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FOUNDER'S DAY 
 ADDRESS 
 
 By WILLIAM G. WILLCOX 
 
 Chairman Board Trustees, Tuskegee Institute 
 
 President Board of Education 
 New York City 
 
 At Tuskegee Institute, Alabama 
 April 5, 1917 
 

 Typesetting and Presswork done by 
 Students of the Tuskegee Normal 
 and Industrial Institute, Alabama. 
 
FOUNDER'S DAY ADDRESS 
 
 IT is with many conflicting emotions that we 
 meet today to commemorate the first Found- 
 er's Day of Tuskegee Institute. Grief and 
 mourning for the loss of the great leader are 
 mingled with wonder and pride in the record of his 
 life and achievements, uncertainty and solicitude for 
 a future without his leadership are mingled with as- 
 surance of the permanence of his work and confidence 
 in his successor, appreciation of the difficulties to be 
 faced is mingled with faith in the capacity and deter- 
 mination of the colored people and sublime trust in an 
 overruling Providence. It is indeed fitting and wise 
 as we pass this milestone in the pathway of the race, 
 that we should pause a moment to glance back over 
 the long road which has been travelled, to survey the 
 surroundings and conditions now confronting us and 
 to take serious account of our resources for further 
 progress. 
 
 The Negro's Status after Emancipation 
 
 The emancipation proclamation and the close of the 
 civil war cast adrift to shift for themselves some four 
 million people whose whole lives, until that time, had 
 been shaped and controlled not by their own individual 
 purposes, but by the will of their masters. Whether kind 
 and considerate, as in many cases it was, or harsh and 
 brutal in the hands of cruel owners, this control had 
 relieved them of all responsibility and incentive to pro- 
 vide for themselves and their families, with the in- 
 evitable result that they were as ill prepared as chil- 
 
 (5) 
 
6 Founder's Day Address 
 
 dren to face the new conditions which their liberation 
 brought. While their schooling during slavery had 
 given them valuable experience in agriculture and in- 
 dustry, the absence of responsibility had left them al- 
 most more helpless than their unciviUzed ancestors, to 
 profit by the independence suddenly thrust upon them. 
 The war and the enforced emancipation had left a 
 bitterness and resentment which was inevitably re- 
 flected in the attitude of their former masters and this 
 unfortunate antagonism was greatly intensified by un- 
 wise political policies and unscrupulous activity of 
 Northern adventurers. If the Negro people had come 
 to this country as immigrants under the same condi- 
 tions and with the same status as the people of other 
 races who have made their homes in America, their 
 reception would have been far more friendly and their 
 progress far less difficult. 
 
 Hampton Days 
 
 It is necessary to recall these conditions to appre- 
 ciate aright the discouraging situation which Booker 
 Washington found as he grew to early manhood, 
 which resulted in driving him closer to his own people 
 with deep sympathy for their wrongs and their dis- 
 advantages and with a determination to spend his life 
 in their service. The result of this solemn consecration 
 is an open book, but we never tire of scanning anew 
 its familiar pages. The childhood in slavery on a Vir- 
 ginia plantation, the boyhood in West Virginia where 
 the new found freedom brought to the lad of eight 
 years long hours of labor in the salt mines, the intense 
 yearning for education, seizing every opportunity in 
 intervals of work or at night school after days of toil, 
 the ambition to go to Hampton fired by a conversation 
 overheard in the coal mines, the five-hundred-mile jour- 
 
Founder's Day Address 7 
 
 ney of the boy of fifteen undaunted by lack of food 
 and lodging, sleeping under the boardwalk at Rich- 
 mond, working his way when his meagre savings were 
 exhausted and finally reaching Hampton with fifty 
 cents with which to begin his education, the entrance 
 examination task of sweeping a class room, wherein he 
 showed his earnestness by sweeping the room three 
 times, dusting it four times, moving every piece of 
 furniture and cleaning every closet until the Yankee 
 teacher, unable to find a particle of dirt on the floor 
 or dust on the furniture, remarked, "I guess you will 
 (Jo" — these early days clearly indicated the character 
 and purpose and determination which were destined to 
 bear such rich fruits in after life. 
 
 Paying his board by janitor service, rising at four 
 o'clock and working until late in the evening, he en- 
 tered upon a new life in that great institution. The 
 new surroundings, the opportunities for study and 
 work, the association with teachers and students, all 
 contributed to develop his character, self-reliance and 
 power, but the most potent influence of all was the in- 
 spiration of his association with General Armstrong. 
 Never was the far-reaching effect of personal influence 
 more strikingly illustrated than in the extent to which 
 Booker Washington's whole career and his work for 
 his people and for the entire country were the reflection 
 and result of the influence and inspiration of General 
 Armstrong's magnetic and forceful personality. And 
 not only in the life of Booker Washington but in the 
 lives of hundreds of other Hampton students General 
 Armstrong's beneficent influence spread and is still 
 spreading in ever widening circles with a far-reaching 
 effect which the imagination is powerless to measure. 
 
