Booker T. Washington Part 12

T.M. Campbell of the Tuskegee Inst.i.tute, the District Agent in charge of these Extension Schools for the Negro Farmers of Alabama, reports that among the subjects taught the men are home gardening, seed selection, repair of farm tools, the growing of legumes as soil builders and cover crops, best methods of fighting the boll-weevil, poultry raising, hog raising, corn raising, and pasture making. The women are instructed in sewing, cooking, was.h.i.+ng and ironing, serving meals, making beds, and methods for destroying household pests and for the preservation of health. At all the meetings the names and addresses of those present are taken for the purpose of following them up by correspondence from the district agent's office, so that the benefits of the instruction shall not be lost from one year to another. The slogan for these Alabama schools is: "Alabama Must Feed Herself." Practically all the black farmers have shown a pathetic eagerness to learn and the white farmers and the white demonstration agents everywhere have heartily cooperated. Churches, schoolhouses, and courthouses have been placed at the district agent's disposal for the Extension School session. One of the most hopeful features of the experiment has been the great interest in this new and better farming aroused among the boys and girls--an interest which the ordinary rural school sadly fails even in attempting to arouse. All told throughout the State 3,872 colored people attended these schools the first year.

The sessions were usually opened by a prayer offered by one of the rural preachers. In one such prayer the preacher said among other things: "O Lord, have mercy on dis removable school; may it purmernate dis whole lan' an' country!" At another meeting, after the workers had finished a session, some of the leading colored farmers were called on to speak. One of them opened his remarks with the words: "I ain't no speaker, but I jes wan' a tell you how much I done been steamilated by dis my only two days in school!"

A report of one of these schools held recently at Monroeville, Ala., reads: "Only subjects with which the rural people are directly concerned are introduced and stressed by the instructors, such as pasture making, necessary equipment for a one and two horse farm, care of farm tools, crop rotation, hog raising, care of the cow, seed selection, diversified farming, how to make homemade furniture, fighting the fly, and child welfare.

"The home economics teacher attracted the attention of all the colored farmers and also the white visitors by constructing out of dry goods boxes an attractive and substantial dresser and washstand, completing the same before the audience, even to the staining, varnis.h.i.+ng, hanging the mirrors and attaching the draperies." One paper, in estimating the value of these Movable Agricultural Schools said: "Given ten years of good practical agricultural instruction of the kind that was imparted to the Negro farmers, their wives and children, for the past three weeks in Wilc.o.x, Perry, and Lowndes counties, there is no reason why every Negro farmer in the State should not only help 'Alabama feed herself,' but so increase the yield of its marketable products that the State will be able to export millions of dollars'

worth of food and foodstuffs each year."

These Extension Schools are advertised by posters just like a country circus, except that the language is less grandiloquent. On the following page is a typical announcement presented in heavy black type on yellow paper.

[Ill.u.s.tration:

Co-operative Extension Work in Agriculture and Home Economics

STATE OF ALABAMA

FARMERS ATTENTION!

AN EXTENSION SCHOOL

OF

AGRICULTURE AND HOME ECONOMICS

FOR

COLORED FARMERS, BOYS, GIRLS, AND WOMEN

WILL BE HELD IN PERRY COUNTY AT

MARION, FEBRUARY 8-9

MORNING STAR COMMUNITY, FEBRUARY 11-12

_COME AND BRING YOUR FAMILY!_

THE PROGRAM OF THE SCHOOL WILL EMBRACE THE FOLLOWING SUBJECTS AND MANY OTHERS.

--FOR MEN AND BOYS--

Diversified Farming for the South, "A Ray of Hope to the Man with the Hoe."

How to Make the Cotton Farm Fertile--Every Farmer Must Feed Himself.

Care and Treatment of Live Stock--"To Thee, my Master, I offer my prayer; feed me, water and care for me, and when the day's work is done, provide me with shelter."--From the Horses' Prayer.

Cotton Growing under Boll Weevil Conditions--Looks like Billie Boll Weevil is here to stay.

Waste caused by weeds, stumps and skips.

Corn--Seed testing.

Dairying and Its Possibilities in Alabama.

Sweet Potatoes--How to grow and save them.

--FOR WOMEN AND GIRLS--

"Home Made Home."--A Home should be more than a place in which to eat and sleep.

The Health of the Family--Much responsibility rests on the Mother.

Child Welfare--Every 4th Negro baby dies before it is One Year Old.

Fifty per cent of the diseases of Negro children under One Year can be prevented.

