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 more I consider the subject, the more strongly I am convinced that
the most harmful effect of the practice to which the people in certain
sections of the South have felt themselves compelled to resort, in
order to get rid of the force of the Negroes’ ballot, is not wholly in
the wrong done to the Negro, but in the permanent injury to the morals
of the white man. The wrong to the Negro is temporary, but to the
morals of the white man the injury is permanent. I have noted time and
time again that when an individual perjures himself in order to break
the force of the black man’s ballot, he soon learns to practise
dishonesty in other relations of life, not only where the Negro is
concerned, but equally so where a white man is concerned. The white man
who begins by cheating a Negro usually ends by cheating a white man.
The white man who begins to break the law by lynching a Negro soon
yields to the temptation to lynch a white man. All this, it seems to
me, makes it important that the whole Nation lend a hand in trying to
lift the burden of ignorance from the South.
Another thing that is becoming more apparent each year in the
development of education in the South is the influence of General
Armstrong’s idea of education; and this not upon the blacks alone, but
upon the whites also. At the present time there is almost no Southern
state that is not putting forth efforts in the direction of securing
industrial education for its white boys and girls, and in most cases it
is easy to trace the history of these efforts back to General
Armstrong.
Soon after the opening of our humble boarding department students began
coming to us in still larger numbers. For weeks we not only had to
contend with the difficulty of providing board, with no money, but also
with that of providing sleeping accommodations. For this purpose we
rented a number of cabins near the school. These cabins were in a
dilapidated condition, and during the winter months the students who
occupied them necessarily suffered from the cold. We charge the
students eight dollars a month—all they were able to pay—for their
board. This included, besides board, room, fuel, and washing. We also
gave the students credit on their board bills for all the work which
they did for the school which was of any value to the institution. The
cost of tuition, which was fifty dollars a year for each student, we
had to secure then, as now, wherever we could.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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