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w' “ ^^JSSSlJL Cbl'mg° ILLUSTRATED FEATURE SECTION—October 29, 1932 BLUK E,BBON WEER ,N
• __^. _
"REMINISCENCES”
By MARY WHITE OVINGTON
CHAPTER IV
Two Leaders
Many of the younger generation today think of
Washington as a myth and of DuBois as a back number.
But at the time that I began my investigations these two
men filled the stage, overshadowing other figures. And
with due respect to the youth of the present time, they
were greater figures than the new generation has yet
produced.
Of Washington I can only speak as a casual
acquaintance. He was far too busy a man to give his
time to a woman of very moderate means who, if she
subscribed at all to his school, would not be able to go
beyond the ten dollar bill. He meant Tuskegee to be
one of the best-equipped, best-taught schools in America.
Such time as he could take from his work, his home and
his friends was needed in making contacts that would
bring him large returns.
'
I first met him through John E. Milhollhnd at the
Hotel Manhattan where he always stayed. He gave
me one of the best pieces of advice I have ever hadr
“Always ask for more money than you think you can
get. I made the mistake of asking Carnegie for six hun
dred thousand. I believe he would have given me a
million.”
Mr. Washington’s autobiography.
“Up from Slavery,” is still one of
the world’s best sellers. The story
of how he dusted the schoolroom at I
Hampton three
times over and
was a c c e p ted
because of his
thoroughness is
typical of his
zest for perfec
tion, his ability
to eat up work.
He had a great
flow of ideas and
when at Tuske
gee (much of his
time was taken jjf_ Washington
up with railing
money) he kept Ms teachers so long
in consultation H*at they had to
negle-. their classes. When he
boarded a train the faculty drew a
sigh of relief, but soon telegrams
cime ordering innovations. He in
troduced many of fie best methods
of today for rural education.
Farm demonstration was done by
Tuskegee long before the govern
ment took it up. From Hampton he
learned the value of relating edu
cation to life, and it became a re
ligion with him. His people were
struggling, often blindly, for a
c ance to develop cheir power. He
told them t- do this where they
were, to become master wo kmen.
His famous Atlanta speech, “put
down your buckets ./here you are,”
applied to the colored laborer as
. well as to the white employer. Hard
work was now divorced from slav
ery. The Negro must resprect it,
must buy land, plant cropjs, white
wash houses, clean up back-yards.
One time he sen* word to the
Negroes for miles around Tus
kegee to come to the school.
They obeyed. When they got
there he told them to go back
and clear up their yards.
His favorite animal was the pig,
because, as he says in “Working
with the Hands,” it brings in the
largest returns. ' v
Many of his graduates went out
to teach, and the gosprel of making
the most of life where you are
spread among the race.
Whites Ate up This Doctrine
Of course, the whites ate up this
doctrine. Some distrusted him in
the South, he spent too much time
in the North where social equality
was practiced, but the North found
him a glorious prophet. The Negro
had of late been a harassing re
sponsibility. Now some one had
come with a happy solution of the
whole problem. Cease to think of
lynchings, of in just ce, of the loss of
the ballot. Help the Negro to help
himself. Make the Negro a good
workman by giving money to Tus
kegee. Washington was greeted with
acclaim and with profound relief.
He lectured in the largest hall the
town he visited could offer and saw
many turned away. Large gifts of
money came to him and Tuskeeee
grew.
Monroe Trotter Resists;
^ Lands in Jail
From the beginning there was ari
element among the Negroes that
viewed the situation with alarm.
Monroe Trotter of Boston was the
first to offer resistance and landed
in jail.
Jealousy of Washington’s power
grew. He held the purse strings.
Whom he endorsed received dollars
for their enterprises, while those he
failed to endorse had to be con
tented with stray pennies.
The whites wrote to him about
everything—the number of bath
tubs for the new YJVf. “'.A. (did the
Negro really care to wash?), the
best book on the color question.
Washington was too 1c ’el-headed to
become an Emporer Jones, but he
enjoyed hie power and meant to
keep.it. He was surrounded with
followers, not equals. A stream of
young teachers entered Tuskegee
one year and a swift-running rill
left it the next. Some felt the
place too much a spectacle. They
could no longer endure the proces
sion entering the chapel to the blare
of trumpets, with the white visitor
infallibly rising to exclainf with the
Queen of Sheba, “The half was not
told me.” Others found the prin
cipal failed to uphold their authori
ty with their pupils. And outside
the school, from Monroe Trotter on,
men began to question Washing
ton’s leadership.
White World Was Delighted
The white ;orld, in the meantime,
was delighted with their panacea.
“Give money to Hampton and Tus
kegee,” they said, “teach the Ne
On Both Sides of
the Fence
RICHARD T. GREENER
gro to be a good worker, and other
needful things will be added.”
But when Washington rose
to power, other things were
taken away.
To vote i- the South became
impossible.
