Booker T. Washington, Builder o - African American History

Booker T. Washington, Builder of a Civilization. 128
550,000 farms no sweet potatoes are grown, and on 200,000 farms of Negroes
there are no gardens of any sort. These hundreds of thousands of farms without
cattle, grain, or gardens are for the most part operated by tenants. In their behalf,
the Tuskegee Negro Conference respectfully requests of the planters, bankers,
and other representatives of the financial interests of the South that more
opportunities be given Negro tenants on plantations to grow crops other than
cotton."
After the regular conference the usual Conference of Workers was held. This
conference is composed of people such as heads of schools and colleges,
preachers, teachers, and persons generally holding responsible positions of
leadership in their respective communities. These leaders discuss the larger
community problems in distinction from individual problems. At this gathering,
for instance, the principal of the County High School at Cottage Grove, Ala.,
explained how through diversified farming the
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parents of his students had been able to live while holding their cotton for higher
prices.
Some of the principals of schools told how they had accepted cotton as payment
of tuition for some of their students. Others had taken in payment barrels of
syrup, sacks of corn, and hogs. All the schools reported cutting expenses, by
reduction of their dietary, the salaries of teachers, or some other forms of
retrenchment, meaning sacrifice for students or teachers, or both, that the work
of education might continue and weather the hard times. In concluding the
conference Booker Washington explained the terms of the recently enacted
Smith Lever Act for Federal aid in the extension of agricultural education
throughout the rural districts of the country. Thus ended the twentieth session of
the great Tuskegee Negro Conference and the last session presided over by the
Founder of the Conference. It was most appropriate that this, his last
conference, should have so unanimously and effectively applied one of the
leading tenets of Booker Washington's teaching--namely, the winning of lasting
profit from the experiences of adversity.
As well as these annual Farmers' Conferences there are held at Tuskegee
monthly meetings for the farmers from the locality where they display their
products, tell of their successes and failures, and compare notes on their
experiences all under the expert leadership, guidance, and advice of the staff of
24.03.2006