Tuscaloosa Schools During the Jim Crow Era: Booker T. Washington's Visit, 1910
At the request of Jeremiah Barnes, Booker T. Washington delivered a speech at First African Baptist Church in Tuscaloosa on Sunday, February 20, 1910. Benjamin Barnes, Tuskegee alumnus and city schoolteacher, announced the lecture in the Tuscaloosa News weeks before the event. Below are the transcriptions of the initial request, announcement, and extensive media coverage of the event.
Document 1: Announcing Washington's Visit
Benjamin H. Barnes of the colored public schools faculty and himself an alumnus of the Tuskegee Institute, has succeeded in getting a date for a lecture from Booker T. Washington. Washington will be in Tuscaloosa on February 20th and will speak at the colored Baptist Church sometime during the evening, the exact time to be announced later.
Booker Washington has never been to Tuscaloosa and his coming will be a great event in the history of the colored people of the city. His coming will be a great event in the history of the colored people of the city. His coming will be view also with the greatest interest by the white people and special seas in the church will be provided for white people on the occasion of Washington’s visit to the city.
Source: “Booker T. Washington Coming to Tuscaloosa,” The Tuscaloosa Times-Gazette, December 25, 1909, 6.
Booker Washington has never been to Tuscaloosa and his coming will be a great event in the history of the colored people of the city. His coming will be a great event in the history of the colored people of the city. His coming will be view also with the greatest interest by the white people and special seas in the church will be provided for white people on the occasion of Washington’s visit to the city.
Source: “Booker T. Washington Coming to Tuscaloosa,” The Tuscaloosa Times-Gazette, December 25, 1909, 6.
Document 2: Booker T. Washington's Lecture
B. T. Washington in Tuscaloosa
The Noted Leader of the Colored Race Makes a Great Address at the African Baptist Church, Heard by Many White People.
Sunday was a red letter day for the colored people of Tuscaloosa, and it was not without importance to the white people, in that it marked the first visit to this city of Booker T. Washington, head of the Tuskegee Institute, and the most notable man of the colored race to the whole world.
The visit of Washington to Tuscaloosa was brought about by Benjamin H. Barnes, a former pupil of his, now a member of the faculty of the Tuscaloosa Public Schools for the colored people. Dr. Washington and his party, consisting of his son, Davidson, and Rev. A. F. Owens, dean of the Bible Schools of the Institute at Tuskegee, arrived in Tuscaloosa at noon. They were met by the following committee of colored citizens, Prof. B. H. Barnes, W. E Pickett, Dr. Geo. A. Weaver, William R. Brown, James G. Balls, H. L. Goins, Rev. W. L. Yamblin [sic], Ed Spencer and Nathan Luffboro. In addition to the committee there were several hundred colored people at the depot, to greet the noted leader.
The address of Dr. Washington occurred at half-past two o’clock at the colored Baptist Church, the visitors being driven to the church in carriages. The reception accorded the party was a very enthusiastic one and the entrance to the church was marked by applause. The church was crowded to suffocation almost. The pastor says the church is intended to seat 1500 and every seat was filled, the aisles were crowded, the pulpit and choir were crowded and many stood around the doors and windows. It was much the largest gathering of colored people ever seen in Tuscaloosa. In the audience were many white people of more or less prominence, a number of ladies being present.
On the platform were representatives of the different colored churches in Tuscaloosa and a member of prominent citizens and the following white gentlemen: Mayor W. M. Faulk, President John W. Abercrombie of the University, Pastor L. O. Dawson, pastor of the Tuscaloosa Baptist Church, Rev. R. B. McAlpine, Mr. Robinson Brown, Tom Garner of the Tuscaloosa Times-Gazette and others.
The following was the program carried out at the church;
1st. Anthem – “Princes & wake,” Rosborough, - Choir.
2nd. Invocation, - Rev. C. A. Smiley
3rd. Preliminary Remarks, and Presenting the Rev. J. H. Smith, as Master of Ceremonies, by Benj. H. Barnes.
4th. Remarks, - Jeremiah Barnes, Principal Negro City Schools.
5th, Negro Melody, - “Rise and Shine” – Choir.
6th, Remarks – Representing Negro Business League, by Dr. G. A. Weaver.
7th, Remarks, - Hon. W. M. Faulk, M.D., Mayor.
8th, Anthem – “Calm on the Listening Ear” – Choir.
9th, Remarks, - Dr. J. G. Snedecor, Pres. Stillman Institute.
10th, Remarks – Dr. John W. Abercombrie, Pres, U. of Ala.
11th, Remarks – Rev. L. O. Dawson, D.D. (White Churches.)
12th, Remarks – Rev. W. L. Hamblin, (For Negro Churches.)
13th, Negro Melody, “Couldn’t Hear Nobody Pray” – Choir.
14th, Address, - Booker T. Washington, A.M., LL.D.
15th, “The Old Camp Meeting” – Choir and Congregation.
16th, Dismission [sic].
NOTE – Remarks limited to three minutes.
Benj. H. Barnes, Chairman of Committee,
W. E. Pickett, Secretary.
This was a very special program and was carried out to the letter, the only absentee being Rev. J. G. Snedecor, who sent his regrets at his unavoidable absence from the city. The different expressions in the welcome addresses were very happy. Rev. J. H. Smith, pastor of the colored Baptist Church, made a very excellent presiding officer and his introduction of the chief guest of the occasion was very eloquent. The Mayor’s remarks were timely, Dr. Abercombie paid a high tribute to Washington’s work and Pastor Dawson made a most admirable welcome.
