And the world listened; Booker T. Washington: Atlanta International Exposition

There is no defense or security for any of us except in the highest intelligence and development of all. If anywhere there are efforts tending to curtail the growth of the negro let these efforts be turned into stimulating me and encouraging me and making him the most useful and intelligent citizen. So invest. Will pay a thousand percent. Interest. Booker T Washington spoke and the world listened. And the world listen. Program 10 in the series dramatizing.

The men that created. These programs are produced by a radio station of the University of Wisconsin under a grant from the educational television and radio show. In cooperation with the National Association of educational broadcast consultant for the series is Frederick W. Habermann chairman of the department of speech at the University of Wisconsin. Here is Professor Habermann at his death in 1015 Booker T Washington was the acknowledged leader of the Negro race in America and one of the outstanding men of our country. He had walked a long road between birth and death. Booker was born on a slave plantation in Virginia. He never knew the day or the month even the year of his birth. But he fixes it in 18 58 or 59. His mother was a slave plantation cook. His father it appears was a white man who lived on a nearby plantation. At the age of 5

Booker was valued in the inventory of the plantation at $400 after emancipation Booker and his family moved to West Virginia. Even here Booker standard of living was only a shade above the level of survival yet into the hands of this poor and ignorant boy there came in some unexplained way a copy of Webster's blue black spelling book. This was the beginning. Then came some lessons at night after the day's work at the salt furnace then study at Hampton Institute. Then the founding of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Booker T Washington's fame and that of Tuskegee are inseparable. He began the school in a shanty today. Tuskegee has a magnificent physical plant. He began with education on a desperately elementary plain teaching his students how to behave to eat properly to care for their rooms to gain a practical knowledge of someone trade. Today Tuskegee is

a celebrated center of learning. Booker T Washington was a powerful speaker one of the most accomplished of these day. He looked strong. His face was mobile. His gestures expressive his voice powerful and melodious. His thoughts honest his speeches contained what he called Soul. All of these characteristics were seen at their best when he represented his race in a speech at the opening of the Cotton States and International Exposition at Atlanta Georgia in September 1895. Hard day hard enough to fry chickens on a roof set or what you know to drive right back home. I'm not thanks and do

nothing till I seen your wagon go to the gene. Look like you've got a mighty payload carton. However he had me some work in hell so I've seen the day this country for miles around it got nothing but carting good cotton piling up fast as we could pick good prices to pretty good help help like you never seen. You're too young to remember remember all right I remember my dad it was good wins never know trouble and that was 30 years ago and more this yr trash crap and they don't do a day's work can't work a free one in a sneaky you know what I got living on my lawn did to me you know just this week I'll collect a nice rant you owe me money too. I figured hey maybe 6 be a carton 6 being one of the worst come around with a 6 bales all right he left him in my place then he snuck back home didn't see any more cotton to me what you mean about cutting

back he got into more often out there land of mine. He got a muddy place begin to go to told him to turn it off going to sell them for cash money to do what you do. I just naturally called there but back to my house I said you got two bales a carton of my land you bring I mean yeah well he sassed me sir I said you bring I mean yeah. And I good enough to raise eight bales then you rent it just naturally come to you. He brought home seems like a place him. He's the mean one with the mean looking is yes yes. I told Teddy that yes my 5 year old. I had him right there on the porch with me when I give it to this nigger and I says Danny Arce says Son don't you never give his current inch that's new take a mile to hit you over there. And I tell him how it was when I was a little tad time of the war. Yeah but tellin ain't the same in this crop of children grown up now they ain't never going to know how it

was in the good old days. They never going to get those days back again. Yeah maybe so but I tell you mine he's a smart one you know. I would tell you what he say that time we took him over the next county where they had that lynching don't seem to remember you did I was there we took him his mother and me and he watched it all these eyes popping out you know when it was over and we was going back to the way can he have he says to his might as a free man get her now and 0 1 Bernie. Real little man. You can take him up to Lana with you you mean a cut next week. You're not going to do that with a big lead exposition. Biggest thing we ever had in this. Yeah maybe biggest the world's Columbian fair they had up there and should go yeah I've been reading about it in the papers. They say it's going to be international.

People come from all over this country in the world. Wouldn't surprise me. We do better now I did up at that Chicago Fire show with just how far we've come since the war put us back on the map seems like a fair this kind of good gets better markets for cotton. I say it's worth whatever it cost. Anyway see by the papers they got the Congress of the United States to back in here they got the Congress money all right but we got our own committee as Southerners to run it. And that shows how far we come. Congress give the money but we get to run things. And with the series by the South and for the South. Fried Chickens on a roof. But I'm afraid I still don't understand when it's plain enough the exposition is

by the other side to dramatize our resources. Show the world of copying from the field to the factory to the home. Mr. Washington says we will be in it is niggas. Is that what you mean. Afraid you weren't listening. It says the Negro race is invited to participate. This invitation is like any other Going to a Southern institution or organization. We're on the same footing. This letter and the men who wrote it in Atlanta they don't use the word niggers but Mr. Washington they still you haven't known many white men. You're judging them as unfairly as they sometimes do us. Remember when you first came here to school to Washington I'm never gonna forget it. Why I didn't have shoes and I couldn't ride I walked because I couldn't.

