Booker T. Washington, Builder o - African American History

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Booker T. Washington, Builder of a Civilization. 154 24.03.2006 success. (Applause.) "I have been sick this summer and just got back from Saratoga--(prolonged applause)--of course all men who get rich go to Saratoga. (Laughter and applause.) While there I met some folks, and in the course of my remarks I had occasion to remind them that Dr. Booker T. Washington, while an earnest advocate of industrial training, is not an enemy or opposed to higher education. There was a man from the British West Indies who began to speak on the subject of the Negro; he began to orate around, began to tell how the Negro must expect to rise in the world; oh! he made a magnificent speech going to show that there was nothing in the world like higher education for the Negro; he even said that the Negro race would never amount to anything and get its rights until every one of us had secured a college education. (Laughter.) Why, you ought to have been there and heard him orate; he took us all through Greek, Roman, ancient, and medieval history; across the Alps and all around the Egyptian pyramid--(hearty laughter)--and even cited the Druids of old to testify to the grandeur and necessity of higher education for the Negro. After he got through orating I said to him: 'Brother, I was down to a meeting of Negroes in the State of Florida--at the State Business League, and I saw sitting on one bench eleven (11) Negro men whose combined wealth would amount to more than one million dollars, and not one of them ever saw the inside of a college.' (Prolonged applause, mingled with laughter.) Page 212 And I said to him further than that: 'If any of you gentlemen who claim to be educated in the British West Indies, and all you gentlemen who hail from Beloit College (wherever it is)--if you can fool any one of those eleven Negroes out of one dime, I will give you ten dollars!' (Laughter and applause.) Yes, sir, without much education these men own their own homes and dozens of homes in which other people live; they are self-sustaining and independent, and can write their names to checks away up in the thousands of dollars; they live in neat, comfortable, well-appointed homes and enjoy the respect and esteem of their neighbors--black as well as white. 'Now, sir,' I turned to him and asked him, 'will you kindly tell me what is your occupation in life and what you have been able to accomplish with all this higher education you have been talking about?' I found out that he was a waiter in the United States Hotel. (Laughter.) I said to him further: 'My brother, I don't claim to be an educated man, but live in a villa of my own; I own considerable real estate, and my dear little wife rides around in our own $5,500 Packard automobile, all paid for.' (Prolonged applause and
Booker T. Washington, Builder of a Civilization. 155 24.03.2006 laughter.) "I am somewhat of a carpenter and builder; I went to work, bought some ground while it was cheap and at a time when everything in Jacksonville was at low tide; there were plenty of sick Yankees whose investments had depreciated and I invested what money I had in some land. I would build a house, then sell it; buy more land, build another house and sell that; after a while I Page 213 was able to build three houses and sell two, build two and sell one and so on-- (applause)--until pretty soon I found myself in the real estate business, buying land and building and selling houses. In this way I have gone on building my own houses until now I have plenty to support myself and that dear little redheaded woman who has a seat somewhere in this beautiful audience. (Laughter and applause.) She doesn't have to keep a boardinghouse any more; she is on the retired list. (Laughter and applause.) We have made enough to keep from doing that." At this point Dr. Washington asked, "How many houses do you own?" Mr. Blodgett replied: "I have been selling houses pretty rapidly during the last few years, but I have built--and right here I want to say that while my subject is 'Building and Contracting' I have never built a house for anybody but myself. I build my own property. I have built since the fire we had in Jacksonville in 1902 two hundred and eight houses of my own. (Prolonged applause.) I have sold a good many of them. When I realized that I was beginning to get old and not in such good physical condition as I used to be, I was afraid I might get afflicted with tuberculosis, or appendicitis, or some of these other high-sounding diseases the doctors now talk about--(laughter)--and so I thought it best to convert some of my estate into another form that could be more easily handled by my better half when I had gone to inhabit my mansion in the skies. (Laughter.) So I Page 214 have begun to sell off some of my property and get out of debt. I now have one hundred and twenty-one houses, the rents from which amount to a little over twenty-five hundred dollars a month. (Prolonged applause.) I have invested my money in recent years in what I call 'grip-sack' securities, so that if there should be any little unpleasantness among the races, I can go to my safe and grab that grip-sack. (Prolonged laughter and applause.) You see if there should ever be
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Booker T. Washington, Builder o - African American History

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