Booker T. Washington, Builder o - African American History

Booker T. Washington, Builder of a Civilization. 26
24.03.2006
repudiated the whole arrangement, and started in as before to denounce Mr.
Washington and those who thought and acted with him.
After the Atlanta speech Mr. Washington's task was a dual one. While the active
head of his great and rapidly growing institution, he was also the generally
accepted leader of his race. It is with his leadership of his race that we are
concerned in this chapter. His duties in this capacity were vast and ill defined,
and his responsibility exceedingly heavy. He said, himself, that when he first
came to be talked of as the leader of his race he was somewhat at a loss to know
what was expected of him in that capacity. His tasks in this direction, however,
were thrust upon him so thick and fast that he had not long to remain in this
state of mind. After the Atlanta speech he was in almost daily contact with what
was befalling his people in all parts of the country and to some extent all over
the world. Through his press clipping service, supplemented by myriads of
letters and personal reports, practically every event of any significance to his
race came to his notice. When he heard of rioting, lynching, or serious trouble in
any community he sent a message of advice, encouragement, or warning to the
leading Negroes of the locality and sometimes to the whites whom he knew to
be interested in the welfare of the Negroes. When the trouble was sufficiently
serious to warrant it he went in person to the scene. When he heard of a Negro
winning a prize at a county fair, or being placed in some position of unusual
trust and distinction, he wrote him a letter of
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congratulation and learned the circumstances so that he might cite the incident
by way of encouragement to others.
After the riots in Atlanta, Georgia, some years ago, when infuriated white mobs
foiled in their efforts to lynch a Negro murderer, burned, killed, and laid waste
right and left in the Negro section of the town, Mr. Washington, who was in the
North at the time, boarded the first train for the city, arrived just after the bloody
scenes, gathered together his frightened people amid the smoking ruins of their
homes, soothed, calmed, and cheered them. He then went to the leading city
officials, secured from them a promise of succor for the stricken people and
protection against further attack. Next he went to the Governor of the State,
secured his sympathy and coÖperation, and with him organized a conference of
leading State and city officials and other representative men who there and then
mapped out a program tending to prevent the recurrence of such race riots--a
program which up to the present time has successfully fulfilled its purpose. It is