Booker T. Washington Part 9

One secret of Booker Washington's leadership was that he always had his ear to the ground and his feet on the ground. Some one has said that "a practical idealist is a man who keeps his feet on the ground even though his head is in the clouds." Booker Washington was that kind of an idealist. He kept in constant and intimate touch with the ma.s.ses of his people, particularly with those on the soil. Like the giant in the fable who doubled his strength every time he touched the ground, Booker Washington seemed to renew his strength every time he came in contact with the plain people of his race, particularly the farmers. No matter how pressed and driven by multifarious affairs, he could always find time for a rambling talk, apparently quite at random, with an old, uneducated, ante-bellum black farmer. Sometimes he would halt the entire business of a national convention in order to hear the comment of some simple but shrewd old character. He had a profound respect for the wisdom of simple people who lived at close grips with the realities of life.

At the 1914 meeting of the National Negro Business League at Muskogee, Okla., a Mr. Jake ----, who had started as an ignorant orphan boy, delighted Mr. Washington's heart when he testified: "When I first started out I lived in a chicken house, 12 14 feet; now I own a ten-room residence, comfortably furnished, and in a settlement where we have a good school, a good church, and plenty of amus.e.m.e.nt, including ten children."

After the laughter and applause had subsided Mr. Washington asked: "Do you think there is the same kind of an opening out here in Oklahoma for other and younger men of our race to do as you have done and to succeed equally as well?"

To which Mr. Jake replied: "... I think I have succeeded with little or no education, and it stands to reason that some of the graduates from these industrial and agricultural schools ought to be able to do better than I have done."

Which was, of course, just the answer Mr. Washington hoped he would make.

Mr. Washington's instinct for keeping close to the plain people was perhaps best ill.u.s.trated by his tours through the far Southern States for the improvement of the living conditions of his people, the tours to which allusion has several times been made. His insistence upon cleanliness, neatness, and paint became so well known that his approach to a community frequently caused frantic cleaning up of yards, mending of gates, and painting of houses. These sudden converts to paint sometimes found out from which side the great man was to approach their house and painted only that side and the front.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Mr. Washington in characteristic pose addressing an audience.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Mr. Washington silhouetted against the crowd upon one of his educational tours.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Mr. Washington in typical pose speaking to an audience at Shreveport, La.]

When he spoke to his people on these trips he had the faculty of becoming one of them. He described their daily lives in their own language. He told them how much land they owned, how much of it was mortgaged, how much and what they raised, and in fact every vital economic and social fact about their lives and the conditions about them. He praised them for what was creditable, censured and bantered them for what was bad, and told them what conditions should be and how they could make them so.

He made these tours through Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Florida, Louisiana, and portions of Alabama and Georgia.

Besides these State tours he would, whenever he could take the time, shoot out into the country surrounding Tuskegee Inst.i.tute 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 princ.i.p.al 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 Emba.s.sy at Washington.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 Inst.i.tute.]

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 subst.i.tute the antic.i.p.ated 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 a.s.sembled townspeople by a graduate of Tuskegee Inst.i.tute, 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 Sat.u.r.days 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 a.s.sured them that if they took their wives into partnership they would acc.u.mulate 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.

The efforts of the Negro farmers on these trips to get a word of approval from their great leader were often pathetic. One old man had a good breed of pigs of which he was particularly proud. He contrived to be found feeding them beside the road just as the great man and his party were pa.s.sing. The simple ruse succeeded. Mr. Washington and his companions stopped and every one admired the proud and excited old man's pigs. And then after the pigs had been duly admired, he led them to a rough plank table upon which he had displayed in tremulous antic.i.p.ation of this dramatic moment a huge pumpkin, some perfectly developed ears of corn, and a l.u.s.ty cabbage. After these objects had also been admired the old man decoyed the party into the little whitewashed cottage where his wife had her hour of triumph in displaying her jars of preserves, pickles, cans of vegetables, dried fruits, and syrup together with quilts and other needlework all carefully arranged for this hoped-for inspection.

