Up from Slavery: An AutobiographyWashington, Booker T.
History
Up from Slavery: An Autobiography
Washington, Booker T.
African Americans -- Biography; Educators -- United States -- Biography; Tuskegee Institute; Washington, Booker T., 1856-1915
The number of people who stand ready to consume one’s time, to no
purpose, is almost countless. At one time I spoke before a large
audience in Boston in the evening. The next morning I was awakened by
having a card brought to my room, and with it a message that some one
was anxious to see me. Thinking that it must be something very
important, I dressed hastily and went down. When I reached the hotel
office I found a blank and innocent-looking individual waiting for me,
who coolly remarked: “I heard you talk at a meeting last night. I
rather liked your talk, and so I came in this morning to hear you talk
some more.”
I am often asked how it is possible for me to superintend the work at
Tuskegee and at the same time be so much away from the school. In
partial answer to this I would say that I think I have learned, in some
degree at least, to disregard the old maxim which says, “Do not get
others to do that which you can do yourself.” My motto, on the other
hand, is, “Do not do that which others can do as well.”
One of the most encouraging signs in connection with the Tuskegee
school is found in the fact that the organization is so thorough that
the daily work of the school is not dependent upon the presence of any
one individual. The whole executive force, including instructors and
clerks, now numbers eighty-six. This force is so organized and
subdivided that the machinery of the school goes on day by day like
clockwork. Most of our teachers have been connected with the
institutions for a number of years, and are as much interested in it as
I am. In my absence, Mr. Warren Logan, the treasurer, who has been at
the school seventeen years, is the executive. He is efficiently
supported by Mrs. Washington, and by my faithful secretary, Mr. Emmett
J. Scott, who handles the bulk of my correspondence and keeps me in
daily touch with the life of the school, and who also keeps me informed
of whatever takes place in the South that concerns the race. I owe more
to his tact, wisdom, and hard work than I can describe.
The main executive work of the school, whether I am at Tuskegee or not,
centres in what we call the executive council. This council meets twice
a week, and is composed of the nine persons who are at the head of the
nine departments of the school. For example: Mrs. B.K. Bruce, the Lady
Principal, the widow of the late ex-senator Bruce, is a member of the
council, and represents in it all that pertains to the life of the
girls at the school. In addition to the executive council there is a
financial committee of six, that meets every week and decides upon the
expenditures for the week. Once a month, and sometimes oftener, there
is a general meeting of all the instructors. Aside from these there are
innumerable smaller meetings, such as that of the instructors in the
Phelps Hall Bible Training School, or of the instructors in the
agricultural department.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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