The Care of the Girls and Boys on the Farm--Make them your partners in the business of Home Making.

Demonstration in Cookery--Too few of our women and girls know how to cook.

A FREE PICTURE SHOW WILL BE GIVEN ONE NIGHT AT EVERY MEETING PLACE

This Extension School is being held under the auspices of the Extension Service of the United States Department of Agriculture and the Alabama Polytechnic Inst.i.tute. The subjects will be discussed by experts from the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Inst.i.tute.

T.M. CAMPBELL, District Demonstration Agent, Tuskegee Inst.i.tute, Alabama.]

Thus did Booker Was.h.i.+ngton in the very year of his death, with the aid of the National Government, launch the last of his many means for helping the people whose welfare lay ever nearest his heart--the Negro farmers. These Extension Schools are literally "going out 'into the by-ways and hedges'" carrying to those who most need it Booker Was.h.i.+ngton's gospel of better farming.

One of the great secrets of Mr. Was.h.i.+ngton's success was his unerring instinct for putting first things first. In nothing that he did was this trait better ill.u.s.trated than in the unceasing emphasis which he placed upon the fundamental importance of agriculture. He never forgot that over 80 per cent. of his people drew their living directly from the soil. He never ceased to impress upon the business and professional men of his race that their success was dependent upon the success of the farmers; and upon the farmers that unless they succeeded the business and professional men could not succeed. In short, he made Tuskegee first and foremost an agricultural school because the Negro race is first and foremost an agricultural race.

CHAPTER EIGHT

BOOKER WAs.h.i.+NGTON AND THE NEGRO BUSINESS MAN

In 1900 Booker Was.h.i.+ngton founded the National Negro Business League.

He was president of this league from its foundation until his death.

During the winter of 1900, after reviewing the situation at length with his friend T. Thomas Fortune, the Nestor of Negro journalism, and at that time the dominant influence in the New York _Age_, who was spending the winter at Tuskegee, with Mr. Scott and others of his friends, he came to the conclusion that the time had come to bring the business men and women of his race together in a great national organization, with local branches throughout the country. He decided that such an organization might be a powerful agency in creating the race consciousness and race pride for which he was ever striving. All the then-existing organizations, other than the sick and death benefit societies and the purely social organizations, had as their main purpose the a.s.sertion of the civil and political rights of the Negro.

There was no organization calculated to focus the attention of the Negroes on what they were doing and could do for themselves in distinction from what was being done for them and to them. All the existing a.s.sociations laid their chief emphasis upon the rights of the Negro rather than his duties. Mr. Was.h.i.+ngton held that without in any degree sacrificing their just demands for civil and political rights a more wholesome and constructive att.i.tude could be developed by stressing the duties and the opportunities of the race. He believed it would be helpful to emphasize in an organized way what they had done and could do in the way of business achievement in spite of race prejudice rather than what they had not done and could not do because of racial discrimination. He believed they needed to have brought home to them not how many of them had been held down, but how many of them had come up and surmounted obstacles and difficulties. He believed that they should have it impressed upon them that the application of business methods would bring rewards to a black man just as to a white man.

The first meeting of the National Negro Business League was held in Boston, August 23 and 24, 1900. After these sessions Booker Was.h.i.+ngton made the following statement of the purpose in calling the meeting and the results obtained:

"As I have travelled through the country from time to time I have been constantly surprised to note the number of colored men and women, often in small towns and remote districts, who are engaged in various lines of business. In many cases the business was very humble, but nevertheless it was sufficient to indicate the opportunities of the race in this direction. My observation in this regard led me to believe that the time had come for the bringing together of the leading and most successful colored men and women throughout the country who are engaged in business. After consultation with men and women in various parts of the country it was determined to call a meeting in the city of Boston to organize the National Negro Business League. This meeting was held during the 23d and 24th of August, and it was generally believed that it was one of the most successful and helpful meetings that has ever been held among our people. The meeting was called with two objects in view: first, to bring the men and women engaged in business together, in order that they might get acquainted with each other and get information and inspiration from each other; secondly, to form plans for an annual meeting and the organization of local business leagues that should extend throughout the country. Both of these objects, I think, have been admirably accomplished. I think there has never been a time in the history of the race when all feel so much encouraged in relation to their business opportunities as now.

The promoters of this organization appreciate very keenly that the race cannot depend upon mere material growth alone for its ultimate success, but they do feel that material prosperity will greatly hasten their recognition in other directions."

The spirit and purpose of this first national convention of Negro business men may be gathered by this quotation from the speech of J.H.