The basic teaching of all these tours was: "Make your own little heaven right here and now. Do it by putting business methods into your farming, by growing things in your garden the year around, by building and keeping attractive and comfortable homes for your children so they will stay at home and not go to the cities, by keeping your bodies and your surroundings clean, by staying in one place, by getting a good teacher and a good preacher, by building a good school and church, by letting your wife be your partner in all you do, by keeping out of debt, by cultivating friendly relations with your neighbors both white and black."

Mr. Washington was constantly bringing up in the Tuskegee faculty meetings cases of distress among the colored people of the county, which he had personally discovered while off hunting or riding, and planning ways and means to relieve them. Apparently it never occurred to him that technically, at least, the fate of these poor persons was not his affair nor that of his school. At one such meeting he told of having come upon while hunting a tumbledown cabin in the woods, within it a half-paralyzed old Negro obviously unable to care for his simple wants. Mr. Washington had stopped, built a fire in his stove, and otherwise made him comfortable temporarily, but some provision for the old man's care must be made at once. One of the teachers knew about the old man and stated that he had such an ugly temper that he had driven off his wife, son, and daughter who had until recently lived with him and taken care of him. The young teacher seemed to feel that the old man had brought his troubles upon his own head and so deserved little sympathy. Mr. Washington would not for a moment agree to this.

He replied that if the old fellow was so unfortunate as to have a bad temper as well as his physical infirmities that was no reason why he should be allowed to suffer privation. He delegated one of the teachers to look up the old man's family at once and see if they could be prevailed upon to support him and to report at the next meeting what had been arranged. In the meantime he would send some one out to the cabin daily to take him food and attend to his wants.

At another faculty meeting he brought up the plight of an old woman who was about to be evicted from her little shack on the outskirts of the town because of her inability to pay the nominal rent which she was charged. He arranged to have her rent paid out of a sum of money which he always had included in the school budget for the relief of such cases. In such ways he was constantly impressing upon his a.s.sociates the idea that was ever a mainspring of his own life--namely, that it was always and everywhere the duty of the more fortunate to help the less fortunate.

While he was sometimes severe with his more prosperous and better educated a.s.sociates he was always considerate and thoughtful of the ignorant, the old, and the weak. He was never too busy to delight the heart of a white-haired old man who had been the original cook of the school by listening to his stories about the early days, or to discuss with another old man his experiences in the Civil War. He would never betray the least impatience in listening to these old men tell him the same story for the five hundredth time. Although the real usefulness of both these old fellows had long pa.s.sed he never showed them by word or deed that he did not regard them as useful and valuable members of his staff.

Another old character to whom he invariably showed kindness and patience was a crack-brained old itinerant preacher who kept up an endless stream of unintelligible pious jargon. This old fellow would harangue the air for hours at a time right outside the Princ.i.p.al's busy office, but he would never allow him to be stopped or sent away and always sent or gave him a small contribution at the conclusion of his tirades, if indeed they could be said to have any conclusion.

Booker Washington had a weakness for the picturesque ne'er-do-wells of his race. One such old fellow, who lived near Tuskegee and who had always displayed great ingenuity in extracting money from him, one day, when he was driving down the main street of Tuskegee behind a pair of fast and spirited horses, rushed out into the street and stopped him as though he had a matter of the greatest urgency to impart to him. When Mr. Washington had with difficulty reined in his horses and asked him what he wanted the old man said breathlessly, "I'se got a tirkey for yo' Thanksgivin'!"

"How much does it weigh?" inquired Mr. Washington.

"Twelve to fifteen poun'."

After thanking the old man warmly, Mr. Washington started to drive on when the old fellow added, "I jest wants to borrow a dollar for to fatten yo' turkey for you!"

With a laugh Mr. Washington handed the old man the dollar and drove on. He never could be made to feel that by these spontaneous generosities he was encouraging thriftlessness and mendicancy. He was incorrigible in his unscientific open-handedness with the poor, begging older members of his race.