 At Hampton young Washington learned to love 
 work, not alone for its money value but also for its own 
 
8 Founder's Day Address 
 
 sake and for the independence and self-reliance which 
 flow from conscious ability to do well something which 
 the world wants done. And there he learned also the 
 great lesson of unselfish service to others, which so 
 dominated his after life. General Armstrong was quick 
 to recognize the ability and earnest purpose of his 
 promising pupil, and Washington was invited to re- 
 turn to the Institute after graduation, first to deliver a 
 post-graduate address, next to supervise seventy-five 
 Indian students and finally to organize and teach the 
 first night school for pupils who were obliged to work 
 for their board during the day. Realizing the need and 
 importance of special encouragement for these pupils, 
 with his rare tact and sympathy he named them the 
 "Plucky Class" and at once made the night school 
 popular and membership a badge of honor. 
 
 When but a little over twenty years old he had thus 
 developed and clearly manifested those qualities which 
 made him what he was. There was no luck in Wash- 
 ington's success unless it was the luck of finding his 
 pathway strewn with obstacles which made him strong 
 and self-reliant as he surmounted them. Grit, perse- 
 verance and indomitable energy, determination to do 
 his very best with every task, however trivial, practical 
 common sense, keen sympathy with the difficulties and 
 struggles of his race and consecration to service in its 
 behalf; these were some of the qualities which even at 
 this age foreshadowed his certain success. 
 
 TusKEGEE Institute Founded 
 
 In 1881 the great opportunity of his life came and 
 found him ready. Whether by fortunate chance or by 
 wise foresight. General Armstrong by a word altered 
 the entire character of Tuskegee Institute. Hampton 
 had always been conducted by white teachers and when 
 
Founder's Day Address 9 
 
 the Alabama legislature appropriated $2,000 to es- 
 tablish an industrial school for Negroes in Tuskegee, 
 the good citizens charged with carrying out this provi- 
 sion assumed as a matter of course that a white man 
 must be found for the task. General Armstrong, how- 
 ever, replied to their inquiry that he knew of no white 
 man whom he could recommend, but that if they were 
 willing to appoint a Negro, he would suggest Booker 
 T. Washington. The prompt acceptance of this sug- 
 gestion at once and permanently fixed the character of 
 the new institute as a school managed and taught not 
 by the white race but by the Negro people themselves. 
 Thus was an opportunity opened to the colored race 
 and a position and influence assured for the school 
 which never would have been possible if a white man 
 had been appointed as its first principal. 
 
 And so the young man of twenty-five years of age 
 was installed in charge of the school, a school which 
 had indeed an appropriation of $2,000 for teachers* 
 salaries but which had not a dollar for other purposes 
 and which had neither land nor buildings nor teachers 
 nor students. A dilapidated shanty adjoining an equally 
 dilapidated colored church was finally secured and with 
 the help of an umbrella to supplement the inadequate 
 roof in rainy weather the school was started. It was 
 indicative of the thoroughness of the new principal 
 that his first step was to spend a month traveling by 
 mule and cart through Alabama, eating and sleeping 
 with the colored people in their cabins and learning all 
 the details of their every day life. The wretched con- 
 ditions which he found would have discouraged a less 
 determined man, but to him they were merely one factor 
 in his problem. Studying his case like a skillful physi- 
 cian, he quickly decided that academic education of the 
 New England type was not the indicated remedy — 
 
10 Founder's Day Address 
 
 that the system of industrial work which General Arm- 
 strong with inspired common sense had introduced at 
 Hampton, was equally needed in Alabama and that the 
 simplest lessons of personal cleanliness, neatness and 
 order, and of industry and thrift, were far more im- 
 portant than the study of books. Not a little persuasion 
 and firmness were needed to carry forward this pro- 
 gram. Two hundred years of slavery had taught the 
 Negroes to consider manual labor a badge of inferior- 
 ity, and left an impression which unfortunately is not 
 confined to the colored race, that education should 
 enable them to make a living without manual work. 
 With sympathy and patience, by example as well as 
 precept he displaced this false doctrine with the true 
 gospel of work as the normal and wholesome exercise 
 of powers and faculties necessary for development and 
 progress. The lesson which Tuskegee has taught of 
 the dignity of labor and of the pride and happiness 
 and true success to be found in good work of any kind 
 is a lesson of vital importance for the welfare and hap- 
 piness of all classes of the community. There is no 
 greater satisfaction in life than the satisfaction of 
 achievement and men and women who do not take 
 pride in their work miss half the joy of living. 
 