In Prof. Jeremiah Barnes’s remarks, he read the following letter from Col. J. T. Murfee, formerly president of Howard College and of Marion Institute:
Tuscaloosa, Ala., Feb. 19th, ’10.
Prof. Jere. Barnes, Principal
Colored Schools, Tuscaloosa, Ala.
When I first learned of the purpose of Dr. Booker T. Washington coming to Tuscaloosa, my desire was to call on him on his arrival and to attend his lecture. I now regret that confined to the sick room for more than a week will present my desired purpose.
Having had some part in bringing him to Alabama is one of the most pleasing memories of my life; for his coming and his work has brought blessings to our race and to his own that will be more and more apparent as the ages go on.
Before he began his work in the State the prospects were most unpromising; schools were conducted on the false ideas that mere book or classical learning would exempt from labor, that book learning was the only essential for securing what ever was most desirable.
These false ideas encouraged by the schools were having a most pernicious influence throughout the South and the nation, until Dr. Booker T. Washington began his work in Alabama.
He has by example and teaching shown the fallacy of these pernicious ideas, and replaced them by correct outlines of character, morals, conduct and education.
So great has been the improvement in Negro education and the relation of the races, that his ideas now dominate not only in Alabama and the entire South, but influence the whole nation.
He proposes to have for his people a Semi-Centennial of their liberation from Slavery, in which they will show (1) the value of their religious and civil training by their old Southern Masters and Mistresses. (2) To show what industrial and home training has done for the Negroes since the Emancipation.
How broad and just in this purpose and how evidence will be the blessings to both races. Justice will be done to the docility and fidelity of the old slaves, honor will be given throughout the world to the much misunderstood and much censured slave owners; and the true standard of education and morals will be given your race as a happy and profitable guide to all the future.
The exhibition will show to all the world; (1) That the Southern people are the only ones in all history, who took a savage race and brought it to civilization and religion while holding it in bondage for which they were not primarily responsible. (2) That a Southern man, Booker T. Washington a Virginia-half African and half Anglo Saxon a pupil of the great and good Gen. Armstrong, a Federal Soldier of the Civil War, has done more for the development of thorough moral, industrial, and religious Education than any other man.
I hope that all the States and that Congress will make liberal appropriations to carry out the wise and noble purpose of Dr. Washington.
In conclusion, I request that you read this letter to the audience that will assemble tomorrow to hear Dr. Washington; and afterwards, present to him with my compliments and best wishes for his personal future and the cause of which he is the great exponent.
I would also suggest that you make known to him the pleasant relations existing in this city and county between the races, due to good blood in both the races and to leaders, black and the white since the War
To Dr. Stillman, who founded the Presbyterian Seminary for the education of colored preachers; to Mr. Verner, who enter from this Seminary as a Missionary to Africa; to Dr. Snedecor now President of the Semi-
Booker T. Washington in Tuscaloosa.
Continued from page 1.
-nary; to Dr. David Little, a Professor in the same College; to Prof. Jas. H. Foster, Superintendent of all the Public schools of the city your hearty sympathizer and wise director; to you personally than whom no better representative of your race and of Dr. Washington’s ideas need be added.
With best wishes,
I am your sincerely,
James T. Murfee.
The music of the day was exceptionally fine. The choir of the church did itself proud under the accomplished direction of Prof. B. H. Barnes, the organist and leader. The choir rendered a couple of elaborate anthems which displayed considerable care in their preparation and of particular interest were the Negro Melodies which were sung in fine style and which produced a splendid effect. The church has a pipe organ and the anthems so accompanied were most praise-worthy but the unaccompanied genuine negro songs were most interesting. The close harmonic effects, the expression, which only the genuine negro can give to songs, were brought out with great impressiveness. At the beginning of his speech Dr. Washington asked for a real negro song and the vast congregation joined in By and By, which was inspiringly sung.
Washington’s speech was, as he said nothing new, but it was intensely interesting. He is a very pleasing speaker and his choice of language was admirable and his expressions happy and agreeable at all times. His manner was fortunate and it was no trouble to listen to him. His fine sense of humor was often brought into play and he would frequently have the audience shaking with laughter and again his remarks were strong with feeling. His audience hung upon his words and often would come forth the expressions “Truth, too” and other exclamations of approval. He was often applauded and whether his words were just what his hearers wanted to hear at all times they were evidently such words of wisdom that obey and the speaker compelled admiration.
He began by saying how often he had wanted to come to Tuscaloosa and mentioned the long acquaintance he had had with Prof. Jeremiah Barnes, whose children had all been at Tuskegee. He said he was glad to hear the negro songs, and thought it always a bad sign when the negro was ashamed of his songs. He said all races were proud of their own songs and the negro should be proud of his. He said he had often heard of Tuscaloosa and of the fine quality of the white people living here and of the colored citizenship as well. He said he could tell within a few minutes after he arrived in a town how the races got along as he said the atmosphere of Tuscaloosa showed him that the white people and the colored people got along well in Tuscaloosa. He said this was usually the case where the white people were of a highly cultured class as in Tuscaloosa and where the colored people were substantial and of high character. The people spoke for over an hour and a half, so it is impossible to give his speech in full though the following are some of the things he said that made specially deep impressions.
