[n.b. - page numbers refer to printed text. Available at https://archive.org/details/blackmansburden0000will ] CHAPTER VI By September, 1903, everybody seemed to conclude that the school project would be a failure, and enthusi- asm was fast dying out. This was due in a large meas- ure to the fact that we found it impossible to buy a tract of land anywhere near Utica upon which to start a school. First of all, the majority of land owners doubt- ed the wisdom of selling any part of their land for a Negro school; and, in the second place, we had no money with which to buy land; which was not very important, however, as it does not always require ready money to buy land in the South. In the meantime I had organized the colored people into an educational association, of which I was president. We had our meetings every Monday night, and as many call meetings during the week as we found necessary. But, as I have said, enthusiasm was dying out. The peo- ple were beginning to feel that I was a humbug; that I had collected all the money I could and would soon be gone. So they decided to elect a treasurer into whose hands I was to place all the money I collected. Up to this time I had collected only seventy-five cents. I welcomed this move to elect a treasurer, and promptly turned the seventy-five cents over to him. If I remem- ber correctly, the Rev. Essex Gary was elected treasurer. No sooner had I turned over the money to Mr. Gary than 88 THE BLACK MAN’S BURDEN some one objected to his leaving the house with it, say- ing that it would never be seen again. Mr. Gary became indignant and resigned on the spot, and it looked as if I was going to get the seventy-five cents back. It would have been given to me, perhaps, but for the fact that some fellow started a general disturbance,—probably Dan Griffin, though I do not remember now. Mr. Gary was the local minister of the Colored Meth- odist Episcopal Church, the membership of which con- sisted of two dozen men and women, who had been per- suaded that there was some way of getting to Heaven outside of the Baptist Church. Mr. Gary seemed to take himself very seriously and he was respected by all who knew him, so far as I could see. But it seems as if he had been treasurer of a secret society, and that while he was treasurer the society “went dead,” so to speak, and when the money was counted the men and women were not satisfied with Mr. Gary’s accounting. His friends maintained that he had been strictly honest, but a few persons whom he considered his enemies always con- tended that he had not given a proper accounting of the funds. Dan Griffin was a young recruit to the Baptist Church, and his feelings toward the Methodist people were none too good. He was intent on running the Church, the school, and all the societies on a high plane. Some years before he joined the Church he had been a man of the world, pure and simple, and had been considered some- what rough in his character. Now that he was a Chris- tian he was as willing to fight for the Church and for righteousness as he had been willing to work for the evil THE BLACK MAN’S BURDEN 89 forces. This, I suppose, accounts for his raising a rough- house when he felt that the wrong man had been elected treasurer. However, we had to have a treasurer, so another ballot was taken, and it was decided that no man in the house could be trusted with the money. By way of compromise some one then suggested that Mr. W. J. Ferguson, a white man and the president of the Bank of Utica, should be elected treasurer, which was done. When Mr. Fer- guson was notified the next day he considered it the biggest joke of the season. He accepted, however, and began acting as the treasurer of the new organization. Now that we had a treasurer we were ready to go forward, though not very far with only seventy-five cents. The majority of the people were beginning to abandon the project and things were looking decidedly gloomy. Something extraordinary had to be done. In order to revive their spirits, and to show them that I meant business, I went to E. H. Curry Brothers and asked for a loan of a few hundred dollars with which to provide lumber for a schoolhouse. They not only granted the loan, but also took it upon themselves to provide a couple of carloads of lumber at reasonable prices, without any security whatever except the word of a few colored men whom they knew. I think that by this time I had convinced them of the possibility of my project. But when the lumber arrived we had no land upon which to place it, so by permission we stacked it up in the little churchyard. Enthusiasm revived now, even among the white people, and a good woman in the town soon agreed to sell us twenty acres 90 THE BLACK MAN’S BURDEN of land. We bought this land without paying a cent of money; we simply promised to pay within three years, and we began the erection of the first schoolhouse that the colored people of that section of the state had ever built. Before all this took place, however, I had to spend three weeks explaining to the Methodist people and the Sanctified Folks why I had put the lumber in the Baptist churchyard. 