Booker T. Washington, Builder of a CivilizationScott, Emmett J. (Emmett Jay)
History
Booker T. Washington, Builder of a Civilization
Scott, Emmett J. (Emmett Jay)
African Americans -- Biography; Educators -- United States -- Biography; Washington, Booker T., 1856-1915
"The next morning I received a telegram from him asking me to call at
his office. When I entered he remarked that he had been present at the
meeting the night previous, and expected the 'hat to be passed,' but
as that was not done he wanted to 'chip in' something. Thereupon he
handed me ten one-thousand-dollar bills for the Tuskegee Institute. In
doing this he imposed only one condition, that the gift should be
mentioned to no one. Later on, however, when I told him that I did not
care to take so large a sum of money without some one knowing it, he
consented that I tell one or two of our Trustees about the source of
the gift. I cannot now recall the number of times that he has helped
us, but in doing so he always insisted that his name be never used. He
seemed to enjoy making gifts in currency."
In an article published in _McClure's Magazine_ in May, 1902,
Rear-Admiral Robley D. Evans thus describes the occasion on which he
presented Booker Washington to Prince Henry of Prussia: "The first
request made by Prince Henry, after being received in New York, was
that I should arrange to give him some of the old Southern melodies,
if possible, sung by Negroes; that he was passionately fond of them,
and had been all his life--not the ragtime songs, but the old Negro
melodies. Several times during his trip I endeavored to carry out his
wishes, with more or less success; but finally, at the Waldorf-Astoria,
the Hampton singers presented themselves in one of the reception rooms
and gave him a recital of Indian and Negro melodies. He was charmed.
And while I was talking to him, just after a Sioux Indian had sung a
lullaby, he suddenly turned and said: 'Isn't that Booker T. Washington
over there?' I recognized Washington and replied that it was, and he
said: 'Evans, would you mind presenting him to me? I know how some of
your people feel about Washington, but I have always had great
sympathy with the African race, and I want to meet the man I regard as
the leader of that race.' So I went at once to Washington and told him
that the Prince wished him to be presented, and took him, myself, and
presented him to the Prince. Booker Washington sat down and talked
with him for fully ten minutes, and it was a most interesting
conversation, one of the most interesting I ever heard in my life. The
ease with which Washington conducted himself was very striking, and I
only accounted for it afterward when I remembered that he had dined
with the Queen of England two or three times, so that this was not a
new thing for him. Indeed, Booker Washington's manner was easier than
that of almost any other man I saw meet the Prince in this country.
The Prince afterward referred to President Roosevelt's action in
regard to Booker Washington, and applauded it very highly."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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