Sometimes ago I addressed large audiences of both races in Springfield Illinois, the home of Lincoln. But I find here in Tuscaloosa better feeling between the races than in the home city of the immortal Lincoln.
During the last forty years the negro has been discussed by politicians. Much has been said on the race problem. I once saw a ship load of six hundred negroes bound for Africa. They said that would solve the race problem. They forgot the fact that on that very day six hundred negro babies were born in this country. If we should put all the negroes together you would have to build a brick wall to keep them from the white people and then you would have to build around that another wall five times as thick to keep the white people out.
Sometimes ago I met a white gentleman on a train who believed that the solution of the race problems is absorption. Now the intelligent negro does not believe in that theory. A very intelligent negro is proud of his race. I would not give the snap of my finger for a negro who is not proud of his race.
We are a peculiar people. It takes one hundred per cent of Anglo-Saxon blood to make a white. One percent of negro blood makes the man a negro. So you see we are constantly taking from the white man and adding to our number. When a dark skin foreigner comes to this country the white man looks at his color, feels his hair and then, to make sure of his classification he is thrown among the negroes. We are not gong to lose our identity.
The negro is the only race that came to this country without invitation. Other races came and paid their passage. The negro was of so much importance to this country they sent for him and paid his passage. We are going to stay here. Another thing, the white man don’t want us to go away.
When one bad negro goes wrong the whole country hears of it. If one hundred negroes do the right thing, conduct themselves as law-abiding citizens you never hear of it. If one negro burns down a hose the world hears about it. If one hundred negroes build as many houses nothing is said about it. I was very much impressed today by what Dr. Dawson said among that line. If one mean white man treats a negro unjustly much is said about it, forgetting the fact that there are a thousand white men helping the negro.
But in order that we remain here and hold our own and prosper there are certain fundamental rules we must follow. We must all try to fill our places well. We must so conduct ourselves that we will be wanted.
We must have a permanent home. A permanent place to live. Find a place to live, settle down and make a reputation for sobriety and good citizenship.
Booker T. Washington in Tuscaloosa.
Continued from page 4.
Some of our people think freedom means to move from place to place. I heard of a man who moved on the first of January every year for twenty years. An old rooster belonging to him got so used to moving that on the first of January he would go to the house and lie down with his legs crossed ready to be tied.
There is no place so inviting to the negro as the South. It is the best place on earth for us. It is even a good place for the lazy negro. He can live on opossum in the winter and blackberries in the summer. I have visited many of countries of Europe and I have seen thousands of the laboring classes walking the streets looking for work and hungry. There is not a man in Tuscaloosa county who cannot find work if he wants it. Some spend more time running from work than they spend working.
Now I know you will not forgive me for this, but I will say it. I would like to see the time when if a negro loses his job he will have to walk about four or five months before he is given another job. Then when he gets a job he will know how to appreciate it. I see you don’t cheer that!
We must strive to make our labor desirable. In order to hold our place we must build a reputation for reliability. When we give our word that we will report at seven o’clock for work we must be there on time and go to work even if an excursion passes through Tuscaloosa.
When the negro gets his money Saturday night some of them never go to work till they spend every cent of their money. Let us preach to our people that they must be reliable, that they must build up a reputation for trustworthiness.
And then if the negro wants to hold his place he must be progressive. He must put brain and skill in his labor. The old way of doing things will not do. We once he had a monopoly of the barber’s trade. But the white barber came in and put brain, and sill in the trade and changed the name from barbershop to tonsorial parlor and kept a clean shop and the negro lost out.
We must teach our children that all kinds of honest labor is honorable. The only kind of labor that is dishonorable is poor labor. You must keep your children employed. If you can’t find anyone to pay them for their labor pay somebody to employ them. Pay some one to let them work.
The white man in the South prefers to employ colored labor if that labor is as good as a white man’s labor. It comes natural to him to give orders to a negro but it is awkward to the Southern white man to give orders to another white man. The white man will trust “Uncle Joe” with a razor around his neck, but “Uncle Joe” must keep up an up-to-date shop. No Southern white lady likes to get up at four o’clock and get breakfast for her husband but it is perfectly natural for her to give orders to a colored woman.
We must teach our girls that all labor is honorable, whether it be cooling, or sweeping the house.
In the old times the kitchen used to be the dingiest looking place in the house. Now the kitchen is as clean as the parlor.
The preachers must be absolutely honest with people and teach them these things. I have found that it pays to be honest with the people. They will like you better. The more frank I am with the people the better they like me.
I am glad to see so many people here today from the farms. The negro who lives in the country is better off. When we find that some one else can get more out of the land than we can, then we will have to find something else to do. The soil of Tuscaloosa draws no color line. The rain draws no color line. The negro farmer must learn to get as much out of the of the soil as the white farmer can get out of it. The negro farmer must learn to work 360 days in the year. The black man does not work more than 150 days in the year. He can never make a living that way. The merchant and banker works 360 days in the year and sometimes more. The farmer tries to get on with working 150 days. Some plant corn by the moon.
Booker T. Washington in Tuscaloosa.
Continued from page 5.
You should have something growing in all seasons of the year. Then the negro farmer will have the money and the store-keeper will be glad to see you because you have a bank account.
Get it out of your heads that labor is a disgrace.
When you find an educated negro who is afraid of work put it down that negro has the wrong kind of education.