At the time of the Tuskegee teachers' annual picnic, usually held in May, many of these old colored people would attend uninvited and armed with huge empty baskets. Mr. Washington always greeted them like honored guests and allowed them to carry off provisions enough to feed large families for days. He would also introduce them to the officers and teachers of the school and to any invited guests who might be present.

Old man Harry Varner was the night watchman of the school in its early days and a man upon whom Mr. Washington very much depended. He lived in a cabin opposite the school grounds. After hearing many talks about the importance of living in a real house instead of a one or two room cabin, old Uncle Harry finally decided that he must have a real house.

Accordingly he came to his employer, told him his feeling in the matter, and laid before him his meagre savings, which he had determined to spend for a real house. Mr. Washington went with him to select the lot and added enough out of his own pocket to the scant savings to enable the old man to buy a cow and a pig and a garden plot as well as the house. From then on for weeks he and old Uncle Harry would have long and mysterious conferences over the planning of that little four-room cottage. It is doubtful if Dr. Washington ever devoted more time or thought to planning any of the great buildings of the Inst.i.tute. No potentate was ever half as proud of his palace as Uncle Harry of his four-room cottage when it was finally finished and painted and stood forth in all its glory to be admired of all men. And Booker Washington was scarcely less proud of it than Uncle Harry.

With Uncle Harry Varner, Old Man Brannum, the original cook of the school to whom reference has already been made, and Lewis Adams of the town of Tuskegee, whom Mr. Washington mentions in "Up from Slavery" as one of his chief advisers, all unlettered-before-the-war Negroes, his relationship was always particularly intimate. These three old men enjoyed the confidence of the white people of the town of Tuskegee to an unusual extent and often acted as amba.s.sadors of good-will between the head of the school and his white neighbors when from time to time the latter showed a disposition to look askance at the rapidly growing inst.i.tution on the hill beyond the town.

Another intimate friend of Mr. Washington's was Charles L. Diggs, known affectionately on the school grounds as "Old Man Diggs." The old man had been body servant to a Union officer in the Civil War and after the war had been carried to Boston, where he became the butler in a fashionable Back Bay family. When Mr. Washington first visited Boston, as an humble and obscure young Negro school teacher pleading for his struggling school, he met Diggs, and Diggs succeeded in interesting his employers in the sincere and earnest young Negro teacher. When years afterward the Inst.i.tute had grown to the dignity of needing stewards, Mr. Washington employed his old friend as steward of the Teachers' Home. In all the years thereafter hardly a day pa.s.sed when Mr. Washington was at the school without his having some kind of powwow with Old Man Diggs regarding some matter affecting the interests of the school.

To the despair of his family Booker Washington seemed to go out of his way to find forlorn old people whom he could befriend. He sent provisions weekly to an humble old black couple from whom he had bought a tract of land for the school. He did the same for old Aunt Harriet and her deaf, dumb, and lame son, except that to them he provided fuel as well. On any particularly cold day he would send one or more students over to Aunt Harriet's to find out if she and her poor helpless son were comfortable. Also every Sunday afternoon, to the joy of this pathetic couple, a particularly appetizing Sunday dinner unfailingly made its appearance. And these were only a few of the pensioners and semi-pensioners whom Booker Washington acc.u.mulated as he went about his kindly way.

One means of keeping in touch with the ma.s.ses of his people which he never neglected was through attending the annual National Negro Baptist Conventions. At these great gatherings he came in touch with the religious leaders of two million Negroes. Notwithstanding the fact that he practically collapsed at the annual meeting of the National Negro Business League held in Boston in August, 1915, and had to be nursed for some weeks following before he was even strong enough to return to Tuskegee, he insisted in spite of the admonitions of physicians and the pleadings of friends, family, and colleagues, in keeping his engagement to speak before this great convention in Chicago in September. To all protests he replied, "It would do me more harm to stay away than to go." With these words, and rallying the rapidly waning dregs of his once great strength he went and made an address which ranks with the most powerful he ever delivered to his people. A threatened split in the Baptist denomination in part accounted for his insistence upon attending this convention. In this address, delivered only two months before he died of sheer exhaustion, and the last he made before any great body of his own people, he said in part:

