d even most creditably
from the agricultural department of Tuskegee, had before him nothing
better than a greater or less number of years of monotonous drudgery
as a mere farm or plantation laborer. Now, he may at once take up his
own farm at Baldwin and begin immediately to apply all he has learned
in carving out his own fortune and future. Thus did Booker Washington
plan to carry the benefits of classroom instruction directly into the
actual life problems of these graduates as well as to bring the
problems of actual life into the classroom.

However much Mr. Washington may have seemed to eliminate
non-essentials in the pressure and haste of his wholesale educational
task he never neglected essentials, but among essentials he included
matters which might on the surface appear to be small and trifling.
For instance, he insisted upon good table manners, and no boy or girl
could spend any considerable time at Tuskegee without acquiring such
manners. Instead of a trivial detail he regarded good table manners as
an essential to self-respect and hence to the development of
character. In short, he was engaged not so much in conducting a school
as educating a race.

CHAPTER FOUR

THE RIGHTS OF THE NEGRO

Booker Washington was occasionally accused both by agitators in his
own race and by a certain type of Northern white men who pose as the
special champions of the "downtrodden" black man as encouraging a
policy of submission to injustice on the part of his people. He was,
for example, charged with tame acquiescence in the practical
disfranchisement of the Negro in a number of the Southern States. As a
matter of fact, when these disfranchising measures were under
consideration and before they were enacted, he in each case earnestly
pleaded with the legislators that whatever restrictions in the use of
the ballot they put upon the statute books should be applied with
absolute impartiality to both races. This he urged in fairness to the
white man as well as the black man.

In an article entitled, "Is the Negro Having a Fair Chance?" published
in the _Century Magazine_ five years ago, Booker Washington said in
illustrating the evil consequences of discrimination in the
application of ballot regulations: "In a certain county of Virginia,
where the county board had charge of registering those who were to be
voters, a colored man, a graduate of Harvard University, who had long
been a resident of the county, a quiet, unas