The white man makes his money work for him. The negro works for money. We are dissatisfied till every cent is gone. Tomorrow morning when you get up and say your prayers go and start a bank account. Put in a little and let it remain there. The mortgage works day and night, Sunday and Monday and all the year round I never saw a man so pious he would stop his mortgage working on the Sabbath. When the white man sleeps his money works. When the negro snores everything stops.
I want to say to the white man it will pay him to help the negro start a bank account and save his money. The negro who has something and has something to do is a valuable citizen. When you hear of race riots it is usually among the class that has nothing. The white man must help those who are worthy. Must see that he is educated. I was delighted today to see such fine school buildings in your city for negro children.
The negro who has no education has not waked up. You must help to educate him and help to increase his wants. That’s what education does for a man; wake him up and increases his wants.
We read about starving Jews and starving people of India but no one hears of a starving negro. He is not going to starve. But if the negro will not work you, the white people, I mean, must close your back doors.
In my own county all the white people are my friends. But I have sometimes meet one who tells me he does not believe in educating the negro. We must respect such a man, but I am glad to say they are few in number. Education pays the negro and it pays the white man.
And then the white man must praise the negro when he does his work well. Your cook will get better meals, she will get to her work earlier if you praise her a little.
The black people have been standing by you, you must help them. Since it is true the Judge will not discriminate in favor of the negro when he commits a crime, then we should not discriminate against him when it comes to preparing him for good citizenship. The negro has been of service to you. I heard of a colored man who dreamed he went to the “bad” place. He was asked who he saw there. He said he saw white and colored people. He was asked what was the white man doing. He replied the white man was holding the negro between him and the fire. So you see we may be of service to you even in that place.
Wherever one goes into a community, he will find that every negro has a white friend and every man has one negro that he absolutely trusts and depends up. Whenever a negro gets into trouble in any community, he goes to a white man who helps him out of trouble, in fact the average negro in Tuscaloosa, I will guarantee to say, keeps his white man picked out to use in troublesome times.
The Southern white man in each community understands the negro and the negro understands the Southern white man.
Source: “B. T. Washington in Tuscaloosa,” The Tuscaloosa Times-Gazette, February 22, 1910, 1, 4, 5, 8.
The Noted Leader of the Colored Race Makes a Great Address at the African Baptist Church, Heard by Many White People.
Sunday was a red letter day for the colored people of Tuscaloosa, and it was not without importance to the white people, in that it marked the first visit to this city of Booker T. Washington, head of the Tuskegee Institute, and the most notable man of the colored race to the whole world.
The visit of Washington to Tuscaloosa was brought about by Benjamin H. Barnes, a former pupil of his, now a member of the faculty of the Tuscaloosa Public Schools for the colored people. Dr. Washington and his party, consisting of his son, Davidson, and Rev. A. F. Owens, dean of the Bible Schools of the Institute at Tuskegee, arrived in Tuscaloosa at noon. They were met by the following committee of colored citizens, Prof. B. H. Barnes, W. E Pickett, Dr. Geo. A. Weaver, William R. Brown, James G. Balls, H. L. Goins, Rev. W. L. Yamblin [sic], Ed Spencer and Nathan Luffboro. In addition to the committee there were several hundred colored people at the depot, to greet the noted leader.
The address of Dr. Washington occurred at half-past two o’clock at the colored Baptist Church, the visitors being driven to the church in carriages. The reception accorded the party was a very enthusiastic one and the entrance to the church was marked by applause. The church was crowded to suffocation almost. The pastor says the church is intended to seat 1500 and every seat was filled, the aisles were crowded, the pulpit and choir were crowded and many stood around the doors and windows. It was much the largest gathering of colored people ever seen in Tuscaloosa. In the audience were many white people of more or less prominence, a number of ladies being present.
On the platform were representatives of the different colored churches in Tuscaloosa and a member of prominent citizens and the following white gentlemen: Mayor W. M. Faulk, President John W. Abercrombie of the University, Pastor L. O. Dawson, pastor of the Tuscaloosa Baptist Church, Rev. R. B. McAlpine, Mr. Robinson Brown, Tom Garner of the Tuscaloosa Times-Gazette and others.
The following was the program carried out at the church;
1st. Anthem – “Princes & wake,” Rosborough, - Choir.
2nd. Invocation, - Rev. C. A. Smiley
3rd. Preliminary Remarks, and Presenting the Rev. J. H. Smith, as Master of Ceremonies, by Benj. H. Barnes.
4th. Remarks, - Jeremiah Barnes, Principal Negro City Schools.
5th, Negro Melody, - “Rise and Shine” – Choir.
6th, Remarks – Representing Negro Business League, by Dr. G. A. Weaver.
7th, Remarks, - Hon. W. M. Faulk, M.D., Mayor.
8th, Anthem – “Calm on the Listening Ear” – Choir.
9th, Remarks, - Dr. J. G. Snedecor, Pres. Stillman Institute.
10th, Remarks – Dr. John W. Abercombrie, Pres, U. of Ala.
11th, Remarks – Rev. L. O. Dawson, D.D. (White Churches.)
12th, Remarks – Rev. W. L. Hamblin, (For Negro Churches.)
13th, Negro Melody, “Couldn’t Hear Nobody Pray” – Choir.
14th, Address, - Booker T. Washington, A.M., LL.D.
15th, “The Old Camp Meeting” – Choir and Congregation.
16th, Dismission [sic].
NOTE – Remarks limited to three minutes.
