| CHAPTER | EIGHT |
BOOKER WASHINGTON AND THE NEGRO
BUSINESS MAN
IN 1900 Booker Washington founded the National Negro Business League. He was president of this league from its foundation until his death.
During the winter of 1900, after reviewing the situation at length with his friend T. Thomas Fortune, the Nestor of Negro journalism, and at that time the dominant influence in the New York Age, who was spending the winter at Tuskegee, with Mr. Scott and others of his friends, he came to the conclusion that the time had come to bring the business men and women of his race together in a great national organization, with local branches throughout the country. He decided that such an organization might be a powerful agency in creating the race consciousness and race pride for which he was ever striving. All the then-existing organizations, other than the sick and death benefit societies and the purely social organizations, had as their main purpose the assertion of the civil and political rights of the Negro. There was no organization calculated to focus the attention of the Negroes on what they were doing and could do for themselves in distinction from what was being done for them and to them. All the existing associations laid their chief emphasis upon the rights of the Negro rather than his duties. Mr. Washington held that without in any degree sacrificing their just demands for civil and political rights a more wholesome and constructive attitude could be developed by stressing the duties and the opportunities of the race. He believed it would be helpful to emphasize in an organized way what they had done and could do in the way of business achievement in spite of race prejudice rather than what they had not done and could not do because of racial discrimination. He believed they needed to have brought home to them not how many of them had been held down, but how many of them had come up and surmounted obstacles and difficulties. He believed that they should have it impressed upon them that the application of business methods would bring rewards to a black man just as to a white man.
The first meeting of the National Negro Business League was held in Boston, August 23 and 24, 1900. After these sessions Booker Washington made the following statement of the purpose in calling the meeting and the results obtained:
"As I have travelled through the country from time to time I have been constantly surprised to note the number of colored men and women, often in small towns and remote districts, who are engaged in various lines of business. In many cases the business was very humble, but nevertheless it was sufficient to indicate the opportunities of the race in this direction. My observation in this regard led me to believe that the time had come for the bringing together of the leading and most successful colored men and women throughout the country who are engaged in business. After consultation with men and women in various parts of the country it was determined to call a meeting in the city of Boston to organize the National Negro Business League. This meeting was held during the 23d and 24th of August, and it was generally believed that it was one of the most successful and helpful meetings that has ever been held among our people. The meeting was called with two objects in view: first, to bring the men and women engaged in business together, in order that they might get acquainted with each other and get information and inspiration from each other; secondly, to form plans for an annual meeting and the organization of local business leagues that should extend throughout the country. Both of these objects, I think, have been admirably accomplished. I think there has never been a time in the history of the race when all feel so much encouraged in relation to their business opportunities as now. The promoters of this organization appreciate very keenly that the race cannot depend upon mere material growth alone for its ultimate success, but they do feel that material prosperity will greatly hasten their recognition in other directions."
The spirit and purpose of this first national convention of Negro business men may be gathered by this quotation from the speech of J.H. Lewis, a merchant tailor, and perhaps the most successful business man of the race at the time: "But what hope has the Negro to succeed in business?" said Mr. Lewis. "If you can make a better article than anybody else, and sell it cheaper than anybody else, you can command the markets of the world. Produce something that somebody else wants, whether it be a shoe string or a savings bank, and the purchaser or patron will not trouble himself to ask who the seller is. This same great economic law runs through every line of industry, whether it be farming, manufacturing, mercantile or professional pursuits. Recognize this fundamental law of trade; add to it tact, good manners, a resolute will, a tireless capacity for hard work, and you will succeed in business. I have found in my own experience of thirty years in business that success and its conditions lie around us, regardless of race or color. I believe that it is possible for any man with the proper stuff in him to make a success in business wherever he may be. The best and only capital necessary to begin with is simply honesty, industry, and common sense."
The Boston Herald of August 24, 1900, said of this gathering: "The national convention of colored business men began its sessions in this city yesterday in a businesslike and hopeful manner. This is not a political gathering. It is not a race gathering in the sense of one met to air sentimental grievances that spring from race oppositions.... President Washington believes that the security and progress of the colored people in this land depend upon their development of a moral worth commanding respect and an industrial capacity that will make them both useful and independent. He apprehends that these qualities cannot be bestowed as a gift of benevolence, but must be acquired by individual energy and struggle. 'As I have noted,' he says, 'the condition of our people in nearly every part of our country, I have always been encouraged by the fact that almost without exception, whether in the North or in the South, wherever I have seen a black man who was succeeding in his business, who was a taxpayer, and who possessed intelligence and high character, that individual was treated with the highest respect by the members of the white race. In proportion as we can multiply those examples, North and South, will our problem be solved.' That is the great lesson that the members of the colored race have to learn. It will aid in extending this knowledge for those colored business men who have attained a measurable degree of success in life to meet for mutual encouragement and helpfulness."
Just fifteen years later, in August, 1915, Booker Washington presided over the last session of the league held during his lifetime. This meeting also was held in Boston. There attended it seven hundred delegates from thirty different States. Mr. Washington in his annual address as president summed up what had been accomplished by the race during the fifteen-year interval and projected what they should strive for in the future. He also took occasion publicly to thank his foremost colleagues in developing the work of the league, particularly Mr. Scott, the secretary of the league. Undoubtedly he fully realized that it was his farewell meeting. He practically collapsed before the sessions were over. In less than three months he was dead.