Booker T. Washington, Builder of a Civilization

by Emmett J. Scott; Lyman Beecher Stowe

Besides these State tours he would, whenever he could take the time, shoot out into the country surrounding Tuskegee Institute to encourage and promote the efforts of his neighbors of his own race. In July, 1911, accompanied by some guests and members of his faculty, he made such a visit to Mt. Olive, a village on the east of Tuskegee. The party was first taken to the village church where they found a teeming congregation to greet them. Here Mr. Washington was introduced by the principal of the "Washington School" who said that since Mr. Washington's visit eighteen months ago the colored people had purchased forty-one lots, built several new houses, whitewashed or painted the old ones, and increased their gardens to such an extent that few, if any, had still to buy their vegetables.

Mr. Washington opened his talk by saying: "It is an inspiration simply to drive through and see your pleasant houses surrounded by flowers and gardens and all that goes to make life happy." He then appealed to the women to make their homes as attractive on the inside as the gardens had made them on the outside. He told them the best receipt for keeping the men and the children at home and out of mischief was to make the homes so attractive that they would not want to go away. Then, as always, before he closed he put in his warnings and injunctions to the derelict: "Paint your houses; if you can't paint them, whitewash them. Put the men to work in their spare hours repairing fences, gates, and windows. Get together in your church, as you have in your school-work, settle on a pastor and get him to live in your community. Pay him in order that he may live here and become a part of your community."

On another such trip through the southwestern part of Macon County, the county in which Tuskegee is located, he was once accompanied by Judge Robert H. Terrell, the Negro Judge of the District of Columbia; the Hon. Whitefield McKinlay, the Negro Collector of Customs for the District of Columbia; George L. Knox, owner and editor of the Indianapolis Freeman, a Negro newspaper; W.T.B. Williams, agent for the Anna T. Jeanes Fund and the Slater Board; Dr. Thomas Jesse Jones of the United States Census Bureau, and Lord Eustace Percy, one of the Secretaries of the British Embassy at Washington.

A party of friends who accompanied Dr. Washington on one of his educational tours through the State of Mississippi. In the party are Charles Banks, a leading Negro banker and business man of Mississippi; Bishop E. Cottrell; and on Dr. Washington's right, Robert R. Moton, his successor in the work at Tuskegee Institute.

One can well imagine with what pride the simple black farmers of Macon County displayed their products and their live stock to these distinguished representatives of both races headed by their own great neighbor and leader. At Mt. Andrew, one of the communities visited, the Farmers' Improvement Club had prepared an exhibit consisting of the best specimens of vegetables, fruits, and meats raised in the community. A report stated that the Negro people of the town owned over two hundred head of live stock and had over thirty houses which were either whitewashed or painted. When called upon for remarks, Mr. Washington expressed himself as greatly encouraged by what he had seen and said in conclusion, "Here in Macon County you have good land that will grow abundant crops. You have also a good citizenship, and hence there is every opportunity for you to make your community a heaven upon earth."

Booker Washington was always emphasizing the necessity of better conditions right here and now instead of in a distant future or in heaven. He was constantly combating the tendency in his people—a tendency common to all people but naturally particularly strong in those having a heritage of slavery—to substitute the anticipated bliss of a future life for effective efforts to improve the conditions of this present life. He was always telling them to put their energies into societies for the preservation of health and improvement of living conditions, instead of into the too numerous and popular sick benefit and death benefit organizations.

At the next stop of the party Mr. Washington was introduced to the assembled townspeople by a graduate of Tuskegee Institute, who was one of their leading citizens and most successful farmers. In this talk he urged the people to get more land and keep it and to grow something besides cotton. He said they should not lean upon others and should not go to town on Saturdays to "draw upon" the merchants, but should stay at home and "draw every day from their own soil corn, peas, beans, and hogs." He urged the men to give their wives more time to work around the house and to raise vegetables. (This, of course, instead of requiring them to work in the fields with the men as is so common.) He urged especially that they take their wives into their confidence and make them their partners as well as their companions. He assured them that if they took their wives into partnership they would accumulate more and get along better in every way.

There was no advice given by him more constantly or insistently in speaking to the plain people of his race, whether in country or city, than this injunction to the men to take their wives into their confidence and make them their partners. He recognized that the home was the basis of all progress and civilization for his race, as well as all other races, and that the wife and mother is primarily the conservator of the home.

One of the stops of the trip was at a little hamlet called Damascus. Here, in characteristic fashion, he told the people how much richer they were in soil and all natural advantages than were the inhabitants of the original Damascus in the Holy Land. He then argued that having these great natural advantages, much was to be expected of them, etc. Like all great preachers, teachers, and leaders of men he seized upon the names, incidents, and conditions immediately about him and from them drew lessons of fundamental import and universal application.