



Produced by Bryan Ness, Meredith Bach, and the Online
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 _Compliments of_

 _BOOKER T. WASHINGTON_

 _Principal Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute
 Tuskegee Institute, Alabama_




 TUSKEGEE AND ITS PEOPLE




[Illustration: BOOKER T. WASHINGTON.]




 TUSKEGEE & ITS PEOPLE: THEIR IDEALS AND ACHIEVEMENTS


 EDITED BY

 BOOKER T. WASHINGTON



 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
 NEW YORK
 1906




 COPYRIGHT, 1905, BY
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY


_Published June, 1905_




PREFACE


In a general way the reading public is fairly well acquainted with the
work of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, but there is
continued demand for definite information as to just what the graduates
of that institution are doing with their education.

That inquiry is partly answered by this book. The scope of the Tuskegee
Institute work is outlined by the chapters contained in Part I, while
those of Part II evidence the fact that the graduates of the school are
grappling at first-hand with the conditions that environ the masses of
the <DW64> people.

At the school, in addition to the regular Normal School course of
academic work, thirty-six industries are taught the young men and women.
These are: Agriculture; Basketry; Blacksmithing; Bee-keeping;
Brickmasonry; Plastering; Brick-making; Carpentry; Carriage Trimming;
Cooking; Dairying; Architectural, Freehand, and Mechanical Drawing;
Dressmaking; Electrical and Steam Engineering; Founding; Harness-making;
Housekeeping; Horticulture; Canning; Plain Sewing; Laundering;
Machinery; Mattress-making; Millinery; Nurse Training; Painting;
Sawmilling; Shoemaking; Printing; Stock-raising; Tailoring; Tinning; and
Wheelwrighting.

Since the founding of the institution, July 4, 1881, seven hundred and
forty-six graduates have gone out from the institution, while more than
six thousand others who were not able to remain and complete the
academic course, and thereby secure a diploma, have been influenced for
good by it.

The school has sought from the very beginning to make itself of
practical value to the <DW64> people and to the South as well. It has
taught those industries that are of the South, the occupations in which
our men and women find most ready employment, and unflinchingly has
refused to abandon its course; it has sought to influence its young men
and women to live unselfish, sacrificing lives; to put into practise the
lessons taught on every side that make for practical, helpful every-day
living.

In the main those who go out from Tuskegee Institute, (1) follow the
industry they have been taught, (2) teach in a public or private school
or teach part of the year and farm or labor the rest, (3) follow
housekeeping or other domestic service, or (4) enter a profession or the
Government service, or become merchants. Among the teachers are many who
instruct in farming or some industry; the professional men are largely
physicians, and the professional women mostly trained nurses. Dr.
Washington, the Principal of the school, makes the unqualified
statement: "After diligent investigation, I can not find a dozen former
students in idleness. They are in shop, field, schoolroom, home, or the
church. They are busy because they have placed themselves in demand by
learning to do that which the world wants done, and because they have
learned the disgrace of idleness and the sweetness of labor."

No attempt has here been made to represent all of the industries; no
attempt has especially been made to confine representation to those who
are working at manual labor. The public, or at least a part of it,
somewhat gratuitously, has reached the conclusion that Tuskegee
Institute is a "servant training school," or an employment agency. That
is a mistaken idea.

The object of the school is to train men and women who will go out and
repeat the work done here, to teach what they have learned to others,
and to leaven the whole mass of the <DW64> people in the South with a
desire for the knowledge and profitable operation of those industries in
which they have in so large a measure the right of way. Tuskegee
students and graduates are never urged not to take such service,
especially not to refuse in preference to idleness, but it all involves
a simple, ordinary, economic principle. Capable men and women, skilled
in the industrial arts, are like those of all races--they seek the most
profitable employment. A blacksmith, a tailor, a brickmason, a
harness-maker, or other artisan, who can find work in shops and
factories, or independently, and make thirty to seventy-five dollars a
month, and even more, will not, simply because he is black, leave those
chances to accept service in private employment for fifteen dollars per
month, and less, and board himself. No school could covenant to train
servants for an indefinite tenure; it can at best only promise to train
leaders who shall go among the masses and lift them up; to train men and
women who shall in turn reach hundreds of others.

Those who write the following chapters represent, in the main, this
class. They have written simply, with perfect frankness, have dealt with
the significant things of their lives, and have demonstrated, the
writer believes, that from humble origin black men and women may
confidently be counted upon, with proper encouragement, to win success.
The chapters are autobiographical, significantly optimistic, with just
pride in what has been done, and outlining, as did "Up from
Slavery"--which was commended as a proper model--experiences from
childhood, the school-life of the writer, and the results achieved in
the direction of putting into practise what was learned in school.
Through this symposium it is hoped that the public may learn, in the
best possible way, some of the finer results already accomplished by the
Tuskegee Institute.

                                                                E. J. S.

             TUSKEGEE INSTITUTE, ALABAMA, _April 1, 1905_.




