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
In 1911 Mr. Washington visited Denmark with the particular purpose of
observing the world-famed agricultural methods of that country. While
in Copenhagen he was presented to the King and Queen. This experience
he described on his return to this country in an article published in
the New York _Age_, the well-known Negro paper, in December of the
same year. The portion of the article describing his meeting with the
King and Queen reads as follows:
"Soon after I entered, the Chamberlain went in and presently
returned to tell me the King would be ready to see me in
about five minutes. At the end of the five minutes exactly
the door was opened and I found myself in the King's
chamber. I had expected to see a gorgeously fitted
apartment, something to compare with what I had seen
elsewhere in the palace. Imagine my surprise when I found
practically nothing in the room except the King, himself.
There was not a chair, a sofa, or, so far as I can recall, a
single thing in the way of furniture--nothing except the
King and his sword. I was surprised again, considering the
formality by which he was surrounded, by the familiar and
kindly manner in which the King received me, and by his
excellent English. Both of us remained standing during the
whole interview, which must have lasted twenty minutes. I
say we remained standing, because, even had etiquette
permitted it we could not have done anything else because
there was nothing in the room for either of us to sit upon.
"I had been warned by the American Minister and Mr. Cavling,
however, as to what might be the result of this interview.
Among other things in regard to which I had been carefully
instructed by the American Minister was I must never turn my
back upon the King, that I must not lead off in any
conversation, that I must let the King suggest the subjects
to be discussed, and not take the initiative in raising any
question for discussion. I tried to follow Minister Egan's
instructions in this regard as well as I could, but I fear I
was not wholly successful.
"I had not been talking with the King many minutes before I
found that he was perfectly familiar with the work of the
Tuskegee school, that he had read much that I had written,
and was well acquainted with all that I was trying to do for
the Negroes in the South. He referred to the fact that
Denmark was interested in the colored people in their own
colony in the Danish West Indies, and that both he and the
Queen were anxious that something be done for the colored
people in the Danish possessions similar to what we were
doing at Tuskegee. He added that he hoped at some time I
would find it possible to visit the Danish West Indian
Islands.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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