"My only excuse for accepting your invitation to appear before you in these annual gatherings is that I am deeply interested in all that this National Baptist Convention stands for. It is in my opinion the largest and most representative body of colored people anywhere in the world.... I believe most profoundly in the work of this convention because it represents the common ma.s.ses of all our people, those who are the foundation of our success as a race. I believe in you because you do not pretend to represent the cla.s.ses but the ma.s.ses of our people. I am here, too, because the Baptist Church among our people throughout the country is affording them an opportunity to get lessons in self-government in a degree that is true of few other organizations.

"You who control this great convention have before you a great opportunity and along with this opportunity a tremendous responsibility. It is given to you, as to all men, to pursue one of two courses, and that is, to be big leaders or little leaders. You can construct or you can destroy. The time is now at hand when in each individual church organization and each district a.s.sociation and each State convention and in this great national convention, the little man must give way and let the big, broad, generous man take his place.

Nothing is ever gained in business, in education, or in religious work by being little, narrow, or jealous in our sympathies and activities."

Two days later, after he had left the convention and returned home, Mr. Washington received word that the convention had split, contending leaders holding out for what they termed principles. Immediately on the receipt of this report he dispatched the following telegram to the leaders of the two opposing factions:

I earnestly beg and urge that each convention remain in session until all differences are composed. In the event this cannot be done I hope each convention will empower a small committee or authorize some one to appoint committees that may have power in settling present difficulties so that next year there may be but one convention. It is easier now to bring about reconciliation than it will be later. It will be a calamity to the Baptist Church and to our race for the present split to continue. It will soon spread to all the Baptist churches in all the States. I would urge that each side manifest a broad liberal spirit and be willing to sacrifice something for the good of the cause. Millions of our humble people throughout the country are depending upon our leaders to settle their difficulties in a Christian spirit and they should not be disappointed. If I may be used at any time in any way my services are at your command. Have sent a similar telegram to Dr. ----.

[Signed] BOOKER T. WASHINGTON.

Unhappily he did not have the satisfaction of bringing the two factions together before he died, but until the last he continued his efforts in this direction.

Largely because of his intimate knowledge of the plain people Booker Washington appealed to the great of the earth. In his books, "Up from Slavery," "The Story of My Life and Work," and "My Larger Education,"

he tells of taking tea with Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle, of his a.s.sociation with Presidents McKinley, Roosevelt, and Taft, of his introduction to Prince Henry of Prussia, of his dining with the King and Queen of Denmark, and of his long friendships with William H.

Baldwin, Jr., Robert C. Ogden, Henry H. Rogers, John D. Rockefeller, and Andrew Carnegie. He was of value and interest to such people largely because of his closeness to his own people. His power to interest such people was largely because he was so close to the rank and file of his own people.

After the death of Henry H. Rogers, Mr. Washington said of him in an interview published at the time in the New York _Evening Post_: "The more experiences I have of the world, the more I am convinced that the only proper and the only safe way to judge any one is at first hand and by your actual experience. It seems to me that, outside of the immediate members of my family, I knew the late Henry H. Rogers during the last fifteen years as well as I could know any one. Of all the men that I have ever known intimately, no matter what their station in life, Mr. Rogers always impressed me as being among the kindest and gentlest. That was the impression he made upon me the first time I ever met him, and during the fifteen years that I knew him that impression was deepened every time I met him." (And this was Booker Washington's impression of the second greatest figure in the building up of the huge, world-powerful corporation whose methods during its period of rapid expansion had at that time been only recently described in _McClure's Magazine_ by Ida M. Tarbell.) "I am sure that the members of his family will forgive me for telling, now that he has laid down his great work and gone to rest, some things about him which I feel that the public should know but which he always forbade me to mention while he lived.