 Early Days of the School 
 
 The thirty pupils with which the school started, soon 
 increased to fifty and after a few months a neighbor- 
 ing plantation of one hundred acres was purchased 
 for $500, the cash payment of $250 being borrowed by 
 Washington as a personal loan from General Marshall, 
 then treasurer of Hampton Institute, and the school 
 was moved to its present location. The house had 
 recently burned and the only buildings remaining con- 
 sisted of two cabins, a stable and a hen house, all of 
 
Founder's Day Address 11 
 
 which were soon occupied as class rooms. Within six 
 months the loan from General Marshall and the bal- 
 ance due on the land, had all been paid, mainly from 
 money raised from the white and colored people of the 
 town of Tuskegee. 
 
 No record of these early days would be complete 
 without a tribute to the friendship and help of the 
 white residents of Tuskegee. Mr. George W. Campbell, 
 father of the present Vice-Chairman of the Board of 
 Trustees, was a tower of strength to the struggling 
 school and the attitude of the town was doubtless due 
 largely to his influence, but throughout the entire life 
 of the Institute this co-operation of the white people 
 of Tuskegee has been one of the most encouraging and 
 helpful factors in the progress of the school, an evi- 
 dence at once of the liberal and sympathetic attitude 
 of the residents and the tact and good judgment of 
 Washington in respect to the relations of the two races. 
 
 The Institute's Present Condition 
 
 From this small beginning the material progress of 
 the school was little short of miraculous. Starting with 
 absolutely nothing the physical plant and equipment at 
 the end of Dr. Washington's thirty-five years of serv- 
 ice represented a value of about $1,500,000, while the 
 Endowment Fund had increased to nearly $2,000,000. 
 Moreover, during this thirty-five years at least $3. )00,- 
 000 more had been raised and expended for current 
 expenses, so that it is safe to say that not less thui 
 $7,000,000 had been invested in this great enterprise 
 through the efforts and influence of one man, born a 
 slave and reared in the depths of poverty and ignor- 
 ance. 
 
12 Founder's Day Address 
 
 Tuskegee's Friends and Workers 
 
 The story abounds in incidents of human interest. 
 The devoted assistance of Miss Davidson who came 
 from Ohio as his first co-worker and gave her life to 
 the work with tireless enthusiasm; the generous, big- 
 hearted help of General Armstrong who, despite his 
 urgent need of funds for Hampton, organized an ex- 
 tended trip through the North with Hampton singers, 
 to raise money for building Alabama Hall, introducing 
 Washington and speaking himself on behalf of Tus- 
 kegee; the unexpected gifts often received when the 
 need was most desperate; the growing confidence and 
 support of such men as CoUis P. Huntington, Morris 
 K. Jesup, H. H. Rogers, Andrew Carnegie, William 
 H. Baldwin and many other representative business 
 men; the innumerable smaller gifts from men and 
 women of moderate means; the interest and constant 
 help of clergymen and churches of all denominations; 
 the pathetic sacrifices of the colored people themselves ; 
 the splendid co-operation of Scott, Logan and other co- 
 workers, all contributed to the marvelous result. But 
 it was Washington himself who carried the crushing 
 burden of securing money for the needs of the rapidly 
 growing institution. No one will ever know how many 
 anxious days and sleepless nights it cost him. If not 
 the first, it was by far the most conspicuous effort of 
 the American Negroes to build and administer a great 
 educational enterprise, and Washington keenly realized 
 that not only the success of the school but the reputa- 
 tion of the race was at stake. Nowhere were his re- 
 markable tact and broadmindedness more clearly 
 shown than in his attitude towards people of wealth. 
 Never was there a trace of fawning or begging, never 
 a suggestion of obligation on their part or of criticism 
 or disappointment if they failed to respond. He simply 
 
Founder's Day Address 13 
 
 assumed that if he could interest them in the work of 
 the school and satisfy them that it was worth while, 
 they would use their own good judgment in deciding 
 how far they should assist it. And people responded to 
 this method of approach and gave not grudgingly but 
 gladly because they were so interested that they could 
 not help giving. 
 
 From the very start the buildings of the school were 
 erected by student labor. The beautiful structures 
 which we see about us are rnonuments not only to the 
 good taste and architectural ability of Taylor and his 
 staff, but to the industry and skill of hundreds of stu- 
 dents who have here learned the building trade and 
 gone out through the length and breadth of the land 
 to contribute to the industrial efficiency and progress 
 of the American people. 
 
