Booker T. Washington, Builder o - African American History

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Booker T. Washington, Builder of a Civilization. 166 dining-room he would finally disappear into the kitchens in his never-ceasing campaign for cleanliness. Over and over again would he repeat to students, teachers, and employees alike that the public would excuse them for what they lacked in the way of buildings, equipment, and even knowledge, but they would never be excused for shiftlessness, filth, litter, or disorder. One of the opportunities which he most highly prized and one of his most effective means of influencing the whole body of students was through his Sunday evening talks in the Chapel. Over two thousand students, teachers, teachers' families, and townspeople would crowd into the Chapel to hear these talks. They were stenographically reported and published in the school paper. In this way Page 230 he influenced not only the undergraduates, but a large number of graduates and others who subscribed to the paper largely for the purpose of following these talks. We here quote from a previously unpublished (except in the school paper) collection of these talks, delivered during the school term of 1913-14, under the title of "What Parents Would Like to Hear Concerning Students While at School." The first talk was called, "For Old and New Students." In it he said in part: "I suspect that each one of your parents would like to know that you are learning to read your Bible; not only to read it because you have to, but to read it every day in the year because you have learned to love the Bible; because you have learned day by day to make its teachings a part of you. . . . Each one of you, in beginning your school year, should have a Bible, and you should make that Bible a part of your school life, a part of your very nature, and always, no matter how busy the day may be, no matter how many mistakes, no matter how many failures you make in other directions, do not fail to find a few minutes to study or read your Bible. "The greatest people in the world, those who are most learned; those who bear the burdens and responsibilities of the world, are persons who are not ashamed to let the world know not only that they believe in the Bible, but that they read it." And this was the advice of a man who never preached what he did not practise and who only a few years before had been denounced by many of the preachers of 24.03.2006
Booker T. Washington, Builder of a Civilization. 167 24.03.2006 Page 231 his own race as a Godless man, building up a Godless school! A little further on he said: "In many cases you have come from homes where there was no regular time for getting up in the morning, no regular time for eating your meals, and no regular time for going to bed. "Now the basis of civilization is system, order, regularity. A race or an individual which has no fixed habits, no fixed place of abode, no time for going to bed, for getting up in the morning, for going to work; no arrangement, order, or system in all the ordinary business of life, such a race and such an individual are lacking in self-control, lacking in some of the fundamentals of civilization. . . . "If you take advantage of all these opportunities, if your minds are so disposed that you can welcome and make the most of these advantages, these habits of order and system will soon be so fixed, so ingrained, so thoroughly a part of you that you will no longer tolerate disorder anywhere, that you will not be willing to endure the old slovenly habits which so many of you brought with you when you came here." And later, in speaking of the haphazard, slipshod, irregular meal, he said: "Instead of bringing the family together it has put them wider apart. A house in which the family table is a mere lunch-counter is not and cannot be a home." And just before concluding this talk he said: "Now what is true of this school is true of the world at large. This is a little world of itself. It is a small sample of civilization, Page 232 an experiment station, so to speak, in which we are trying to prepare you to live in a manner a little more orderly, a little more efficient, and a little more civilized than you have lived heretofore. If you are not able to live and succeed here, you will not be able to live and succeed in the world outside. If we do not want you here, if we cannot get on with you here, it will mean that the world outside will not want you, will not be able to get on with you." Probably no educator ever kept more constantly before his own mind and before the minds of his students and teachers that the purpose of education is preparation for right living than did Booker Washington. Everything that did not
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Booker T. Washington, Builder o - African American History

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