Booker T. Washington, Builder of a Civilization

by Emmett J. Scott; Lyman Beecher Stowe

"Keep your eye on that student after he has gone out into the world. He has learned to endure, he has learned to stick to his job in season and out of season...."

In a talk on "Standing Still," he said: "People say of us that, as a race, we are not capable of going very far, not capable of making steady, persistent progress. We go a little way and there we stop, stand still, and stagnate.... Now one of the things which this school aims to do for you and through you is to change, as far as possible, the reputation of our people in so far as they are regarded as unprogressive, lacking in initiative and in ability to go forward unwaveringly."

The concluding talk of this series, and perhaps the strongest of them all, was entitled, "Thou Shalt Not Steal." In it he said: "I believe if you could get down into the deep, dark corners of your own hearts, and if you could get deep down into the hearts of your parents, you could find there, in both cases, a misgiving, a sense of danger, never clearly expressed but always present, a fear that some time, somewhere, trouble was in store for you and for them.

"This is so far true, in some cases of which I know, that if parents should some day learn that their children were in trouble they would not be surprised, because they have expected it, looked forward to it, and feared it; because they have known and suspected all along that you had never thoroughly learned to control yourself when dealing with other people's property...."

Later on he added: "This disposition to pilfer was, to a large extent, a part of the history of slavery. It was rare when colored people who belonged to a white family where they served as cooks, butlers, or in some other form of household service, did not feel that everything belonging to the white family belonged equally to them. Thus, when freedom came, it was difficult to get the colored cook to feel that she was a mere employee, that in the wages she received by the week or month she was being paid for her services for cooking. It was very hard to get her away from the customs and practises of slavery, especially when receiving very small wages.

"In many cases boys and girls have seen or have known that their mothers kept up this practice of pilfering from persons for whom they cooked. They have seen it going on day after day and year after year in their own homes and have observed that employers seem to expect it, wink at it, at any rate, put up with it. While they know, as their parents know, that it is wrong, they have nevertheless come to feel that it is one of the ways in which black folk and white folk get on together; one of the indirect ways, in other words, in which black people have learned to recompense themselves for disadvantages which they suffer in other directions."

In conclusion he said: "Each one of you can do something toward solving the race problem, for example, by making, each for himself, a reputation for honesty in the community in which you live. If in the part of the country where you now live members of our race have a reputation for carelessness, looseness in regard to the ownership of property, you can help to solve the race problem, and make life here in the South more comfortable for every other member of the race if you will win for yourself a reputation for downright honesty and integrity in all your dealings with your neighbors, whether they be white or black."

Mr. Washington once said, "In all my teaching I have watched carefully the influence of the toothbrush, and I am convinced that there are few single agencies of civilization that are more far-reaching." He made periodic tours of the students' rooms to find out what students if any were without toothbrushes. The possession and use of a toothbrush is one of the entrance requirements for Tuskegee. In this connection he used to tell with a chuckle the reply of the girl who in answer to his question as to whose toothbrush he found on the washstand said, "That is ours," referring to her roommate and herself.

In his tours of inspection of the students' rooms he would also inquire how many nightgowns they owned. He insisted that every student should have at least two nightgowns. He was constantly impressing upon the students that decent, respectable people do not sleep in the garments in which they work during the day. In fact, he preached the gospel of the nightgown and the toothbrush as insistently as he did the gospel of work and simplicity.

He constantly insisted that the welfare of the students should be at all times the dominant consideration in the conduct of the institution. When the teachers would sometimes complain that their welfare was not sufficiently considered he would remind them that the Institute was being conducted for the benefit of the students and that teachers were not required except for the benefit of the students. That the students should be happy was almost a mania with him. He was constantly sending for officers and teachers to inquire as to whether the students seemed happy.