 Booker Washington's Leadership 
 
 But the raising of money and the building of a great 
 school was only a small part of Washington's service 
 to his race and to the entire South. The great problem 
 of adjustment of relations between the races had been 
 infinitely complicated by the blunders of reconstruction 
 days and but little progress had been made towards a 
 satisfactory solution. The Negroes, ignorant and inex- 
 perienced, with little idea of working out their own 
 future on a sound economic basis, restless under a 
 vague consciousness that freedom had not brought the 
 transformation which they had fondly anticipated, were 
 suspicious of every move made by the white race how- 
 ever well intentioned; while many of the white people 
 of the South believed that their only safety lay in vigor- 
 ous suppression of all efforts to educate the Negroes or 
 elevate their condition. Mutual distrust bred bitterness 
 and resentment, and injustice and crime followed as 
 the inevitable result. 
 
14 Founder's Day Address 
 
 It was a situation urgently calling for a great leader 
 who could fairly see both sides of the problem and com- 
 mand the confidence of both races, and it is not too 
 much to say that no white man could possibly have 
 done what Washington did in this crisis. Quietly and 
 persistently he labored to teach his own people that 
 they must begin at the bottom and not at the top; that 
 industry and thrift, skill, intelligence and character 
 were more important than legal rights or political privi- 
 leges, and that to become worthy of such rights and 
 privileges was far more vital to their progress than to 
 secure such rights and privileges before they could use 
 them intelligently. With infinite patience, sympathy 
 and tact he won their confidence and inspired them 
 with hope and ambition. Manual work in agriculture 
 and industry ceased to be degrading drudgery and be- 
 came ennobled with self-respect and pride. The dig- 
 nity of labor, the love of work for its own sake, the 
 pleasure and honor of doing a good job in any kind 
 of manual work, the sure road to progress and recogni- 
 tion in making themselves valuable to the community 
 in which they lived, appreciation of their opportunities 
 in the South and confidence in their white neighbors, 
 pride in their own race and enthusiastic service to pro- 
 mote its progress: these were the great lessons which 
 Tuskegee taught during those early days and which 
 it has continued to teach for thirty-five years. 
 
 The Famous Atlanta Address 
 
 At last after fourteen years came the opportunity to 
 speak also to the white people of the South. The great 
 Atlanta Exposition in generous recognition of the col- 
 ored race had erected a large and attractive building, 
 designed and built by Negro mechanics, to be devoted 
 entirely to an exhibition of the progress of the Negro 
 
Founder's Day Address 15 
 
 since the dawn of freedom. After much hesitation and 
 discussion the Board of Directors, composed of some 
 of the most hberal and progresive men of the South, 
 had decided to invite Washington to make one of the 
 opening addresses. It was the iirst time that a Negro 
 had ever been asked to speak from the same platform 
 with Southern white men on such an occasion. It was 
 a national event and an epoch in the history of his race. 
 Atlanta was literally packed with prominent people 
 from all parts of the country. Representatives of for- 
 eign governments, military and civic organizations, 
 State and Federal officials, leaders in education, indus- 
 try and commerce had thronged to the city. With 
 trepidation and a crushing sense of responsibility 
 Washington approached the ordeal. So tense was the 
 situation that William H. Baldwin, then general man- 
 ager of the Southern Railway, a trustee of Tuskegee 
 Institute, and a personal friend of Washington, could 
 not bring himself to enter the hall, but walked nerv- 
 ously up and down outside the building, anxiously 
 awaiting the outcome. Finally Governor Bullock an- 
 nounced, "We have with us today, a representative of 
 Negro enterprise and Negro civilization" and Wash- 
 vngton faced the throng. 
 
 Mr. President, Gentlemen of the Board of Directors 
 and Citizens, he said: 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 this element of our population and reach the 
 highest success. I but convey to you, Mr. President 
 and Directors, the sentiment of the masses of my race, 
 when I say that in no way have the value and manhood 
 of the American Negro been more fittingly and gener- 
 ously recognized, than by the managers of this mag- 
 nificent Exposition at every stage of its progress. It is 
 a recognition that will do more to cement the friend- 
 
16 Founder's Day Address 
 
 ship of the two races, than any occurrence since the 
 dawn of our freedom. 
 
 Taking his text from the story of a ship lost at sea, 
 at the mouth of the Amazon, whose signals for water 
 brought from a friendly ship the reply "Cast down 
 your bucket where you are," Washington proceeded: 
 To those of my race 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, in 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 the South may be called to bear, when it 
 comes to business, pure and simple, it is in the South 
 that the Negro is given a man's chance in the com- 
 mercial world, and in nothing is this Exposition more 
 eloquent than in emphasizing this chance. Our great- 
 est danger is, that in the great leap from slavery to 
 freedom we may overlook the fact that the masses of 
 us are to live by the productions of our hands, and fail 
 to keep in mind that we shall prosper in proportion as 
 we learn to dignify and glorify common labor and put 
 brains and skill into the common occupations of life. 
 To those of the white race who look to the incoming of 
 those of foreign birth and strange tongue and habits, 
 for the prosperity of the South, were I permitted, I 
 would repeat what I say to my own race, "Cast down 
 your bucket where you are." Cast it down among the 
 8,000,000 Negroes whose habits you know, whose fidel- 
 ity and love you have tested in days when to have 
 proved treacherous meant the ruin of your firesides. 
 Cast down your bucket among these people who have, 
 without strikes and labor wars, tilled your fields, 
 cleared your forests, builded your railroads and cities, 
 and brought forth treasures from the bowels of the 
 earth and helped make possible this magnificent rep- 
 