School funds were voted by
the legislature according to the
per capita population, and di
vided by the whites among
themselves. This gave the
southern portion of state like
Alabama an enormous advan
tage over the northern part
where there were no Negro
children to be counted out.
Public opinion, moreover, de
manded that the Negroes should'
not complain. They mist work
hard and live on friendly relations
with their white neighbors. In the
cities Negro quarters were unim
proved, high schools did not exist
and should not be demanded. In
dustrial education was enough. This
affected the schools supported by
philanthropy.
Even Fisk Universit; had to in
troduce industrial training. And
Washington said nothing against
this. He probably felt that it was
his job to look after his school. Let
others look out for themselves.
A Recommendation from Booker T.
I used t-'s amused and saddened
by what I saw. Before long I was
known as one interested in the Ne
gro and 1 had many calls from col
ored men and women who needed
money for their work. Almost in
variably they began by handing me
some recommendation from Wash
ington endorsing them. It might be
a note or perhaps only a newspaper
clipping. It was presented as more
precious than gold. I would say
casually: “But I am r.ot in sympa
thy with Dr. Washington’s opinion.
Industrial training is only a small
part of what the Negro needs.”
Then it w.s as though an actor
dropped his mask. One man said
to me- with tears in his eyes: “I’ve
sat on Washington’s doorstep for
four years to get this piece of paper.
I couldn't raise a penny without it.
Four years.”
When the mask was dropped. I
would have a real talk, a talk as
between equals, and I would learn
that every Negro worth his salt
wanted the same thing, his rights
as a citizen of this republic.
Booker T. Never Captured
Atlanta U.
There was one school that Wash
ington never captured, Atlanta Uni
versity. Here that good old New
Englander, Horace Bumstesd, was
president, and here instri'-1 on in
higher education went on without
apology. And here was the only
Negro who at any time was a seri
ous rival to Washington, Burghardt
Du Bois.
Dr. Du Bois has written a slight
sketch of his life in “Dark Water.”
He had no dramatic background of
dire poverty. He wau. poor, but so
were the most oi his public school
playmates, the farmers’ and factory
workers’ boys and girls. He grew up
in the Berkshires and had a higher
education than his classmates, tak
ing his Ph.D. at Harvard after
graduate :tud at the Un ersity of
Berlin. He wrote a monurpental
vdume on the Negro in Philadel
phia and then went to Atlanta,
where he remained for many years
heading the depar’ nent o' eco
nomics and instituting the \tltnta
Sociological Studies, the first ex
tensive sociological studies of Negro
conditions in the United States.
Criticism and the 520 Check
I made his acquaintance original
ly through his writing. Some of the
essays in “The Souls of Black Folk”
appeared first in the Atlantic
Monthly where I
saw them and
learned of the in
humanity of race
• prejudice. I wrote
[ to him as soon as
f I received my fel
lowship, asking *s
advice. He was un
endingly kind. I
have a file of his
letters with me now
in which he advises
me regarding my
method of attack
ur. Du Bois gives me introduc
tions to important men and women,
accepts some of my criticisms of
his writing, I seem to have been
free with criticism, and in return
gave criticism.
At the end of a year, knowing that
his studies required support, at some
sacrifice I sent a check "or f renty
dollars to the University’s Socio
logical Fund. In his letter of thanks
he expressed disappointment: “I
didn’t know.” he said, “that I was
dealing wi'.i a mere millionaire."
Back of tiie joke was something
real. DuBois and his followers
wanted from the white man some
thing more than money. They
wanted a state of mind.
' I attended two notable confer
ences in 1906, reporting each for
the New York Evening Post, of *
which Oswald Garrison Villard was
then the editor. Or.e was the
Niagara Movement, headed by Du
Bois, the other the National Negro
Business League, headed by Wash
ington.
The league was an effort of
Washington to get the Negr:es who
were accomplishing something in
business to meet and pool their
experiences that they might learn
from one another. It met in the
summer in Atlanta shortly before
the terrible riots. The sessions were
designed to be pr tical talks,
though oraLr” occasionally added
savor to the feast. There were, I
remember, a rew contractors, one
from New Orleans did a large busi
ness, a number of bankers, and
some men in real estate.
Philip Payton
Philip Payton of New York was
in the audience. I went down the
church aisle and talked wi'h him,
but though we were in a colored
church I could
see that I made
h i m uneasy.
Lynchlngs were
going on at that
time in the city,
and perhaps he
was right in
thinking that
my c o r d i a
greeting might
endanger him.
It was the farm
ers, now ever, Payton
who gave the
meetings color and interest. They
told noble tales of money made in
cotton and corn.
“An 1 dt l’t let your neighbor
know you got a cent," one advised.
“Money’s harder t r keep that ter
make.”
Through all the meetings, Wash
ington presided with great tact.
When the talk grew acrimonious,
oe came in with an amusing story.
Continued on Page Four
How Times Change
Storer College, Harpers Ferry, so progressive
forty years ago that it was host to the radical
Niagara movement, last year turned down this
bronze tablet to John Brown offered by the
N.A.A.C.P.
