Part 3 (1/2)

In reply to a Western university professor who had asked his opinion of amalgamation as a solution of the race problem he wrote: ”I have never looked upon amalgamation as offering a solution of the so-called race problem, and I know very few Negroes who favor it or even think of it, for that matter. What those whom I have heard discuss the matter do object to are laws which enable the father to escape his responsibility, or prevent him from accepting and exercising it, when he has children by colored women. I think this answers your question, but since there seems to be some misunderstanding as to how colored people feel about this subject, I might say in explanation of what I have already said: The Negroes in America are, as you know, a mixed race. If that is an advantage we have it; if it is a disadvantage, it is still ours, and for the simple reason that the product of every sort of racial mixture between the black man and any other race is always a Negro and never a white man, Indian, or any other sort of man.

”The Negro in America is defined by the census as a person who is cla.s.sed as such in the community in which he or she resides. In other words, the Negro in this country is not so much of a particular color or particular racial stock as one who shares a particular condition.

It is the fact that they all share in this condition which creates a cause of common sympathy and binds the members of the race together in spite of all differences.”

To an embarra.s.sing question put by the society editor of some paper Mr. Was.h.i.+ngton replied by merely telling a funny story the application of which to the impertinent inquiry was obvious. In another letter he summed up his opinion of the much-mooted question of the franchise in these two sentences: ”There is no reason why every Negro who is not fitted to vote should not be disfranchised. At the same time, there is no good reason why every white man who is not fitted to vote should not also be disfranchised.”

From the foregoing correspondence it will be seen that one of Booker Was.h.i.+ngton's many roles was to act as a kind of plenipotentiary and interpreter between his people and the dominant race. For this part he was peculiarly fitted by his thorough understanding of and sympathy for each race.

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. Was.h.i.+ngton the following note:

[_Copy_]

_Executive Mansion_

_Was.h.i.+ngton_

_Buffalo, N.Y.,_ _Sept. 14, 1901._

MY DEAR MR. WAs.h.i.+NGTON:

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 that my visit to Tuskegee is merely deferred for a short season.

Faithfully yours,

(Signed) THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

_Booker T. Was.h.i.+ngton, Esq.,_ _Tuskegee, Alabama._

This deferred visit finally took place in 1905, not long after Colonel Roosevelt's triumphant election to the Presidency, when he came to Tuskegee accompanied by his secretary, William Loeb, Jr.; Federal Civil Service Commissioner, John McIlhenny; Collector of Revenue for the Birmingham District, J.O. Thompson; Judge Thomas G. Jones of Montgomery, and a fellow Rough Rider by the name of Greeneway.

In response to the above note Mr. Was.h.i.+ngton went to the White House and discussed with the President ”possible future appointments in the South” along the lines agreed upon between them in a conference which they had had at a time when it had seemed possible that Mr. Roosevelt might be given the Republican Presidential nomination of 1900, that is, while Mr. Roosevelt was Governor of New York and a tentative candidate for the nomination.

Upon his return to Tuskegee after this talk with President Roosevelt, Mr. Was.h.i.+ngton found that the judges.h.i.+p for the Southern District of Alabama had just become vacant through the death of the inc.u.mbent, Judge Bruce. Here was an opportunity for the President to put into practice in striking fas.h.i.+on the policy they had discussed--namely, to appoint to Federal posts in the Southern States the best men available and to reward and recognize conspicuous merit among Southern Democrats and Southern Negroes as well as among Southern white Republicans.

Being unable at the moment to return to Was.h.i.+ngton, he sent his secretary with the following letter:

_Tuskegee, Alabama,_ _October 2, 1901._

President Theodore Roosevelt, Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C.

MY DEAR MR. PRESIDENT: I send you the following information through my secretary, Mr. Emmett J. Scott, whom you can trust implicitly.

Judge Bruce, the Judge of the Middle District of Alabama, died yesterday. There is going to be a very hard scramble for his place. I saw ex-governor T.G. Jones yesterday, as I promised, and he is willing to accept the judges.h.i.+p of the Middle District of Alabama. I am more convinced now than ever that he is the proper man for the place. He has until recently been president of the Alabama State Bar a.s.sociation. He is a Gold Democrat, and is a clean, pure man in every respect. He stood up in the Const.i.tutional Convention and elsewhere for a fair election law, opposed lynching, and he has been outspoken for the education of both races. He is head and shoulders above any of the other persons who I think will apply for the position.

Yours truly,

BOOKER T. WAs.h.i.+NGTON.

P.S.--I do not believe in all the South you could select a better man through whom to emphasize your idea of the character of a man to hold office than you can do through ex-governor Jones.