CHARACTER BUILDING
CHARACTER
BUILDING
BEING ADDRESSES DELIVERED
ON SUNDAY EVENINGS TO THE
STUDENTS OF TUSKEGEE INSTITUTE
By
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON
NEW YORK
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
1902
Copyright, 1902, by
Booker T. Washington
Published June, 1902
—————
Printed by Manhattan Press,
New York, U. S. A.
TO THE
OFFICERS AND TEACHERS OF
The Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute
WHO HAVE UNSELFISHLY AND LOYALLY
STOOD BY AND SUPPORTED ME
IN MY EFFORTS TO BUILD
THIS INSTITUTION
PUBLISHERS' EXPLANATION
Mr. Washington's habit has for many years been to deliver a practical,straightforward address to the students of Tuskegee Institute on Sundayevening. These addresses have had much to do with the building up ofthe character of his race, for they are very forcible explanationsof character building. The speaker has put into them his whole moralearnestness, his broad common-sense and, in many places, his eloquence.Many of Mr. Washington's friends have said that some of these addressesare the best of his utterances.
They have an additional interest because they show him at his work andgive an inside view of the school.
This volume is made up of selections from these addresses chosen by Mr.Washington himself.
PREFACE
A number of years ago, when the Tuskegee Normal and IndustrialInstitute was quite small, with only a few dozen students and two orthree teachers, I began the practice of giving what were called SundayEvening Talks to the students and teachers. These addresses were alwaysdelivered in a conversational tone and much in the same manner that Iwould speak to my own children around my fireside. As the institutiongradually grew from year to year, friends suggested that theseaddresses ought to be preserved, and for that reason during the pastfew years they have been stenographically reported. For the purpose ofthis book they have been somewhat revised; and I am greatly indebtedto my secretary, Mr. Emmett J. Scott, and to Mr. Max Bennett Thrasher,for assisting me in the revision and in putting them into proper shapefor publication; and to Mr. T. Thomas Fortune for suggesting that theseaddresses be published in book form.
In these addresses I have attempted from week to week to speak straightto the hearts of our students and teachers and visitors concerning theproblems and questions that confront them in their daily life here inthe South. The most encouraging thing in connection with the making ofthese addresses has been the close attention which the students andteachers and visitors have always paid, and the hearty way in whichthey have spoken to me of the help that they have received from them.
During the past four years these addresses have been published in theschool paper each week. This paper, The Tuskegee Student, has awide circulation among our graduates and others in the South, so thatin talking to our students on Sunday ev