reduced
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  Speaker 1: the quantity, I have done my best to raise the
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  Speaker 1: quality of Negro appointments. With high regards, Sincerely, Yours, Theodore Roosevelt.
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  Speaker 1: Throughout the administrations of President Roosevelt and President Taft, Washington
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  Speaker 1: was constantly called into conference and rendered a lasting service
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  Speaker 1: to his own race and to the people of the
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  Speaker 1: country in giving wise counsel not only about politics, but
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  Speaker 1: about a great many things pertaining to the welfare of
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  Speaker 1: his people. Washington was often criticized very severely by members
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  Speaker 1: of his own race for his position with reference to voting.
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  Speaker 1: His ideas on this question are well stated in the
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  Speaker 1: following quotation. I am often asked to express myself more
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  Speaker 1: freely than I do upon the political condition and the
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  Speaker 1: political future of my race. My own belief is, although
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  Speaker 1: I have never before said so in so many words,
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  Speaker 1: that the time will come when the Negro in the
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  Speaker 1: South will be accorded all the political rights which his ability, character,
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  Speaker 1: and material possessions entitle him to. I think, though, that
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  Speaker 1: the opportunity to freely exercise such political rights will not
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  Speaker 1: come in any large degree through outside or artificial forcing,
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  Speaker 1: but will be accorded to the Negro by the Southern
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  Speaker 1: white people themselves, and that they will protect him in
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  Speaker 1: the exercise of these rights. Just as soon as the
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  Speaker 1: South gets over the feeling that it's being forced by
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  Speaker 1: foreigners or aliens to do something which it does not
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  Speaker 1: want to do, I believe that the change in the
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  Speaker 1: direction that I have indicated is going to begin again.
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  Speaker 1: He says. I contend that, in relation to his vote
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  Speaker 1: the Negro should more and more consider the interests of
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  Speaker 1: the community in which he lives, rather than seek alone
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  Speaker 1: to please someone who lives a thousand miles away from
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  Speaker 1: him and his interests. While he believed theoretically in universal
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  Speaker 1: free suffrage, he very frankly admitted that the peculiar conditions
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  Speaker 1: existing in the South made it necessary to put restrictions
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  Speaker 1: upon the ballot. He was opposed, however, to any discriminations
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  Speaker 1: in the law, and he urged with all his power
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  Speaker 1: that the negro be given good educational and business advantages,
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  Speaker 1: so that he might fit himself for the full responsibilities
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  Speaker 1: and duties of life. Washington himself never had any trouble
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  Speaker 1: about voting. He always registered and always voted, and no
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  Speaker 1: one ever raised an objection to his doing so. End
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  Speaker 1: of Chapter thirteen.