Founder's Day Address 17 
 
 resentation of the progress of the South. Casting down 
 your bucket among my people, helping and encouraging 
 them as you are doing on these grounds, and to educa- 
 tion of head, hand and heart, you will find that they will 
 buy your surplus land, make blossom the waste places 
 in your fields and run your factories. 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 pa- 
 tient, faithful, law-abiding and unresentf ul people that 
 the world has seen. As we have proved our loyalty to 
 you in the past, in nursing your children, watching by 
 the sick bed of your mothers and fathers and often 
 following them with tear-dimmed eyes to their graves, 
 so in the future in our humble way, we shall stand by 
 you with a devotion that no foreigner can approach, 
 ready to lay down our lives, if need be, in defense of 
 yours, interlacing our industrial, commercial, civil and 
 religious life with yours in a way that shall make the 
 interests of both races one. In all things that are pure- 
 ly social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one 
 as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress. 
 There is no defense or security for any of us except 
 in the highest intelligence and development of all. 
 Nearly sixteen millions of hands will aid you in pulling 
 the load upwards, or they will pull against you the load 
 downwards. We shall constitute one-third and more of 
 the ignorance and crime of the South, or one-third its 
 intelligence and progress ; we shall contribute one-third 
 to the business and industrial prosperity of the South, 
 or we shall prove a veritable body of death, stagnat- 
 ing, depressing, retarding every effort to advance the 
 body politic. 
 
 The wisest among my race understand that the agi- 
 tation of questions of social equality is the extremest 
 folly, 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 long in any degree ostra- 
 cized. It is important and right that all privileges of 
 the law be ours, but it is vastly more important that 
 
18 Founder's Day Address 
 
 we be prepared for the exercise of these privileges. 
 
 In conclusion, may I repeat that nothing in thirty- 
 years has given us more hope and encouragement, and 
 drawn us nearer to you of the white race, than the op- 
 portunity offered by this Exposition, and here bending, 
 as it were, over the altar that represents 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 grand and intricate 
 problem which God has laid at the doors of the South, 
 you shall have at all times the patient, sympathetic 
 help of my race; only let this be constantly in mind, 
 that while from representations in these buildings of 
 the product of field, of forest, of mine, of factory, 
 letters and art, much good will come, yet far above 
 and beyond material benefits, will be that higher good 
 that let us pray God will come in a blotting out of all 
 sectional differences and racial animosities and suspi- 
 cions, in a determination to administer absolute jus- 
 tice, in a willing obedience among all classes to the 
 mandates of the law. This, coupled with our material 
 prosperity, will bring into our beloved South a new 
 heaven and a new earth. 
 
 The effect of this address was instantaneous. Gov- 
 ernor Bullock rushed across the platform and grasped 
 Washington's hand and from all sides prominent men 
 and women vied with each other in their hearty con- 
 gratulations. Newspapers all over the country pub- 
 lished the address in full. Clark Howell, Editor of the 
 Atlanta Constitution, telegraphed the New York 
 World that the address was one of the most notable 
 speeches ever delivered to a Southern audience, a plat- 
 form upon which blacks and whites could stand with 
 full justice to each other; while the Boston Transcript 
 expressed the opinion that Washington's address had 
 dwarfed all the other proceedings of the Exposition 
 and caused a sensation in the press of the country which 
 had never been equalled. 
 
Founder's Day Address 19 
 
 I have ventured to quote so largely from this address, 
 not only because it was an historic utterance, in form 
 and in importance destined to live among the really 
 great speeches of our country, but also because it is on 
 this platform that Tuskegee is builded, and on this 
 platform that the Negro race is slowly but surely rais- 
 ing itself to intelligent and efficient American citizen- 
 ship. 
 
 Fifty Years of Negro Progress 
 
 The progress of a race can only be marked in decades 
 or centuries, but if ten years ago Col. Henry Watterson 
 could say, "The world has never yet witnessed such 
 progress from darkness into light as the American 
 Negro has made in the period of forty years," what 
 shall be said today as we look back upon half a cen- 
 tury. 
 
