[n.b. - page numbers refer to printed text. Available at https://archive.org/details/blackmansburden0000will ] CHAPTER XII In February, 1906, the Tuskegee Institute celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary, and Dr. Washington invited a number of his former graduates to return and deliver addresses. I was one of the speakers, and found myself on a program containing the names of Bishop Galloway and Andrew Carnegie. This marked what we may call a turning point in Utica’s history. By this time we had outgrown our ex- isting buildings, and it had dawned upon us that if the progress already made by the Institute was to be con- tinued, we would be compelled to have more land in order that we might grow. I had an option on a tract of good land adjoining our present site, at a price of $18,000. It belonged to one of our fellow-townsmen, who assured me that as soon as I was able to raise the money he was ready to make the deal. Several of our friends had pledged small sums until about $5,000 had been pledged. It was then that I received a letter from Mr. Carnegie’s secretary, announcing that he would contribute five thou- sand dollars to a twenty-five-thousand-dollar endowment fund, or the same proportion of any smaller amount that was raised for the same purpose. This brought happiness to the entire Institution, and every one felt that in due time we would be able to raise the remaining amount. Mr. Ferguson, our treasurer, THE BLACK MAN’S BURDEN 145 who was also president of the Bank of Utica, was so sure that we could raise the balance that he promptly sent for me and told me to go ahead with the purchase of the land, that he would make a donation and pay the remain- ing sum. I now sent for my attorney, a young white man, Mr. Paul D. Ratcliff, who has been connected with the school from the first, and who has transacted all its legal busi- ness. We had a conference with the owner of the land, made the trade, and set the day for payment. Promptly on that day the attorney returned, ready to secure the needed money from the bank and pay for the land. He was surprised and shocked when the gentleman handed him an unsealed note, addressed to me, which read: “Dear Sir: In regard to the land proposition, I have decided not to sell.” This surprised us all,—including the lawyer, who realized that we should have tied the owner by making a deposit when the bargain was origi- nally made. We tried to reason with the owner of the land, but he would not budge. Some of my friends suggested that I should sue him, which of course could have been done with possible success, but my attorney strongly advised against such a course, saying it was better to lose the land and wait for other opportunities than to incur the ill-will of my white friends. This wise counsel I followed and the matter was dropped. But we were all the while outgrowing the existing plant. Finding it impossible to get more land, we now settled down to do the best we could with what we had; and our efforts to help the people never ceased. Our Annual 146 THE BLACK MAN’S BURDEN Farmers’ Conferences were growing in influence and in helpfulness. The following report of the conference held the twelfth of February, 1907, will give some idea of how the conferences were carried out: The third annual conference of the Utica Normal and Industrial Institute was held in the chapel of Mississippi Hall, February 12. The stories of the farmers, told in their simple way, indicated that progress is being made in a very satisfactory manner. We give below some ex- tracts which may prove interesting. Mr. Henry Stubblefield said: “I have been farming for seventeen years. I have been renting for sixteen years, and have paid more than $3,000 rent. After this Institution was started here, I began to attend these con- ferences and I began to believe that I could get a home and pay for it. I bought 129 acres, and I have paid $500, and will pay the rest as soon as I make the cotton.” Mr. Frank Wallace said: “I started out working for wages, then on shares, then I rented land. I saw I was paying enough rent to buy land, so I bought. It took me five years to pay for it, and I had to disfurnish myself to do it, but now I own 120 acres. I tell you, if you want anything you’ve got to work hard and let pleasure alone till you get it.” Mr. Wallace was a little black man, considerably under the average size, with every appearance of being of unal- loyed African descent. The entire audience manifested much interest in his story, at the end of which many ques- tions were asked. Among them was one by a minister, away back in the audience, who seemed to doubt the truth THE BLACK MAN’S BURDEN 147 of Mr. Wallace’s statements. But before Mr. Wallace could answer the question another minister who happened to be presiding promptly asked the questioner to take his seat, saying: “I believe that man is telling the truth. I have paid $5,000 myself for rent in the same time.” As the questions were flying thick and fast about the house an aged woman arose to make a statement, and everybody became quiet. She began by saying, “Did you say you have bought that land and paid for it, and you’se a real black man too?” Mr. Wallace bowed his head like an African chief, then she groaned exultingly, and said, “I sho’ is glad to see you doing something, ’cause they always says down my way that you can’t do anything *cepten’ you half white.” Mr. Frank Lewis said: “I have been farming for forty years. I don’t know how much I have paid for rent. I! tried to buy a house, but I fell through after I had nearly paid for it. If I had taken the advice of my wife, I would not have lost it. I had decided never to. try no more, but after coming to this conference, I have determined to try again.” Mr. Harrison Flanders said: “I was a slave, and was let loose after the war with nothing but an old mother to care for. When I decided to buy a home I went right at itand paid for it in five years. When I got ready to buy I did not have any money, but I had a good many friends among the white people, and one of them stood by me while I worked to pay for the land. I don’t see any reason why any Negro should not buy a home in this country, unless he is too trifling to make the friendship of the white people, and too lazy to work. I havea good 148 THE BLACK MAN’S BURDEN little home and am educating my children. I wouldn’t live in this country now without a home. I would go where I could get one.” At the close of Mr. Flanders’ remarks questions were again in order, and as usual some very searching and personal questions were asked. I remember one of them was asked by a woman. She said, “Brother, you said you didn’t have a cent when you started, and paid for _ your hundred acres of land in five years?’ Upon re- ceiving an affirmative answer, she remarked, “And did you get it all honest?” This threw the audience into con- vulsions of laughter, because the majority of them knew Mr. Flanders and knew how serious he would take such questions, for he tries to be a very straightforward man in all his business relations. Mr. George Beechamp said: “I have been farming for twenty years, but I have never thought of buying a home. I have cattle, hogs, horses, but no home. This is my first time to come to this conference. I am going home and start out at once to buy me a home. After hearing how these other brethren have done it, I feel that I can do it, too.”’ A voice was heard in some part of the house at this juncture, saying: “Mr. President, I want to say that that brother need not let the stories he is hearing here fool him. It takes a long sight longer to buy a home and pay for it than it does to tell about it after you get it. I want to tell you, brother, it took me fifteen years to pay for my home, and during that time I had to undergo all sorts of hardships; getting a home and getting it paid for means to get up before day and stay up late at night; it THE BLACK MAN’S BURDEN 149 means you have got to hide yourself on Sunday to keep folks from seeing your rags while they are going to church with their fine slick clothes on; it means that you have got to see the mouths of your wife and daughters stuck out day by day, while they accuse you of mistreat- ing them; it means that your neighbors will put the devil in your children’s heads every time your back is turned; it means that you must eat corn bread and salt meat mixed with cowpeas, and leave off sugar and coffee, and rice, and biscuit, and a whole lot of other things. Breth- eren, I am telling you what I knows, and if you ain’t pre- pared to stand these things, you better stay like you is.” During all the time that this little speech was being made there were groans of “Yes, Lord,’ “Tell it, brother,” “That sho’ am the Gospel truth,” and the house was in an uproar. It seemed that the sentiment was go- ing in the wrong direction; one man stood up and said, “If that is the case, I believe I’ll stay like I is.” The pre- siding officer, seeing that only one side of the question had been discussed, and fearing that a wrong impression would be created, asked the man that had spoken so plainly: ‘Did you mean to say that you ate corn bread and salt pork during all these years that you have been buying your place?’ Whereupon the man quickly re- plied: “I didn’t say anything about salt pork; I said I et salt meat and corn bread; and I didn’t have salt meat all the time, and what coffee I had I made it out of brand, and I sweetened it with molasses I made; and that is what these others got to do, if they get any land paid for.” The President suggested to him that times were different now from what they used to be, whereupon he 150 THE BLACK MAN’S BURDEN retorted, ‘““Times don’t never get no different with a man that ain’t got nothing.” The President then asked him to tell how he got on after he had succeeded in buying a home and getting a start. “That’s a horse of another color,” he replied. “You feels mighty good when you gets in your buggy on Sundays with two black mares hitched to it, and drive along putting dust over those same folks that used to laugh at you and try to make your wife and children be- lieve you didn’t have any sense; and you feel mighty good, bretheren, when you-can go to church and take a trunk of rations along, and spread the table for your neighbors and hear the preacher say, ‘I am going to take dinner with that brother,’ and you can put a dollar in the collection for the heathen in Africa. It is all good when you get to it, but it’s mighty bad along the way, and none but the pure in heart can get there.” Mr. Fair said: “J ama farmer; I make lots of cotton. I have made two attempts to buy land, but failed both times. I have not lost heart; I am going to try again.” ' Mr. Dan Lee said: “I started out with one cow, one hog, and one dog. I rented a mule for $50 a year. I bought one hundred acres of land, and worked and trusted in the Lord, believing that He would bring me out more than conqueror if I trusted in Him, and He did. Since these annual conferences began I bought 120 acres more. I have a good home and have educated one son and a daughter. I love to work because I can see what is going with my labor.” Mr. Rivers said: “I paid nineteen bales of cotton,— $950,—a year for rent for ten years. I had no idea of THE BLACK MAN’S BURDEN 151 buying land or getting a home until I heard Mr. Holtz- claw’s talk in the first conference here. I just waked up that day. I went away from that conference with a de- termination to get a home. Since then I have bought sixty acres of land, put it under cultivation, and I now have something to live for. I can do twice as much work as I used to do, and I enjoy it. If it had not been for these conferences, my eyes might have remained closed to the end of my life.” The President as usual had addressed the conference at its opening, and at its close Prof. L. J. Rowan, presi- dent of the State Agricultural College, spoke to the farm- ers and urged them to