Booker T. Washington, Builder o - African American History

Booker T. Washington, Builder of a Civilization. 75
24.03.2006
to an unusual degree the confidence and respect of both races in the city. What
they would have done had they found Booker Washington one may only
conjecture. At about the same time the Negro murderers were captured. The
howls of the infuriated mob on its way to the jail to lynch the accused murderers
could be heard in the distance from the hall where Mr. Washington spoke.
Without referring in any way to the event which was taking place at the time
Mr. Washington, to the alarm of his friends, launched into a fervid denunciation
of lynching and ended with an earnest and eloquent appeal for better feeling
between the races. Instead of his words breaking up the meeting in a storm of
anger and rioting, this audience composed of Southern whites and colored
people vigorously applauded his sentiments. Undoubtedly they were applauding
not so much the views expressed as the courage shown in expressing them at
that place and under those circumstances.
A somewhat similar experience occurred on a recent speaking tour which he and
a party were making through the State of Louisiana. He was accompanied by a
company of Negro leaders, including Major Moton of Hampton,
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who has since become his successor as Principal of Tuskegee Institute. They
were in a portion of the State notorious for its lynchings of Negroes. No one
who has ever seen Major Moton, or knows anything about him, would think of
accusing him of timidity or cowardice. But when they went before a white
audience in this particular district he urged Mr. Washington as a matter of
common prudence to "soft pedal" what he had to say about lynching. Just as in
Jacksonville Mr. Washington did just the opposite, and made his denunciation
particularly emphatic, and just as in Jacksonville there was the same applause
and apparent approval of his views.
Booker Washington also protested that in the matter of public education his
people are not given a square deal in parts of the South, particularly in the
country districts. He continually emphasized the relation between education and
crime. Other things being equal the more and the better the education provided
the less the number and seriousness of the crimes committed. Also he pointed
out that the neglect of Negro school facilities injures the white citizens almost if
not quite as much as the Negroes themselves. And conversely that good school
facilities for the colored children benefit the whites almost as much as the
Negroes. He also insisted that quite aside from all moral and ethical
considerations Negro education pays in dollars and cents. As illustrating the