 Fifty years ago, with the exception of a few me- 
 chanics, the Negroes were practically all plantation 
 field hands and agricultural workers. They owned no 
 land, buildings, stock or equipment. During this fifty 
 years they have inherited little, either of land or of 
 property, and that which they have acquired they have 
 acquired by hard work, prudence and economy and 
 in the face of untold obstacles and difficulties. 
 
 Today, nearly a million Negroes are operating farms 
 for themselves. Of this number about one-fourth or 
 220,000 own the land amounting to over 20,000,000 
 acres, while three-fourths are still tenant farmers. The 
 land actually owned by Negroes is equal to the com- 
 bined area of New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachu- 
 setts and Rhode Island. In addition to these agricul- 
 tural workers there are 300,000 Negroes working at 
 trades and other skilled occupations — blacksmiths, car- 
 penters, cabinet makers, masons, plumbers, engineers, 
 factory operators, printers, lithographers, engravers. 
 
20 Founder's Day Address 
 
 50,000 are engaged in the professions as teachers, 
 preachers, lawyers, doctors, dentists, editors, and nearly 
 as many more are engaged in various business enter- 
 prises on their own account. They manage 400 news- 
 papers and periodicals, own 100 insurance companies, 
 50 banks, 700 drug stores, 250 wholesale and 25,000 
 retail businesses. Negro farmers own $295,000,000 in 
 land and buildings, $175,000,000 in domestic animals, 
 $36,000,000 in implements and machinery and $5,000,- 
 000 in poultry, a total of over $500,000,000, while other 
 property owned by the colored race is estimated as 
 $500,000,000 more. One billion dollars saved and ac- 
 cumulated by the industry and thrift of the Negro race 
 in the first half century of its upward struggle. The 
 growth of forty years at which Col. Watterson mar- 
 velled has been more than doubled in the last ten years. 
 What a record of progress and achievement is this! 
 What a monument, not only to the wise and forceful 
 leadership of Booker Washington, but to the influence, 
 inspiration and devotion of his loyal staff of co-workers 
 at Tuskegee and of the thousands of graduates and 
 students who have gone forth filled with the Tuskegee 
 spirit to contribute to this result in labor for the uplift 
 of their people. 
 
 Character of Booker Washington 
 
 The history of our republic holds no more inspiring 
 pages than the story of the lives of men like Wash- 
 ington who, rising from poverty and ignorance, grap- 
 pling obstacles, conquering difficulties, seizing each op- 
 portunity however small, and making it a stepping 
 stone to another, have left behind them such a record 
 of service to mankind. 
 
 How clearly his character remains pictured in our 
 memory — his never failing optimism, looking always 
 at the bright side and dwelling upon the opportunities 
 
Founder's Day Address 21 
 
 rather than the disadvantages of his people, his sim- 
 plicity and humility, all unaffected by the honors and 
 praise heaped upon him, his broad charity which left 
 no room in his heart for bitterness or resentment, his 
 deep sympathy with the common people of his race, 
 never lessened by his own achievements, his pride in 
 being a Negro himself and his sublime confidence in 
 the capacity and future progress of his race, his pas- 
 sion for service to his fellowmen, white as well as black, 
 his appreciation and gratitude for sympathy and help 
 in his work, his rare tact in delicate situations which 
 so constantly arose, his unfailing good judgment hold- 
 ing fast to high ideals but keeping his feet firmly on 
 the ground in facing actual facts and conditions — these 
 are some of the characteristics which those who knew 
 him intimately can never forget. 
 
 TusKEGEE Institute's Heritage 
 
 This then is the rich heritage of Tuskegee Institute, 
 not only this great plant of land, buildings and equip- 
 ment free from debt, not only the two million dollars 
 of Endowment Fund, not only the host of friends North 
 and South who may safely be trusted to carry forward 
 the work, not only its widespread influence and confi- 
 dence among the best people of both races, not only the 
 loyalty and enthusiastic devotion of its faculty, alumni 
 and students, but above all and crowning this great 
 monument, the character, example and inspiration of 
 Booker T. Washington. 
 
 The Future of Tuskegee Institute 
 
 What then of the future! Seriously and soberly do 
 we realize the great responsibility of carrying forward 
 the work without his leadership, but with courage and 
 high resolve that Tuskegee shall not go down! Let us 
 
22 Founder's Day Address 
 
 never forget, however, that this resolve means work, 
 sacrifice, determination, perseverance for every one of 
 us. It is easy to meet as we are met today to honor his 
 memory in words, it will be hard indeed to fitly honor 
 his memory in deeds. If we really appreciate his life of 
 self-sacrificing devotion and his great work for the Ne- 
 gro race and for the American people, let us here and 
 now register a solemn vow that with God's help we 
 will give the best that in us lies, by character and ex- 
 ample, by influence and persuasion, by honest and 
 faithful performance of whatever work we may be 
 called to do, by sympathy and charity for others and 
 by the fine Tuskegee spirit of service to humanity, to 
 honor the name and the memory of Booker T. Wash- 
 ington. 
 