Benj. H. Barnes, Chairman of Committee,
W. E. Pickett, Secretary.
This was a very special program and was carried out to the letter, the only absentee being Rev. J. G. Snedecor, who sent his regrets at his unavoidable absence from the city. The different expressions in the welcome addresses were very happy. Rev. J. H. Smith, pastor of the colored Baptist Church, made a very excellent presiding officer and his introduction of the chief guest of the occasion was very eloquent. The Mayor’s remarks were timely, Dr. Abercombie paid a high tribute to Washington’s work and Pastor Dawson made a most admirable welcome.
In Prof. Jeremiah Barnes’s remarks, he read the following letter from Col. J. T. Murfee, formerly president of Howard College and of Marion Institute:
Tuscaloosa, Ala., Feb. 19th, ’10.
Prof. Jere. Barnes, Principal
Colored Schools, Tuscaloosa, Ala.
When I first learned of the purpose of Dr. Booker T. Washington coming to Tuscaloosa, my desire was to call on him on his arrival and to attend his lecture. I now regret that confined to the sick room for more than a week will present my desired purpose.
Having had some part in bringing him to Alabama is one of the most pleasing memories of my life; for his coming and his work has brought blessings to our race and to his own that will be more and more apparent as the ages go on.
Before he began his work in the State the prospects were most unpromising; schools were conducted on the false ideas that mere book or classical learning would exempt from labor, that book learning was the only essential for securing what ever was most desirable.
These false ideas encouraged by the schools were having a most pernicious influence throughout the South and the nation, until Dr. Booker T. Washington began his work in Alabama.
He has by example and teaching shown the fallacy of these pernicious ideas, and replaced them by correct outlines of character, morals, conduct and education.
So great has been the improvement in Negro education and the relation of the races, that his ideas now dominate not only in Alabama and the entire South, but influence the whole nation.
He proposes to have for his people a Semi-Centennial of their liberation from Slavery, in which they will show (1) the value of their religious and civil training by their old Southern Masters and Mistresses. (2) To show what industrial and home training has done for the Negroes since the Emancipation.
How broad and just in this purpose and how evidence will be the blessings to both races. Justice will be done to the docility and fidelity of the old slaves, honor will be given throughout the world to the much misunderstood and much censured slave owners; and the true standard of education and morals will be given your race as a happy and profitable guide to all the future.
The exhibition will show to all the world; (1) That the Southern people are the only ones in all history, who took a savage race and brought it to civilization and religion while holding it in bondage for which they were not primarily responsible. (2) That a Southern man, Booker T. Washington a Virginia-half African and half Anglo Saxon a pupil of the great and good Gen. Armstrong, a Federal Soldier of the Civil War, has done more for the development of thorough moral, industrial, and religious Education than any other man.
I hope that all the States and that Congress will make liberal appropriations to carry out the wise and noble purpose of Dr. Washington.
In conclusion, I request that you read this letter to the audience that will assemble tomorrow to hear Dr. Washington; and afterwards, present to him with my compliments and best wishes for his personal future and the cause of which he is the great exponent.
I would also suggest that you make known to him the pleasant relations existing in this city and county between the races, due to good blood in both the races and to leaders, black and the white since the War
To Dr. Stillman, who founded the Presbyterian Seminary for the education of colored preachers; to Mr. Verner, who enter from this Seminary as a Missionary to Africa; to Dr. Snedecor now President of the Semi-
Booker T. Washington in Tuscaloosa.
Continued from page 1.
-nary; to Dr. David Little, a Professor in the same College; to Prof. Jas. H. Foster, Superintendent of all the Public schools of the city your hearty sympathizer and wise director; to you personally than whom no better representative of your race and of Dr. Washington’s ideas need be added.
With best wishes,
I am your sincerely,
James T. Murfee.
The music of the day was exceptionally fine. The choir of the church did itself proud under the accomplished direction of Prof. B. H. Barnes, the organist and leader. The choir rendered a couple of elaborate anthems which displayed considerable care in their preparation and of particular interest were the Negro Melodies which were sung in fine style and which produced a splendid effect. The church has a pipe organ and the anthems so accompanied were most praise-worthy but the unaccompanied genuine negro songs were most interesting. The close harmonic effects, the expression, which only the genuine negro can give to songs, were brought out with great impressiveness. At the beginning of his speech Dr. Washington asked for a real negro song and the vast congregation joined in By and By, which was inspiringly sung.
Washington’s speech was, as he said nothing new, but it was intensely interesting. He is a very pleasing speaker and his choice of language was admirable and his expressions happy and agreeable at all times. His manner was fortunate and it was no trouble to listen to him. His fine sense of humor was often brought into play and he would frequently have the audience shaking with laughter and again his remarks were strong with feeling. His audience hung upon his words and often would come forth the expressions “Truth, too” and other exclamations of approval. He was often applauded and whether his words were just what his hearers wanted to hear at all times they were evidently such words of wisdom that obey and the speaker compelled admiration.
He began by saying how often he had wanted to come to Tuscaloosa and mentioned the long acquaintance he had had with Prof. Jeremiah Barnes, whose children had all been at Tuskegee. He said he was glad to hear the negro songs, and thought it always a bad sign when the negro was ashamed of his songs. He said all races were proud of their own songs and the negro should be proud of his. He said he had often heard of Tuscaloosa and of the fine quality of the white people living here and of the colored citizenship as well. He said he could tell within a few minutes after he arrived in a town how the races got along as he said the atmosphere of Tuscaloosa showed him that the white people and the colored people got along well in Tuscaloosa. He said this was usually the case where the white people were of a highly cultured class as in Tuscaloosa and where the colored people were substantial and of high character. The people spoke for over an hour and a half, so it is impossible to give his speech in full though the following are some of the things he said that made specially deep impressions.
