The Future of the American NegroWashington, Booker T.
History
The Future of the American Negro
Washington, Booker T.
African Americans
It is not enough that the idea be inculcated that coloured people
should get book learning; along with it they should be taught that
book education and industrial development must go hand in hand. No
race which fails to do this can ever hope to succeed. Phillips Brooks
gave expression to the sentiment: "One generation gathers the
material, and the next generation builds the palaces." As I understand
it, he wished to inculcate the idea that one generation lays the
foundation for succeeding generations. The rough affairs of life very
largely fall to the earlier generation, while the next one has the
privilege of dealing with the higher and more aesthetic things of life.
This is true of all generations, of all peoples; and, unless the
foundation is deeply laid, it is impossible for the succeeding one to
have a career in any way approaching success. As regards the coloured
men of the South, as regards the coloured men of the United States,
this is the generation which, in a large measure, must gather the
material with which to lay the foundation for future success.
Some time ago it was my misfortune to see a Negro sixty-five years old
living in poverty and filth. I was disgusted, and said to him, "If you
are worthy of your freedom, you would surely have changed your
condition during the thirty years of freedom which you have enjoyed."
He answered: "I do want to change. I want to do something for my wife
and children; but I do not know how,--I do not know what to do." I
looked into his lean and haggard face, and realised more deeply than
ever before the absolute need of captains of industry among the great
masses of the coloured people.
It is possible for a race or an individual to have mental development
and yet be so handicapped by custom, prejudice, and lack of employment
as to dwarf and discourage the whole life. This is the condition that
prevails among the race in many of the large cities of the North; and
it is to prevent this same condition in the South that I plead with
all the earnestness of my heart. Mental development alone will not
give us what we want, but mental development tied to hand and heart
training will be the salvation of the Negro.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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