Yes but you had heard that everybody had had to have a tooth brush. You and your two friends were afraid we wouldn't let you stay without one. So on the morning I first inspected your home here at school I asked the three of you if you had toothbrushes. I remember we showed you this one toothbrush. Here's our toothbrush. We bought it together yesterday with exactly one brush with the three of you. But you've come a long way since you've been with us. You've learned books and homemaking as well as about brushes. Now I'm asking you when every other student of Tuskegee to learn that one yardstick will not do for all men quiet or colored. You must judge each on his merits and his capacities and opportunities. This invitation to Negroes to exhibit their work at the fair. It comes from men of intelligence. They're giving us the chance to show how far we've come since slavery. We mustn't be afraid to take what they offer us.

And now I must reply to this letter. The planning committee is waiting in Atlanta. Going far enough I would say too far but far enough let things stand as they be huge gentleman. I'll do the rest of your feel. Well it's never been done before. It's bound to stir up a lot of newspaper reaction both Southern and Northern. I'm a Southern publisher and all fancy I know public attitudes on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line. Mr. HALL We've already done enough for the negroes including the negro building on the exposition grounds. Is it necessary to go farther than that. Buildings do not make an exposition. If they did there would be no need for public speakers of ceremonies of any kind by anyone. I say we must include a Negro leader of outstanding ability on the

platform for the opening to address this governor will be Mrs Thompson from the women's board white women as well as men in the auditorium as well as the thousands who lined the streets for the procession. Well when they see a colored man he met with the whites. Well if there should be the least incident it's just never been done before gentleman. There's never been a Booker T Washington before I move that in accord with all the thinking we've already done toward making the Exposition a true picture of progress in the south. We invite Mr. Washington to speak at the opening day ceremonies. Very well I agree if Mr. Washington is the man he must be the man. Let's make it unanimous. Mr. Washington is the man. How once a slave to a grocer blackened by a slave to speak where his master.

Used to Washington always said we mustn't be afraid to take what they owe us. The. Chance to show. You heard the news that it's position they're going to have a program Open in June you be sure to take menu make my sure we get good seats do. Because I sure do want to hear what the goons going to say. Look at their right knee in a carriage just like he was respectable. You know body miserable that black man look like he got his way to the gallows. I believe the Southern Railway vice president Southern Railway and of the New York World My paper is particularly interested in covering Mr. Washington speech.

I understand you're an associate very much interested in a personal friend of Mr. Washington's. That's why I'm here. But I don't understand why here outside the auditorium he's on the platform now ready to speak any minute. I just can't face it. And I've been pacing up and down outside here telling myself what if anything should go wrong. He's not well received I care too much about him and his people to fix thank you serve papers interested. Oh. There's the applause for the last speaker. You know being Mr. Washington. Excuse me. I must have missed. You. Will. Great. Calm. Handsome figure of a man nobody told me he was so impressive. Mr. President gentlemen of the board of directors and citizens one third of the population of the

South is of the Negro race. No enterprise seeking the material civil or moral welfare of this section can disregard the sentiment of our population and reach the highest success. But convey to you Mr. President and the rector was the sentiment of the masses of my race were not to say that in no way have the value and manhood of the American Negro been more willingly and generously recognized than by the managers of this magnificent exposition. At every stage of its progress it is a recognition that will do more to cement the friendship of the two races than any occurrence since the dawn of our freedom. Our ship lost at sea for many days citing the friendly vessel from the mast of the unfortunate vessel was seen as a signal. Water water we die of thirst.

The answer from the friendly vessel it once came back. Cast down your bucket where you are. The second time the signal water water ascend those water ran up from the distressed vessel and was inserted cast down your bucket where you are. And the third and fourth stick for water was inserted cast down your bucket where you want the captain of the distressed vest who at last heeding the injunction cast down his bucket and it came up full of fresh sparkling water from the mouth of the Amazon River. To those of moderates who depend on bettering their condition in a foreign land or who underestimate the importance of cultivating friendly relations with the Southern white man who is their next door neighbor. I would say cast down your bucket where you are cast it down in making friends in every manly way of the people of all

races by whom we are surrounded. Cast it down in agriculture or mechanics in commerce in domestic service and in the professions and in this connection it is well to bear in mind that whatever other sins this stuff may be called too bad when it comes to business pure and simple it is in the south that the Negro is given a man's chance in the commercial world and in nothing is this exposition more eloquent than an imprecise thing this chance. Our greatest danger is that in the great leap from slavery to freedom we may have overlooked the fact that the masses of us are to live by the production of our hands and fail to keep in mind that we shall prosper in proportion as we learn to dignify and glorify calmly and put brains and

skill into the common occupations of life care prospered in proportion as we learn to draw the line between the superficial and the substantial. The only mental geegaws of life and the useful no race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a point. It is at the bottom of life. We must begin not at the top nor should we permit our grievances to overshadow our opportunities. To those of the white race who look to the incoming of those of foreign and strange tongue inhabits for the prosperity of the South. Well I permitted I would repeat what I said of my own race cast down your bucket where you are cast it down among the eight millions of negroes whose habits you know who spit Dela tea and love you have tested in