CONTENTS


                                                                    PAGE

 GENERAL INTRODUCTION                                                  1

 By Booker T. Washington.


 PART I

 THE SCHOOL AND ITS PURPOSES

 I.--PRESENT ACHIEVEMENTS AND GOVERNING IDEALS                        19

 By Emmett J. Scott, Mr. Washington's Executive Secretary.

 II.--RESOURCES AND MATERIAL EQUIPMENT                                35

 By Warren Logan, Treasurer of the School.

 III.--THE ACADEMIC AIMS                                              56

 By Roscoe C. Bruce, Director of the Academic Department.

 IV.--WHAT GIRLS ARE TAUGHT, AND HOW                                  68

 By Mrs. Booker T. Washington, Director of Industries for Girls.

 V.--HAMPTON INSTITUTE'S RELATION TO TUSKEGEE                         87

 By Robert R. Moton.


 PART II

 AUTOBIOGRAPHIES BY GRADUATES OF THE SCHOOL

 I.--A COLLEGE PRESIDENT'S STORY                                     101

 By Isaac Fisher, of Pine Bluff, Arkansas.

 II.--A SCHOOL PRINCIPAL'S STORY                                     111

 By William H. Holtzclaw, of Utica, Mississippi.

 III.--A LAWYER'S STORY                                              141

 By George W. Lovejoy, of Mobile, Alabama.

 IV.--A SCHOOL TREASURER'S STORY                                     152

 By Martin A. Menafee, of Denmark, South Carolina.

 V.--THE STORY OF A FARMER                                           164

 By Frank Reid, of Dawkins, Alabama.

 VI.--THE STORY OF A CARPENTER                                       173

 By Gabriel B. Miller, of Fort Valley, Georgia.

 VII.--COTTON-GROWING IN AFRICA                                      184

 By John W. Robinson, of Lome, Togo, West Africa.

 VIII.--THE STORY OF A TEACHER OF COOKING                            200

 By Mary L. Dotson, of Tuskegee Institute, Alabama.

 IX.--A WOMAN'S WORK                                                 211

 By Cornelia Bowen, of Waugh (Mt. Meigs), Alabama.

 X.--UPLIFTING OF THE SUBMERGED MASSES                               224

 By W. J. Edwards, of Snow Hill, Alabama.

 XI.--A DAIRYMAN'S STORY                                             253

 By Lewis A. Smith, of Rockford, Illinois.

 XII.--THE STORY OF A WHEELWRIGHT                                    264

 By Edward Lomax, of Tuskegee Institute, Alabama.

 XIII.--THE STORY OF A BLACKSMITH                                    276

 By Jubie B. Bragg, of Tallahassee, Florida.

 XIV.--A DRUGGIST'S STORY                                            285

 By David L. Johnston, of Birmingham, Alabama.

 XV.--THE STORY OF A SUPERVISOR OF MECHANICAL INDUSTRIES             299

 By James M. Canty, of Institute P. O., West Virginia.

 XVI.--A <DW64> COMMUNITY BUILDER                                     317

 By Russell C. Calhoun, of Eatonville, Florida.

 XVII.--THE EVOLUTION OF A SHOEMAKER                                 338

 By Charles L. Marshall, of Cambria, Virginia.




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


                                                                     FACING
                                                                       PAGE

BOOKER T. WASHINGTON                                         _Frontispiece_

EMMETT J. SCOTT                                                          20

Mr. Washington's Executive Secretary.

THE COLLIS P. HUNTINGTON MEMORIAL BUILDING                               26

WARREN LOGAN                                                             36

Treasurer of the School

THE OFFICE BUILDING IN PROCESS OF ERECTION                               50

Student carpenters shown at work.

ROSCOE C. BRUCE                                                          56

Director of the Academic Department.

A PORTION OF THE SCHOOL GROUNDS                                          64

ANOTHER PORTION OF THE SCHOOL GROUNDS                                    66

MRS. BOOKER T. WASHINGTON                                                68

Director of Industries for Girls.

A CLASS IN MILLINERY                                                     76

THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL                                                    94

Standing, left to right: P. C. Parks, Superintendent of Farm;
George W. Carver, Director, Agricultural Department; J. N. Calloway,
Land Extension; John H. Palmer, Registrar; Charles H. Gibson,
Resident Auditor; Edgar J. Penney, Chaplain.

Seated, left to right: Lloyd G. Wheeler, Business Agent; Robert R.
Taylor, Director of Mechanical Industries; John H. Washington,
General Superintendent of Industries; Warren Logan, Treasurer; Booker
T. Washington, Principal; Miss Jane E. Clark, Dean of Woman's
Department; Mrs. Booker T. Washington, Director of Industries for
Girls; and Emmett J. Scott, Secretary to the Principal.

The Director of the Academic Department, Roscoe C. Bruce, and the
Commandant of Cadets, Major J. B. Ramsey, also members of the
Executive Council, were absent when photograph