possess the land they cultivated. Many short but helpful addresses were delivered during the session by persons engaged in various professions. While we were working to better the condition of our people, it is fair to say that in many parts of our section of the country other agencies,—composed of white men, religious men, and scholars,—were doing what they could to improve conditions. The following extract, taken from a report of a grand jury composed of white men and published broadcast, will be of interest: “We find that the disgraceful vice of white men living with Negro women in unlawful cohabitation has grown to an alarming extent and threatens our commonwealth with a mongrel race which will be a menace to our coun- try. We find that the various officers of the law, through- out the county, and especially the mayor of the city of , who especially neglects his duty in this respect, have apparently ignored the existence of this vice. Espe- 152 THE BLACK MAN’S BURDEN cially have we found this to be the case within the city of , where we find in many instances black women have been fined by the mayor small sums and their white paramours shielded, or let go free, or their names with- held for fear of exposing them. We condemn this with- out terms, and we earnestly recommend that white men who have Negro women concubines be dealt with to the fullest extent till the vice is broken up, or such undesir- able citizens find it more congenial to seek other places. We find that the city of is honeycombed with white gentlemen who have their Negro concubines, with whom they reside after night, but because of insufficient evidence to secure a conviction, we have passed up sev- eral instances for the consideration of the next grand jury.” Anyone caring to investigate will find, I believe, that such cases as are here attacked by this earnest grand jury are growing less year by year, being at the present time in many places fully eighty-five per cent. less than they were formerly. I doubt if this vice was ever as bad anywhere as this zealous grand jury seemed to think it was. Vari- ous grand juries and other public servants have from time to time attacked not only this crime, but also other forms of evil that exist between the races, and a great deal has been done to eradicate such vices. But the main thing that is so rapidly obliterating these crimes against society is the education of the Negro woman,—I mean that true education that is bringing her into the consciousness of the beauty and importance of the highest Christian womanhood. To the properly edu- THE BLACK MAN’S BURDEN 153 cated Negro woman crimes against society are as repug- nant as they should be. As a matter of fact, there are economic conditions at the bottom of many of the crimes against society. Pov- erty and crime sometimes go hand in hand. I have no doubt that conditions in the little cities of the South would be very different to-day, had it not been for the tendency that has been manifesting itself for several years on the part of the Negroes to leave the country dis- tricts and crowd themselves into the cities. This move- ment has often taxed the ability of the cities to maintain order ard to furnish sufficient labor of a congenial sort to induce continued exertion. For this reason the new- comers have often had to resort to gambling and other more serious offences in order to make a living at all. This condition of affairs brought about a dependent class of men and women,—men and women who had an ever increasing aversion to work-of any sort. Thus many crimes that should have been dying a natural death se- cured a new lease on life. And when men once learn to disrespect, in even the least degree, one class of women they find it increasingly difficult to respect any class of women. But, some one retorts, the homes of Southern white men have always been open to all women that wanted work to do, but they have constantly refused this work, showing that they are not immune from suspicion on account of poverty, These persons hold that not only will the Negro women on the streets refuse to work in the homes of white men for wages, but that even the educated Negro women refuse to work,—that is, they 154 THE BLACK MAN’S BURDEN prefer to do nothing. For instance, Mr. A. H. Jennings writes in the New York Evening Post: “I note with pleasure the gleam of light cast across the gloomy prospect of a warring Europe by your prediction that a horde of foreign women, forced by their destitu- tion abroad, will come to this country to accept domestic service. If the dreadful event of this multitude of women being impoverished, destitute, and widowed must come to pass, and they come here looking for homes and work, many can find a hearty welcome in Virginia and throughout the South. “The Negroes who do the household work of the South are yearly becoming more inefficient, more trifling, more exacting. In ‘old times,’ even after the war, the darkies were trained, but that training has vanished now. It is practically impossible to secure a trained cook or house- maid now; we are forced to accept such service as a worthless servant class can give, or do the work ourselves. An honest white woman, willing to work, whether trained well or not, can find a good home and fair wages at two out of three doors at which she may knock in Virginia.” Mr. Jennings’ view as given herewith may be taken as ‘typical, but I believe he is not able to read the heart of the Negro maid who refuses to work in his home. Many girls from this institution have gone into the homes of some of the best white people in this section of the coun- try as well as in the Northern states. They have served as maids, cooks, and general house girls, and in every case but one that I have investigated they have given satisfaction. In the few cases where they have not re- THE BLACK MAN’S BURDEN 155 mained in the homes as long as I thought they should I have asked them to write me frankly why they could not stay in a place