Sometimes ago I addressed large audiences of both races in Springfield Illinois, the home of Lincoln. But I find here in Tuscaloosa better feeling between the races than in the home city of the immortal Lincoln.
During the last forty years the negro has been discussed by politicians. Much has been said on the race problem. I once saw a ship load of six hundred negroes bound for Africa. They said that would solve the race problem. They forgot the fact that on that very day six hundred negro babies were born in this country. If we should put all the negroes together you would have to build a brick wall to keep them from the white people and then you would have to build around that another wall five times as thick to keep the white people out.
Sometimes ago I met a white gentleman on a train who believed that the solution of the race problems is absorption. Now the intelligent negro does not believe in that theory. A very intelligent negro is proud of his race. I would not give the snap of my finger for a negro who is not proud of his race.
We are a peculiar people. It takes one hundred per cent of Anglo-Saxon blood to make a white. One percent of negro blood makes the man a negro. So you see we are constantly taking from the white man and adding to our number. When a dark skin foreigner comes to this country the white man looks at his color, feels his hair and then, to make sure of his classification he is thrown among the negroes. We are not gong to lose our identity.
The negro is the only race that came to this country without invitation. Other races came and paid their passage. The negro was of so much importance to this country they sent for him and paid his passage. We are going to stay here. Another thing, the white man don’t want us to go away.
When one bad negro goes wrong the whole country hears of it. If one hundred negroes do the right thing, conduct themselves as law-abiding citizens you never hear of it. If one negro burns down a hose the world hears about it. If one hundred negroes build as many houses nothing is said about it. I was very much impressed today by what Dr. Dawson said among that line. If one mean white man treats a negro unjustly much is said about it, forgetting the fact that there are a thousand white men helping the negro.
But in order that we remain here and hold our own and prosper there are certain fundamental rules we must follow. We must all try to fill our places well. We must so conduct ourselves that we will be wanted.
We must have a permanent home. A permanent place to live. Find a place to live, settle down and make a reputation for sobriety and good citizenship.
Booker T. Washington in Tuscaloosa.
Continued from page 4.
Some of our people think freedom means to move from place to place. I heard of a man who moved on the first of January every year for twenty years. An old rooster belonging to him got so used to moving that on the first of January he would go to the house and lie down with his legs crossed ready to be tied.
There is no place so inviting to the negro as the South. It is the best place on earth for us. It is even a good place for the lazy negro. He can live on opossum in the winter and blackberries in the summer. I have visited many of countries of Europe and I have seen thousands of the laboring classes walking the streets looking for work and hungry. There is not a man in Tuscaloosa county who cannot find work if he wants it. Some spend more time running from work than they spend working.
Now I know you will not forgive me for this, but I will say it. I would like to see the time when if a negro loses his job he will have to walk about four or five months before he is given another job. Then when he gets a job he will know how to appreciate it. I see you don’t cheer that!
We must strive to make our labor desirable. In order to hold our place we must build a reputation for reliability. When we give our word that we will report at seven o’clock for work we must be there on time and go to work even if an excursion passes through Tuscaloosa.
When the negro gets his money Saturday night some of them never go to work till they spend every cent of their money. Let us preach to our people that they must be reliable, that they must build up a reputation for trustworthiness.
And then if the negro wants to hold his place he must be progressive. He must put brain and skill in his labor. The old way of doing things will not do. We once he had a monopoly of the barber’s trade. But the white barber came in and put brain, and sill in the trade and changed the name from barbershop to tonsorial parlor and kept a clean shop and the negro lost out.
We must teach our children that all kinds of honest labor is honorable. The only kind of labor that is dishonorable is poor labor. You must keep your children employed. If you can’t find anyone to pay them for their labor pay somebody to employ them. Pay some one to let them work.
The white man in the South prefers to employ colored labor if that labor is as good as a white man’s labor. It comes natural to him to give orders to a negro but it is awkward to the Southern white man to give orders to another white man. The white man will trust “Uncle Joe” with a razor around his neck, but “Uncle Joe” must keep up an up-to-date shop. No Southern white lady likes to get up at four o’clock and get breakfast for her husband but it is perfectly natural for her to give orders to a colored woman.
We must teach our girls that all labor is honorable, whether it be cooling, or sweeping the house.
In the old times the kitchen used to be the dingiest looking place in the house. Now the kitchen is as clean as the parlor.
The preachers must be absolutely honest with people and teach them these things. I have found that it pays to be honest with the people. They will like you better. The more frank I am with the people the better they like me.
I am glad to see so many people here today from the farms. The negro who lives in the country is better off. When we find that some one else can get more out of the land than we can, then we will have to find something else to do. The soil of Tuscaloosa draws no color line. The rain draws no color line. The negro farmer must learn to get as much out of the of the soil as the white farmer can get out of it. The negro farmer must learn to work 360 days in the year. The black man does not work more than 150 days in the year. He can never make a living that way. The merchant and banker works 360 days in the year and sometimes more. The farmer tries to get on with working 150 days. Some plant corn by the moon.
Booker T. Washington in Tuscaloosa.
Continued from page 5.
You should have something growing in all seasons of the year. Then the negro farmer will have the money and the store-keeper will be glad to see you because you have a bank account.