days when to have proved treacherous meant the ruin of your fire science. Cast down your bucket among those people who have without strikes and labor was killed your views cleared your forests build your railroads in cities and brought up treasures from the bowels of the earth and helped make possible this magnificent representation of the progress of the sun casting down your bucket among my people helping and encouraging them as you are doing on these exposition grounds and by education of paid hand and heart. You will find that they will buy your surplus line make blocks from the waste places in your fields and run your factory while doing this you can be sure in the future as in the past that you and your families will be surrounded by the most patient

faithful law abiding and resentful people that the world has to see as we have proved our loyalty to you in the past. So in the future we shall stand by you with a devotion that no foreign account approach interlacing our industrial commercial civil and religious life with yours in a way that shall make the interests of both races won. You know things that are purely social we can be as separate as the thing yes yes. One is that you know things essential to mutual progress. I am the owner and. The big nearly 16 million five hands with pulling the load up on all they will pull against the low down. We should constitute one third and more of the

ignorance and crime of the South. All one third of its intelligence and problems. We shall contribute one third to the business and industrial prosperity of the South all we show a veritable body of debt stagnating. Depressing retarding every effort to advance the body politic. Gentlemen of the exposition as we present to you our humble effort at an exhibition of our progress. You must not expect overmuch starting 30 years ago with ownership here and there in a few quilts and pumpkin patches gathered from miscellaneous sources. Remember the path that has led from these to the inventions and production of agricultural implements buggies steam engines newspapers books statuary carving Speeding's the management

of drug stores and banks. This path has not been Troughton without contact with thorns and thistles. While we take pride in what we exhibit as a result of our independent Deford's we do not for a moment forget that our part in this exhibition would fall far short of your expectations. But all the constant care that has come to our educational life not only from southern states but especially from Northern people and priests who have made their gifts a constant stream of blessing and encouragement. The wisest among my race. I understand that the education of the questions of social equality is the extremist far and that progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than of artificial forcing. No race that has anything to contribute to the

markets of the world is wrong in any degree ostracize. It is important and right that all privileges of the law be ours. But it is vastly more important that we be prepared for the exercises of these privileges. In conclusion may I repeat that nothing in 30 years has given us more hope and encouragement and drama so in there you have the white race has this opportunity offered by the exposition. And here bending as it were over the old represents the struggle the results of the struggles of your race and mine both starting practically empty handed three decades ago. I pledge that in your effort to work out the great and intricate problem which God has laid at the doors of the South. You should have at all times the patient sympathetic help of my

race. Let us pray God there will come you know blotting out of sectional differences and racial animosities and suspicions a determination to administer absolute justice. Or willing obedience among all classes to the mandates of law. This this coupled with our material prosperity will bring into our beloved South a new heaven and a new earth. To Washington or Washington let me come in. Thank you. I've never seen a magnificent speech wait until the newspapers predicts it will sweep the country north and south. You are very kind. Here's how you'll agree with me. What will your paper have to say about this speech Mr. Governor. I'll say it is the beginning of a moral revolution in America. I do declare I don't know what got into me. I just found myself standing out front long in all this.

And the chair and. Black man mind you there now seems like he's a powerful doctor sounds all right the way he says. This degree of. Relief you piece of. How did it. I heard the cheer I never believe it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. You missed a great moment of history Mr Baldwin when he held up his hand above his head with his fingers apart and said we can be separate as the fingers get one as the hand in all things essential to the Packers. When it's not even Gladstone himself could have done better. I'm cry like my heart would break but I don't know why but it's a great day oh Loto great day. Grey Gables Massachusetts October 6 1895 Booker T Washington Esquire. My dear sir I thank you with much

enthusiasm for making your address. I have read it with intense interest and I think the exposition would be fully justified if it did not do more than furnish the opportunity for its delivery. The words cannot fail to delight and encourage all who wish well for the race. And if our colored fellow citizens do not from your utterances gather new hope. And form new determination to gain every possible advantage offered them by their citizenship it will be strange indeed. Because very truly. Signed. Grover Cleveland. President of the United States. Gd. Is good. Here again is Professor Habermann in

November 1915 Booker T Washington collapsed in New York as a result of overwork. He asked to be taken to Tuskegee. I was born in a sod he said. I have lived and labored in Assad and I expect to die and be buried in the south. He was buried on the campus of the institution he had helped to begin. No man since the war of sections a Southern journalist said has exercised such beneficial influence and done such real good for the country especially the south. And the world list.

Program 10 in the radio series on radio racial. Man and age that created. These programs are produced by radio station WAGA of the University of Wisconsin under a grant from the Educational Television and Radio Center. Frederick W. Haber gemman of the department of speech at the University of Wisconsin is the consultant production by Carl Schmidt. Music by Done vaguely scripted by Jay Holland stand these programs are distributed by the National Association of educational broadcasters. This is the end. The radio network.