Wisdom from my Cousin - Booker T. Washington

Recently, while researching my family tree, I made the happy discovery that - according to the folks at Ancestry.com - I am a distant cousin to the famous black educator, counsel to U.S. Presidents, and founding President of Tuskegee Institute/University, Booker Taliferro Washington. 

If Booker T. Washington is my "Cousin Booker," then it only makes sense.  He and my wonderful departed mother both called Alabama home, and both of them were wise and positive thinkers to the point that they always saw the good in everything - including adversity.

In his classic book, "Up from Slavery," Booker T. Washington said:

"Then, when we rid ourselves of prejudice, or racial feeling, and look facts in the face, we must acknowledge that, notwithstanding the cruelty and moral wrong of slavery, the ten million Negroes inhabiting this country, who themselves or whose ancestors went through the school of American slavery, are in a stronger and more hopeful condition, materially, intellectually, morally, and religiously, than is true of an equal number of black people in any other portion of the globe.

This is so to such an extent that Negroes in this country, who themselves or whose forefathers went through the school of slavery, are constantly returning to Africa as missionaries to enlighten those who remained in the fatherland. This I say, not to justify slavery — on the other hand, I condemn it as an institution.  We all know that in America it was established for selfish and financial reasons, and not from a missionary motive — but to call attention to a fact, and to show how Providence so often uses men and institutions to accomplish a purpose....

"Ever since I have been old enough to think for myself, I have entertained the idea that, notwithstanding the cruel wrongs inflicted upon us, the black man got nearly as much out of slavery as the white man did."

In a lecture before the Hamilton Club in Chicago, December 10, 1895, the former slave said: 
"We went into slavery a piece of property; we came out American citizens.
We went into slavery pagans; we came out Christians.
We went into slavery without a language; we came out speaking the proud Anglo-Saxon tongue.
We went into slavery with slave chains clanking about our wrists; we came out with the American ballot in our hands.

"Progress, progress is the law of nature; under God it shall be our eternal guiding star....

My parents, now deceased, would have been pleased to call Booker T. Washington "Cousin."  Both Mom and Dad were proud Southerners, descendents of Confederate veterans, and also outspoken advocates of racial equality.  Both of my parents also had American Indian/Cherokee blood in their family trees and no doubt some of my ancestors walked the bitter Trail of Tears, which started in Bradley County, Tennessee, where I grew up.

Mom and Dad taught me and my eleven siblings to always find the good in even  the worst of circumstances.  They believed in the God of Romans 8:28 who said, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."

I'll wait for another post to tell more about how my minister father was a very effective civil rights activist, going all the way back to the 1930s, when he was a teenager in Atlanta, Georgia.  I believe he would have made Booker T. Washington proud.

Robert E. Lee's 202nd Birthday

January 19th, 2009, marks the 202nd birthday of one of American's greatest and most beloved leaders, General Robert E. Lee. Throughtout the United States, and especially in the South, many schools, churches, museums and groups such as the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Sons of Confederate Veterans, will mark the day with special events. Robert E. Lee's birthday has been celebrated publicly since the 1860s, when he was commander of the Confederate armed forces in the War for Southern Independence. To this day, his birthday is a legal holiday in several Southern states.

Regrettably, many young people today know little about this American hero who was one of the truest Christian gentlemen the world has known.
Here are just a few of the things that others have said of him:

President Theodore Roosevelt described General Robert E. Lee as "the very greatest of all the great captains that the English-speaking peoples have brought forth."

Prime Minister Winston Churchill wrote of Lee: "His noble presence and gentle, kindly manner were sustained by religious faith and an exalted character." Of his army, Churchill observed: "It was even said that their line of march could be traced by the bloodstained footprints of unshod men. But the Army of Northern Virginia 'carried the Confederacy on its bayonets' and made a struggle unsurpassed in history."

Booker T. Washington, America’s great African-American Educator, wrote in 1910: "The first white people in America, certainly the first in the South to exhibit their interest in the reaching of the Negro and saving his soul through the medium of the Sunday-school were Robert E. Lee and 'Stonewall Jackson.' ... Where Robert E. Lee and 'Stonewall’ Jackson have led in the redemption of the Negro through the Sunday-school, the rest of us can afford to follow.”

War-era Georgia Senator Ben Hill eloquently expressed a lasting Lee tribute: "He possessed every virtue of other great commanders without their vices. He was a foe without hate; a friend without treachery; a victor without oppression, and a victim without murmuring. He was a public officer without vices; a private citizen without reproach; a Christian without hypocrisy and a man without guile. He was a Caesar without his ambition; Frederick without his tyranny; Napoleon without his selfishness, and Washington without his reward. He was obedient to authority as a servant, and loyal in authority as a true king. He was gentle as a woman in life; modest and pure as a virgin in thought; watchful as a Roman vital in duty; submissive to law as Socrates, and grand in battle as Achilles!"

***

Below is a letter written by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to Leon W. Scott, dated August 9, 1960:

Dear Dr. Scott:

Respecting your August 1 inquiry calling attention to my often expressed admiration for General Robert E. Lee, I would say, first, that we need to understand that at the time of the War Between the States the issue of Secession had remained unresolved for more than 70 years. Men of probity, character, public standing and unquestioned loyalty, both North and South, had disagreed over this issue as a matter of principle from the day our Constitution was adopted.

General Robert E. Lee was, in my estimation, one of the supremely gifted men produced by our Nation. He believed unswervingly in the Constitutional validity of his cause which until 1865 was still an arguable question in America; he was thoughtful yet demanding of his officers and men, forbearing with captured enemies but ingenious, unrelenting and personally courageous in battle, and never disheartened by a reverse or obstacle. Through all his many trials, he remained selfless almost to a fault and unfailing in his belief in God. Taken altogether, he was noble as a leader and as a man, and unsullied as I read the pages of our history.

From deep conviction I simply say this: a nation of men of Lee’s caliber would be unconquerable in spirit and soul. Indeed, to the degree that present-day American youth will strive to emulate his rare qualities, including his devotion to this land as revealed in his painstaking efforts to help heal the nation’s wounds once the bitter struggle was over, we, in our own time of danger in a divided world, will be strengthened and our love of freedom sustained.

Such are the reasons that I proudly display the picture of this great American on my office wall.

Sincerely,
Dwight D. Eisenhower