Booker T. Washington, Builder o - African American History

Booker T. Washington, Builder of a Civilization. 171
24.03.2006
of household service, did not feel that everything belonging to the white family
belonged equally to them. Thus, when freedom came, it was difficult to get the
colored cook to feel that she was a mere employee, that in the wages she
received by the week or month she was being paid for her services for cooking.
It was very hard to get her away from the customs and practises of slavery,
especially when receiving very small wages.
"In many cases boys and girls have seen or have known that their mothers kept
up this practice of pilfering from persons for whom they cooked. They have
seen it going on day after day and year after year in their own homes and have
observed that employers seem to expect it, wink at it, at any rate, put up with it.
While they know, as their parents know, that it is wrong, they have nevertheless
come to feel that it is one of the ways in which black folk and white folk get on
together; one of the indirect ways, in other words, in which black people have
learned to recompense themselves for disadvantages which they suffer in other
directions."
In conclusion he said: "Each one of you can do something toward solving the
race problem, for example, by making, each for himself, a reputation for
honesty in the community in which you live. If in the part of the country where
you now live members of our race have a reputation for carelessness, looseness
in regard to the ownership of property, you can help to solve the race problem,
and make life here in the South more comfortable for every other member of the
race if you will win for yourself
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a reputation for downright honesty and integrity in all your dealings with your
neighbors, whether they be white or black."
Mr. Washington once said, "In all my teaching I have watched carefully the
influence of the toothbrush, and I am convinced that there are few single
agencies of civilization that are more far-reaching." He made periodic tours of
the students' rooms to find out what students if any were without toothbrushes.
The possession and use of a toothbrush is one of the entrance requirements for
Tuskegee. In this connection he used to tell with a chuckle the reply of the girl
who in answer to his question as to whose toothbrush he found on the
washstand said, "That is ours," referring to her roommate and herself.
In his tours of inspection of the students' rooms he would also inquire how many
nightgowns they owned. He insisted that every student should have at least two