The Public Record
Booker Taliaferro Washington was an American educator, author, and orator. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the primary leader in the African-American community and of the contemporary Black elite.
Of one thing I felt more strongly convinced than ever, after spending this month in seeing the actual life of the coloured people, and that was that, in order to lift them up, something must be done more than merely to imitate New England…
To take the children of such people as I had been among for a month, and each day give them a few hours of mere book education, I felt would be almost a waste of time.
Notwithstanding what I have said about them in these respects, I have never seen a more earnest and willing company of young men and women than these students were.
They were all willing to learn the right thing as soon as it was shown them what was right.
I had to summon a good deal of courage to take a student who had been studying cube root and “banking and discount,” and explain to him that the wisest thing for him to do first was thoroughly master the multiplication table.
I learned that assistance given to the weak makes the one who gives it strong; and that oppression of the unfortunate makes one weak.
I am made to feel just as happy now when I am rendering service to Southern white men as when the service is rendered to a member of my own race.
The wrong to the Negro is temporary, but to the morals of the white man the injury is permanent.
Since this was true, we wanted to be careful not to educate our students out of sympathy with agricultural life, so that they would be attracted from the country to the cities, and yield to the temptation of trying to live by their wits.
It was often pathetic to note the gifts of the older coloured people, most of whom had spent their best days in slavery.
I was determined that no one should have the feeling that it was a foreign institution, dropped down in the midst of the people, for which they had no responsibility and in which they had no interest.
After considerable experience in coming into contact with wealthy and noted men, I have observed that those who have accomplished the greatest results are those who “keep under the body”; are those who never grow excited or lose…