 We have every reason for confidence and thankful- 
 ness as we look forward to the future. Our new prin- 
 cipal, his task made easy by the cordial welcome and 
 loyal co-operation of teachers and students of the In- 
 stitute, is winning his way to constantly increasing con- 
 fidence and esteem. The friends of Tuskegee have gen-* 
 erously responded to appeals for a Booker T. Wash- 
 ington Memorial Fund as a tribute to his memory, and 
 including a splendid gift of $250,000 for improvements 
 conditionally promised just before his death, this fund 
 now exceeds $1,000,000. $145,000 of this amount has 
 been applied to the payment of indebtedness of the In- 
 stitute, and $250,000 has been added to the Endowment 
 Fund, thus complying with the conditions of the $250,- 
 000 gift for improvements. $75,000 more is for a new 
 girls' dormitory given by Mr. James in memory of his 
 mother. $235,000 is payable in five annual installments 
 and will be available for current expenses and the bal- 
 ance of the fund is free for such use as the trustees may 
 decide. With the $250,000 improvement fund the trus- 
 
Founder's Day Address 23 
 
 tees propose to remove the barns from their present lo- 
 cation and build new modern barns for horses, mules 
 and cattle, to increase the water supply system, install 
 a sewerage disposal plant and ice plant, erect new dor- 
 mitories and teachers' cottages and make numerous 
 minor improvements. 
 
 The future of Tuskegee Institute is bright indeed. 
 With this generous provision for its immediate needs, 
 with the assurance of the continued confidence and sup- 
 port of its host of enthusiastic friends, with the loyal 
 co-operation of its principal and staff, with graduates 
 and students throughout the South proving by example 
 and influence the value of its work, we look forward 
 to its constantly increasing usefulness in the service, 
 not only of the colored race, but of the entire Southland. 
 In this bright future every one of us should be proud 
 to bear his part. From the highest to the lowest, each 
 one has a share in maintaining and increasing the repu- 
 tation and influence of the Institute. We are propos- 
 ing to erect a suitable monument to Booker Washing- 
 ton here in the midst of the buildings and trees and 
 hills so dear to his heart, to keep his memory and the 
 inspiration of his example ever before us as we go 
 about our daily tasks, but his real monument is the In- 
 stitute itself. If we would truly honor his memory let 
 us each and everyone consecrate ourselves anew to 
 carry forward the great work which he has bequeathed 
 to us. Let us never forget that anyone of us who does 
 a mean act, or a poor job, who forgets to be honest, 
 truthful, straightforward, pure and clean, discredits 
 Tuskegee and dishonors Booker Washington, while 
 everyone of us who performs any task for Tuskegee 
 faithfully and well, who does a kind act with the Tus- 
 kegee spirit of helpfulness and service, who sets an ex- 
 ample of fine manly or womanly character here at the 
 
24 Founder's Day Address 
 
 Institute or in the broad world outside, is building a 
 monument to Booker Washington such as he himself 
 would have wished and is honoring his memory with 
 true appreciation of his teaching and example. 
 
 The Future op the American Negro 
 
 The future of the Negro race in America is no less 
 bright than the future of Tuskegee Institute. In the 
 words of Lyman Abbott, Booker Washington was the 
 interpreter of the black man to the white man, the 
 white man to the black man, the South to the North 
 and the North to the South. The great truths and prin- 
 ciples which he taught are steadily spreading through 
 the life and thought of the entire South and everywhere 
 their influence is brushing away misunderstandings be- 
 tween the races, promoting harmony and good feeling, 
 and amicable adjustment of racial relations. We must 
 never forget that outbreaks of crime and sensational 
 accounts of discrimination and injustice attract far 
 more attention than quiet and peaceful progress. While 
 we of the white race have occasion all too often to feel 
 shame and indignation at treatment of Negroes which 
 the Negro race still have need of patience and fortitude 
 we can neither defend nor condone, and while you of 
 under wrongs which injure you less than those who 
 inflict them, we can both find ample cause for encour- 
 agement as we look on the other side of the picture. 
 