Get it out of your heads that labor is a disgrace.
When you find an educated negro who is afraid of work put it down that negro has the wrong kind of education.
The white man makes his money work for him. The negro works for money. We are dissatisfied till every cent is gone. Tomorrow morning when you get up and say your prayers go and start a bank account. Put in a little and let it remain there. The mortgage works day and night, Sunday and Monday and all the year round I never saw a man so pious he would stop his mortgage working on the Sabbath. When the white man sleeps his money works. When the negro snores everything stops.
I want to say to the white man it will pay him to help the negro start a bank account and save his money. The negro who has something and has something to do is a valuable citizen. When you hear of race riots it is usually among the class that has nothing. The white man must help those who are worthy. Must see that he is educated. I was delighted today to see such fine school buildings in your city for negro children.
The negro who has no education has not waked up. You must help to educate him and help to increase his wants. That’s what education does for a man; wake him up and increases his wants.
We read about starving Jews and starving people of India but no one hears of a starving negro. He is not going to starve. But if the negro will not work you, the white people, I mean, must close your back doors.
In my own county all the white people are my friends. But I have sometimes meet one who tells me he does not believe in educating the negro. We must respect such a man, but I am glad to say they are few in number. Education pays the negro and it pays the white man.
And then the white man must praise the negro when he does his work well. Your cook will get better meals, she will get to her work earlier if you praise her a little.
The black people have been standing by you, you must help them. Since it is true the Judge will not discriminate in favor of the negro when he commits a crime, then we should not discriminate against him when it comes to preparing him for good citizenship. The negro has been of service to you. I heard of a colored man who dreamed he went to the “bad” place. He was asked who he saw there. He said he saw white and colored people. He was asked what was the white man doing. He replied the white man was holding the negro between him and the fire. So you see we may be of service to you even in that place.
Wherever one goes into a community, he will find that every negro has a white friend and every man has one negro that he absolutely trusts and depends up. Whenever a negro gets into trouble in any community, he goes to a white man who helps him out of trouble, in fact the average negro in Tuscaloosa, I will guarantee to say, keeps his white man picked out to use in troublesome times.
The Southern white man in each community understands the negro and the negro understands the Southern white man.
Source: “B. T. Washington in Tuscaloosa,” The Tuscaloosa Times-Gazette, February 22, 1910, 1, 4, 5, 8.
Document 3: Editorial - "Booker T. Washington"
No apology will be necessary for the amount of space devoted to the address of Booker T. Washington on Sunday. It was a notable address and we wish that every white man and woman and every colored man and woman in Tuscaloosa could have heard it. Should he ever come to Tuscaloosa again, it is to be hoped that some place can be secured where every body can see him and hear him and it is to be hoped that everybody will go. The writer has heard of a number of white people who did not approve either of Booker Washington or his institute or his plans who were converted by hearing his speech on Sunday afternoon. They went out of curiosity to hear him and they remained to pay tribute to his powers as a speaker, his keen sense of humor, his frank sensible advice to his race and the big hear and big brain of the man.
No man who will hear Booker T. Washington carefully will fall to be impressed and the realization is sure to come that if he is listened to the race problem will solve itself. He given same advice to the colored man. He tells him that he has a great field here in the South and he must occupy it. He urged his people to understand the dignity of labor and that education which made a negro feel that he was above work was the wrong kind of education. He argued for education for the negro but he said it was necessary for the negro to put his brain to work on the labor that was at hand and he said with much emphasis that the idle, loafing negro should not be encouraged, that every negro parent should see to it that his children are employed and he said if they cannot get paid for their employment pay somebody to employ them. These were only some of the things said by this great leader of his race. It is no wonder this man has caused such a stir in the world. He is really a great man, measured by any standard. He has hard common sense to start with and he is well educated. He says he is not an orator, but many a supposed orator would love to have his power over an audience. It is said Washington usually speaks about forty-five mines or an hour. He spoke Sunday afternoon an hour and forty minutes and he was listened to with closest attention the whole time. He did good. The relations of the white and black people are pleasant in Tuscaloosa. The prospects are that they will ever remain so. But such a speech as Booker T. Washington made is an advantage to the white man as well as to the colored man. Everybody who heard him Sunday was glad of it and his work will hereafter receive in this part of the world greater sympathy and cooperation than it could possibly have had before. People had only heard about his and his views before and they had in some ways an erroneous idea of him and his work. His coming and the chance to hear him has dispelled much of that. He is a power and if his people will listen to him they will find that he is a prophet of much good to them and to all the people.
Source: “Booker T. Washington,” The Tuscaloosa Times-Gazette, February 22, 1910, 2.
No man who will hear Booker T. Washington carefully will fall to be impressed and the realization is sure to come that if he is listened to the race problem will solve itself. He given same advice to the colored man. He tells him that he has a great field here in the South and he must occupy it. He urged his people to understand the dignity of labor and that education which made a negro feel that he was above work was the wrong kind of education. He argued for education for the negro but he said it was necessary for the negro to put his brain to work on the labor that was at hand and he said with much emphasis that the idle, loafing negro should not be encouraged, that every negro parent should see to it that his children are employed and he said if they cannot get paid for their employment pay somebody to employ them. These were only some of the things said by this great leader of his race. It is no wonder this man has caused such a stir in the world. He is really a great man, measured by any standard. He has hard common sense to start with and he is well educated. He says he is not an orator, but many a supposed orator would love to have his power over an audience. It is said Washington usually speaks about forty-five mines or an hour. He spoke Sunday afternoon an hour and forty minutes and he was listened to with closest attention the whole time. He did good. The relations of the white and black people are pleasant in Tuscaloosa. The prospects are that they will ever remain so. But such a speech as Booker T. Washington made is an advantage to the white man as well as to the colored man. Everybody who heard him Sunday was glad of it and his work will hereafter receive in this part of the world greater sympathy and cooperation than it could possibly have had before. People had only heard about his and his views before and they had in some ways an erroneous idea of him and his work. His coming and the chance to hear him has dispelled much of that. He is a power and if his people will listen to him they will find that he is a prophet of much good to them and to all the people.
