The Future of the American NegroWashington, Booker T.
History
The Future of the American Negro
Washington, Booker T.
African Americans
The recognition of this power led us to organise, five years ago, what
is known as the Tuskegee Negro Conference,--a gathering that
meets every February, and is composed of about eight hundred
representatives, coloured men and women, from all sections of the
Black Belt. They come in ox-carts, mule-carts, buggies, on muleback
and horseback, on foot, by railroad. Some travel all night in order to
be present. The matters considered at the conference are those that
the coloured people have it in their own power to control,--such as
the evils of the mortgage system, the one-room cabin, buying on
credit, the importance of owning a home and of putting money in the
bank, how to build school-houses and prolong the school term, and to
improve their moral and religious condition. As a single example of
the results, one delegate reported that since the conference was
started, seven years ago, eleven people in his neighbourhood had
bought homes, fourteen had gotten out of debt, and a number had
stopped mortgaging their crops. Moreover, a school-house had been
built by the people themselves, and the school term had been extended
from three to six months; and, with a look of triumph, he exclaimed,
"We's done libin' in de ashes."
Besides this Negro Conference for the masses of the people, we now
have a gathering at the same time known as the Tuskegee Workers'
Conference, composed of the officers and instructors of the leading
coloured schools in the South. After listening to the story of the
conditions and needs from the people themselves, the Workers'
Conference finds much food for thought and discussion. Let me repeat,
from its beginning, this institution has kept in mind the giving of
thorough mental and religious training, along with such industrial
training as would enable the student to appreciate the dignity of
labour and become self-supporting and valuable as a producing factor,
keeping in mind the occupations open in the South to the average man
of the race.
This institution has now reached the point where it can begin to judge
of the value of its work as seen in its graduates. Some years ago we
noted the fact, for example, that there was quite a movement in many
parts of the South to organise and start dairies. Soon after this, we
opened a dairy school where a number of young men could receive
training in the best and most scientific methods of dairying. At
present we have calls, mainly from Southern white men, for twice as
many dairymen as we are able to supply. The reports indicate that our
young men are giving the highest satisfaction, and are fast changing
and improving the dairy product in the communities where they labour.
I have used the dairy industry simply as an example. What I have said
of this industry is true in a larger or less degree of the others.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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