 Gradually we are all realizing that the Negro is no 
 more an inferior white man, than the white man is a 
 superior Negro — that they are different races, with dif- 
 ferent characteristics and different powers, but each 
 with its own contribution to make the progress and 
 welfare of our common country. So it is that complete 
 race adjustment must come. As the Negro makes him- 
 self valuable to society, his value is sure to find recog- 
 
FouNDER*s Day Address 25 
 
 nition and appreciation. As his industry and thrift raise 
 his own standard of living, as he becomes a buyer and 
 consumer of the white man's products, as he becomes 
 proud of being a Negro and still more proud of being 
 an American citizen, and as he justifies his citizenship 
 by efficient and patriotic service whenever opportunity 
 offers, he will slowly but surely build himself into the 
 life and confidence of the community and the nation. 
 There is no limit to the progress of the Negro in Amer- 
 ica except the limit of his own intelligence, ability, in- 
 dustry, perseverance and thrift. The soil, the sun and 
 rain, seedtime and harvest know no color line. Steam, 
 electricity and all the forces of nature are his willing 
 servants and their undiscovered secrets await his in- 
 genuity and skill. As the greatest men of our country 
 have become strong through struggle with obstacles 
 and difficulties, so the obstacles and difficulties in the 
 pathway of the Negro race will but serve to develop 
 strength and power for further progress. Nowhere else 
 in the world are ten million people at the same stage of 
 development offered such opportunities as the Amer- 
 ican Negroes are offered in our Southern States. 
 
 Democracy on Trial 
 
 In our great American democracy people of all races 
 of the earth are working out the problem of self-govern- 
 ment and mutual progress on a scale never before 
 known to history. In spite of blunders and failures, in 
 spite of incompetence in office and abuse of political 
 power and influence, in spite of social and economic 
 wrongs to be righted and problems to be solved, this 
 great nation is marching forward in steadfast and un- 
 wavering faith that the American people are capable 
 of governing themselves, capable of applying and main- 
 
26 Founder's Day Address 
 
 taining before the world the great democratic prin- 
 ciples upon which our government is founded. 
 
 But let us not deceive ourselves. Democracy is still 
 on trial. It has still to prove its right to live in compe- 
 tition with the efficiency of autocratic government and 
 under the inexorable law of the survival of the fittest. 
 If this great experiment is to succeed, if this great na- 
 tion is to realize its high ideals and destiny, all sections 
 and classes and races must loyally co-operate in pa- 
 triotic devotion to the common welfare. Today we are 
 facing a crisis in international relations which impera- 
 tively demands a united people in defense of the liber- 
 ties and rights of our beloved country. It is a time above 
 all others to lay aside differences and grievances and 
 to rally as one man in support of the President and 
 Government of the United States of America. No na- 
 tion which is unable to protect the liberty and rights 
 of its people can long survive. If we value the liberty 
 and opportunities which the founders of this nation 
 bought for us at so great a price, if we are worthy to 
 belong to the greatest democracy the world has ever 
 seen, now is the time for us eagerly to welcome any 
 call which may come for patriotic service in its behalf 
 and to prove to the world that we have not forgotten 
 the inspiring words of Abraham Lincoln and that a 
 united American people is highly resolved that govern- 
 ment of the people by the people and for the people 
 shall not perish from the earth. 
 
 The Negro's Patriotism 
 
 In this great crisis the Negro race will not be found 
 wanting. They will prove anew their right to the proud 
 title of American citizens, prove their right to stand 
 shoulder to shoulder with their white brothers in an- 
 swer to their country's call, and if the supreme test 
 
Founder's Day Address 27 
 
 must come, prove that their blood is as red, their heart 
 as true, their courage as steadfast to do and die in its 
 
 service. 
 
 Would that Booker Washington could have lived to 
 see this day. His love of peace and horror of war would 
 never have caused one moment's hesitation or wavering 
 in his proud welcome of the opportunity for his people 
 to show their loyal and patriotic citizenship. When 
 one of his friends once referred to the sacrifices which 
 he himself had made for his race, he quickly responded, 
 *'I never made a sacrifice in my life, for no one ever 
 makes a sacrifice who embraces an opportunity to serve 
 his fellowmen." It is in this same spirit that his great 
 heart would speak to us today. Life is not measured 
 in years but in deeds, and one heroic act outweighs 
 years of selfish existence. The high ideals and noble 
 purpose of Booker Washington are not limited to edu- 
 cational and industrial progress. They stand for serv- 
 ice to humanity whenever and wherever opportunity 
 may offer. They stand for defense of right and battle 
 against wrong. They stand for service to the nation 
 no less than for service to the individual. In this first 
 observance of Founder's Day, we commemorate not 
 only Washington's founding of Tuskegee Institute, 
 we commemorate also the proclamation and interpreta- 
 tion of high ideals and principles for the guidance and 
 inspiration of his people for all time. Never can the 
 standard and aspiration of the Negro race fall below 
 the high mark set by Booker Washington. Never can 
 the influence of his example be lost on this or succeed- 
 ing generations, and for ages yet to come the Negro 
 race in America will be a finer, stronger, happier peo- 
 ple, and our beloved country a more united and har- 
 monious nation, because of the noble life of Booker T. 
 Washington. 
 
ssaaoNOD do A^inaan