Source: “Booker T. Washington,” The Tuscaloosa Times-Gazette, February 22, 1910, 2.
Document 4: Editorial on African American Music Performed at the Lecture
Note: This editorial features a stereotypical term for African Americans from the era.
Booker T. Washington said a wise thing when he told the colored people at church on Sunday that they must never be ashamed of their distinctive songs. There is a kind of song that the darkeys sing that no one else seems to be able to imitate. Of this type are the well known “Swing Low Sweet Chariot,” “Steal Away to Jesus,” etc. Two of these songs sung by the choir on Sunday were “Rise and Shine” and “Couldn’t Hear Nobody Pray.” The first three mentioned have all been written down, words and music being both procurable, but no cold notes can do justice to the peculiar fascination that these songs possess when sung by real negroes. There is something weird and mystifying about them. The harmonies are strange and yet beautiful and impressive. There is no music to “Couldn’t Hear Nobody Pray,” it is said. There is a little melody that every body knows and that could be easily written out, of course, but the congregations or choirs usually make up their own harmonies and no two are exactly alike. The Fisk Jubilee Quartette sings this on the Victor Talking Machine, but there is a little difference between its rendition and that of the people at the colored Baptist Church last Sunday. Perhaps there is a difference each time it is sung. You may find any group of darkeys, even to the small boys that loaf the streets and they can make up three and four part harmonies to a melody in a wonderful way. They love to wander about through minor keys, going far beyond any “barbershop chords” of which the white voices are capable. This sort of singing is distinctive of the negro race and if there should arise some one who could reduce their annual modes of harmonic expression to paper and allow other folks to study them out, it would be extremely interesting. Certain it is interesting to hear these songs sung. As Booker T. Washington said, their songs are the one thing the whites cannot beat the negroes at and they ought not to give them up. At Monteagle, Tenn, several years ago it was the custom at the negro Sunday School held in the afternoon for a period to be spent in singing these distinctive songs, but lately it has been abandoned, some of the darkeys resenting the interest the singing created and they began to sing only what other people sing, gospel hymns out of the books, etc. In these they do well, of course, but it is not individual and in his own song the negro is a path finder and has a type of song as valuable to music as any other folk song the world has had. In it, we may be able to find the long looked for American music as a native term is a misnomer, because all of Africa except the land, is imported and while we have American development and American inventions, American music like American letters must be allied with some other land.
Source: “Untitled,” The Tuscaloosa Times-Gazette, February 24, 1910, 2.
Booker T. Washington said a wise thing when he told the colored people at church on Sunday that they must never be ashamed of their distinctive songs. There is a kind of song that the darkeys sing that no one else seems to be able to imitate. Of this type are the well known “Swing Low Sweet Chariot,” “Steal Away to Jesus,” etc. Two of these songs sung by the choir on Sunday were “Rise and Shine” and “Couldn’t Hear Nobody Pray.” The first three mentioned have all been written down, words and music being both procurable, but no cold notes can do justice to the peculiar fascination that these songs possess when sung by real negroes. There is something weird and mystifying about them. The harmonies are strange and yet beautiful and impressive. There is no music to “Couldn’t Hear Nobody Pray,” it is said. There is a little melody that every body knows and that could be easily written out, of course, but the congregations or choirs usually make up their own harmonies and no two are exactly alike. The Fisk Jubilee Quartette sings this on the Victor Talking Machine, but there is a little difference between its rendition and that of the people at the colored Baptist Church last Sunday. Perhaps there is a difference each time it is sung. You may find any group of darkeys, even to the small boys that loaf the streets and they can make up three and four part harmonies to a melody in a wonderful way. They love to wander about through minor keys, going far beyond any “barbershop chords” of which the white voices are capable. This sort of singing is distinctive of the negro race and if there should arise some one who could reduce their annual modes of harmonic expression to paper and allow other folks to study them out, it would be extremely interesting. Certain it is interesting to hear these songs sung. As Booker T. Washington said, their songs are the one thing the whites cannot beat the negroes at and they ought not to give them up. At Monteagle, Tenn, several years ago it was the custom at the negro Sunday School held in the afternoon for a period to be spent in singing these distinctive songs, but lately it has been abandoned, some of the darkeys resenting the interest the singing created and they began to sing only what other people sing, gospel hymns out of the books, etc. In these they do well, of course, but it is not individual and in his own song the negro is a path finder and has a type of song as valuable to music as any other folk song the world has had. In it, we may be able to find the long looked for American music as a native term is a misnomer, because all of Africa except the land, is imported and while we have American development and American inventions, American music like American letters must be allied with some other land.
Source: “Untitled,” The Tuscaloosa Times-Gazette, February 24, 1910, 2.
