“Tenth. That we believe we can become prosperous, intelligent and independent where we are, and discourage any efforts at wholesale emigration, recognizing that our home is to be in the South, and we urge that all strive in every way to cultivate the good feeling and friendship of those about us in all that relates to our mutual elevation.”
At the present writing eight of these Conferences have been held. I shall not occupy space in describing in detail each one of these annual Conferences except to say that each Conference has grown in numbers, interest and value to the people. Very often as many as two thousand representatives assemble at these meetings, which are usually held in the latter part of February. Representatives now come from not only most all parts of Alabama but from practically all of the Southern States. Similar Conferences have also been organized in other states, notably Texas, South Carolina and North Carolina. Aside from these state Conferences, local Conferences which meet as a rule monthly and bring together the people in each community or county are now in existence in many parts of the South, and the people find these meetings a great means of helping themselves forward. One of our teachers at the present time gives the greater part of the year to the work of organizing and stimulating these local Conferences in various parts of the South. The people look forward eagerly each year to the assembling of the large or central Negro Conference at Tuskegee and they are always anxious to give their reports. The spirit of hopefulness and encouragement which now characterizes these Conferences, as compared with the rather depressed and hopeless feeling existing when the first Conference met, is most interesting. Many communities in the Conference held in recent years have been able to report that the people are ceasing to mortgage their crops, are buying land, building houses with two or three rooms, and their school terms in many cases have been extended from three to six and eight months, and that the moral atmosphere of the community has been cleansed and improved. These Conferences have served to make the people aware of their own inherent strength; to let them feel and understand how much they can do toward improving their own condition when once they make up their minds to make the effort, and the results from every point of view are most gratifying.
In order to show something of the spirit and interest that characterizes these Conferences I give verbatim extracts from a few addresses delivered at a recent Conference by some of these Black Belt Negroes. “This Conference is doing untold good,” said a very intelligent farmer and preacher of about fifty years of age who has attended all the Conferences. “Since I went back home from the first one and told the people about it they have gone to work and bought over two thousand acres of land. Much of it has already been paid for. I thank God on my knees for these Conferences. They are giving us homes.” Another man who could not come himself to a recent Conference sent a letter saying that seven of his neighbors had bought themselves homes. One woman reported that she had raised four hundred pounds of pork and had also raised corn enough to enable her to live without mortgaging her crop. Over one hundred in all reported that they had paid for homes. Another man said, “We are not what we ought to be, we are sadly lacking but we are one hundred per cent. better than we were twenty years ago and we are going to be better than we are.” Another remarked with a great deal of emphasis, “It makes a man more truthful when he owns land, and I know when he gives his word
TUSKEGEE NEGRO CONFERENCE FEB. 22, ’99. NEGRO FARMERS COMING OUT OF DINING HALL.
TAILORING DIVISION, TUSKEGEE NORMAL AND INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTE.