A Boys' Life of Booker T. Washington/Chapter 13
CHAPTER XIII
POLITICAL EXPERIENCES
Most of the negroes who gained any prominence or influence in the years just after the Civil War entered politics. Bruce and Revels had been United States Senators; Elliott and Smalls and a dozen others had been Congressmen; Pinchback, Lynch, Langston, Gibbs, and Greener had been sent for diplomatic service to foreign countries, and others had held high State offices; and a multitude of negroes had been county and city officials of various kinds.
Everybody expected Washington to accept some kind of political position, but he steadfastly refused. Time after time, men of his own race and white men urged him to run for office, or accept an appointment by the President to high office. This he absolutely refused to do. He said that his service, whatever it was worth, would be given, not in politics but in education. He believed that entirely too much emphasis had been placed on holding office by the negro, just after the war. He was more concerned about whether or not his people could have the opportunity to earn an honest living than he was about getting some political job.
He was often misunderstood about his ideas on holding office and the whole question of the part the negro should take in politics; for he was convinced that there were other things far more important at that time to the negro than the matter of voting.
There was one phase of politics, however, that Washington did keep in close touch with. This can be best explained by giving some of his correspondence.
"Theodore Roosevelt, immediately after taking the oath of office as President of the United States, in Buffalo, after the death of President McKinley, wrote Mr. Washington the following note:
September 14, 1901.
Dear Mr. Washington:
I write you at once to say that to my deep regret my visit South must now be given up.
When are you coming North? I must see you as soon as possible. I want to talk over the question of possible appointments in the South exactly on the lines of our last conversation together.
I hope my visit to Tuskegee is merely deferred for a short season.
Faithfully yours,
(Signed) Theodore Roosevelt.
Tuskegee, Ala.
"In response to the above note Mr. Washington went to the White House and discussed with the President 'possible future appointments in the South."[1]
Immediately following this conference with the President, there was a vacant judgeship in Alabama which gave the President an opportunity to carry out his ideas about Southern appointments. He called upon Washington for advice, and Washington, being unable to go himself at the time, sent his secretary, Emmett J. Scott, to Washington as his representative. Largely upon the recommendation of Washington, Judge George Jones, a Democrat, was appointed to this position. This was an event of great significance indeed, when a Republican President of the United States appointed a Southern Democrat to office. It was done in accordance with the ideas of both the President and Washington,—that only men of the highest fitness, regardless of color or party, should receive appointment.
From this time on, Washington was one of the President's chief advisers in Southern appointments.
President Roosevelt, of course, appointed many negroes also. He believed that, when negroes possessed the proper qualifications for offices, they should have a share in them. Washington did not try to get very many negroes appointed, but he did try to get the very best negro when one was appointed. In other words, he was trying to improve the quality rather than increase the quantity of negro officeholders. After one of Washington's speeches, in which he laid special emphasis on this idea, President Roosevelt sent him the following letter:
My dear Washington:
That is excellent; and you have put epigrammatically just what I am doing—that is, though I have rather reduced the quantity, I have done my best to raise the quality of Negro appointments.
With high regards,
Sincerely yours,
Theodore Roosevelt.[2]
Throughout the administrations of President Roosevelt and President Taft, Washington was constantly called into conference and rendered a lasting service to his own race and to the people of the country in giving wise counsel, not only about politics but about a great many things pertaining to the welfare of his people.
Washington was often criticized very severely by members of his own race for his position with reference to voting. His ideas on this question are well stated in the following quotation:
"I am often asked to express myself more freely than I do upon the political condition and the political future of my race. . . . My own belief is, although I have never before said so in so many words, that the time will come when the negro in the South will be accorded all the political rights which his ability, character, and material possessions entitle him to. I think, though, that the opportunity to freely exercise such political rights will not come in any large degree through outside or artificial forcing, but will be accorded to the negro by the Southern white people themselves, and that they will protect him in the exercise of these rights. Just as soon as the South gets over the feeling that it is being forced by 'foreigners' or 'aliens' to do something which it does not want to do, I believe that the change in the direction that I have indicated is going to begin."[3]
Again he says: "I contend that, in relation to his vote, the negro should more and more consider the interests of the community in which he lives, rather than seek alone to please some one who lives a thousand miles from him and his interests."[4] While he believed, theoretically, in universal, free suffrage, he very frankly admitted that the peculiar conditions existing in the South made it necessary to put restrictions upon the ballot. He was opposed, however, to any discriminations in the law; and he urged with all his power that the negro be given good educational and business advantages, so that he might fit himself for the full responsibilities and duties of life.
Washington himself never had any trouble about voting. He always registered and always voted, and no one ever raised an objection to his doing so.