that seemed to me to be so desirable. Invariably I have received two replies: one, that, al- though the people for whom they worked were kind and considerate, they have found it necessary to seek other employment where better wages could be had, the average wage of the housemaid in the South being, I believe, somewhere between six and ten dollars a month; the other, that they did not receive sufficient protection and that their only hope was to seek another occupation. I believe this last reason is the more important,—for them and for all the rest of us. Respectable Negroes will trust their daughters in the future in the homes of only such white men as they can trust to protect them. To resume: This grand jury about which I was speak- ing was composed of earnest men, and the South is full of men and women of both races who are determined that this section shall be rid of such evils as I have described. Wonderful changes have taken place in the past few years. Sentiment has changed so greatly that in many parts of the South to-day white men who would stoop to things that used to be condoned would now become out- casts from their own people and would be hated by the Negroes. If Negro women find that they will be treated with the respect that is due them as women, and that they will receive living wages, I believe more of them will do the domestic work of the South, and that no great number of European women will be needed here. When the evils that exist between the races are elim- inated better relations will take their place, notwithstand- 156 THE BLACK MAN’S BURDEN ing the fact that there may continue to be spasmodic eruptions. And this is true, in spite of the fact that the good that is going on day by day is not given half the prominence in the newspapers and periodicals that is given to the evil. I have in mind now the tragedy that took place at Harriston, in Jefferson County, a few months ago. Two Negro youths, probably crazed with cocaine and other drugs, ran amuck in the city, taking the lives of several prominent white men before they themselves were killed, —to say nothing of causing the death of several other Negroes. Several papers in various parts of the country almost magnified this incident into a race riot, when, as a matter of fact, no stretch of the imagination could magnify it into any such thing. The citizens of the little town simply protected themselves against two drug-crazed youths,—ignorant youths who had never had an oppor- tunity to go to school. Such incidents should not be mag- nified and called race riots, for everybody knows that a race riot would be a very different thing; besides, any- thing like a serious race riot in any part of the South is such a remote possibility that even a suggestion of it is altogether out of place. In this connection, I do not wish to say that the lynch- ing spirit was not at all present in the Harriston affair, but from all that I could learn from eye-witnesses the facts are substantially as I have stated them here. The fact is that lynching has gone on so long in many parts of our country that it is somewhat difficult to draw at this time a sharp line marking off distinctly the point where the lynching spirit stops and the spirit of legal THE BLACK MAN’S BURDEN 157 procedure commences. You cannot tell what the most peaceable community will do at any moment under cer- tain conditions. After careful study of the whole situa- tion, however, I am convinced that in spirit, at least, the lynching habit has become a sort of institution. I have come in contact with men, who, although they regret the stigma that lynchings bring upon their community, never- theless feel that no great harm has been done to society by a lynching, and in every instance where a crime has been committed beyond doubt by the person lynched many people feel that that person got no more than he deserved. Negroes, however, are opposed to lynching in nearly every instance for any crime whatsoever. Nevertheless, some ignorant Negroes in a few instances have followed the example of the white people in regard to lynching. During a great deal of the time that this “race riot” was being discussed in the newspapers, quietly and with- out the blowing of trumpets a number of white and col- ored people were meeting in the courthouse in a town in an opposite county and discussing the problems concern- ing both races, trying to devise ways and means by which their difficulties might be overcome. I had the pleasure of taking part in two of these meet- ings. I delivered an address in which I discussed as thoroughly as I could the whole race situation as it ex- ists here in Mississippi, and tried to point out remedies for some of our difficulties. The white people who were present were so much impressed with my remarks that I was invited to deliver another address in the courthouse on the same subject. Addresses were delivered by three of the leading white ministers who lived in the town, 158 THE BLACK MAN’S BURDEN and the meeting turned out in the end to be a sort of love feast. The spirit of good-will was in the air, so to speak. Various committees were appointed to consult the offi- cials in order to arrange for other meetings and to keep alive the spirit of brotherly love; and I have every reason to believe that these meetings have done a great deal to strengthen the friendship of one race for the other in this section. At the same time that the trouble in Harriston oc- curred another agency,—The Southern Sociological Con- gress,—was holding meetings in the capital of the state and seeking to find remedies for the South’s racial difh- culties. Three or four columns of various daily papers were taken up with discussions of the “race riot” at Har- riston, while three to five lines in a few of the daily papers were given to the efforts to prevent just such oc- currences. But quiet work is going on throughout the South, in spite of the absence of any notoriety, and it is bound to bear fruit in the end.