1 at length convinced them I was not going to build a Baptist school, but a school for all the people. The Sanctified Folks, sometimes called “Spot or Wrinkle Folks,” was the name of a new religious sect, or, at least, it was new in Mississippi. It was headed by the saintly leader, C. P. Jones, with headquarters at Jackson, the capital of the state, and it had for its motto, “Absolute perfection in every member.” It was, and is to this day, a forceful, domineering religion. It was sweeping everything before it in our neighborhood. First, because it was new, and Negroes will accept any- thing new; and, second, because it was a religion that was fundamentally correct and that appealed to the hearts of those who embraced it and of many who did not. But the Baptist people, who had been dominating the com- munity during all the years that the Negroes had been free, were fighting this new religion with all their might. Their arguments were interesting. At some points the two denominations came almost together in their beliefs, and in some others they were wide apart; for instance, the Baptist had a doctrine stated in these words, “Once in Christ and never out,’ while the Sanctified people THE BLACK MAN’S BURDEN gI had a doctrine which made it plain that the man who was born of God cannot sin. One would think that the be- lievers in these two religions could have agreed, but they did not. The trouble was that the Sanctified leader was too much in earnest for the Baptist folks. He preached that “Men should live absolutely pure lives, without spot or wrinkle.” The Baptist people said that while they would like to see this done, it was impossible, and that the only being that could live absolutely without sin in this sinful world was an angel. Some amusing incidents occurred. A great many members of the Baptist and Methodist Churches left and went to the Sanctified Church, and at length the Methodist preacher himself became Sanctified, but failed to carry his congregation with him. There is no doubt that the Sanctified people were in earnest about the saving of souls as well as about making men better. Their sermons were full of power and very convincing. They had no church-house in which to worship, but at first they were allowed to use the Methodist and Baptist churches. They were soon put out of these, however, and then they began to hold meetings in the open air. I remember that one of their methods was to require each member that joined them to renounce himself or herself and publicly confess all previous sin. These confessions caused a good deal of turmoil whenever they were made, and the people that made them were so much in earnest that very often they told secrets that carried them to the divorce courts and to prison, broke up families, and caused a general read- justment. I was told that the year before I came to Utica, when g2 THE BLACK MAN’S BURDEN the Sanctified people first made their appearance, the tur- moil was even greater than it was after I came. A story is told of a local minister who was officiating one night at a service when a sister offered herself for membership. The local minister asked her to tell all her previous sins, and she began to tell things that startled the audience. On and on she went with her story, involving men and women until everybody was tense with excitement; then she came to a point in the narrative where she evidently thought she ought to stop, but the minister, who by this time was happy, shouted to her to go on with the story and tell it all. Then she hesitatingly began to relate some incidents in her life which involved the minister himself, and he then said, “Take her out, brethren, she is crazy.” After that new members were not required to tell more of their experience than they felt like telling. There is no doubt, however, that the Sanctified Church during the past twelve years has done more to develop good char- acter and Christian spirit in this community than any other church. Its leader and founder, the Rev. C. P. Jones, whom I have already mentioned, is a strong and forceful character. He is an earnest minister of the Gospel, truly a man of God, and he has many lieuten- ants who are just as earnest, if not so forceful. The de- nomination is rapidly spreading throughout the South. I now started out on foot, went from house to house among both white and colored people soliciting their aid, and received it in a degree that enabled me to pay for the lumber and land within three months. Mean- time, I had opened school in the open air, for I had been unable to get permission to teach in the little church. ‘THE BLACK MAN’S BURDEN 93 School opened the first Monday in November, 1902. It is a custom of the public schools in Mississippi to have three Negro trustees, at least one of whom is to be on hand at the opening day to install the new teacher. One of them certainly was on hand the morning we opened school. He sang, I read the Bible, and he offered a long and solemn prayer. At its close he attempted to lead the children in the Lord’s prayer, and he got as far as the daily bread, but, although he struggled desper- ately, he could not get any further. Thereupon he de- liberately went back and started afresh, but when he came to the daily bread he stopped again. The children, who had been suppressing their amusement, now burst out in a hearty laugh, whereupon Miss Lee, who was my first assistant, took up the prayer and finished it for him. Then he stood up and began a lecture on good manners, which was directed apparently at the students, but in reality at me, for he seemed to blame me for the students’ laughter, although he had not yet put me offi- cially in charge. Nevertheless, he turned them over to me in a few minutes and school was opened. These were dreary times, indeed, with many hard- ships, with many difficulties that were mere annoyances. We were still teaching in the open air, out under the big trees amidst the shrubbery. This would have made a very good schoolhouse but for its size. In such a school- house one could get along very well, if he could keep his pupils close enough to him, but the chances are, as I have found, that they will put bugs down one another’s collars, and while you are hearing one class the other children will chase one another about. Their buoyant spirits will 94 THE BLACK MAN’S BURDEN not permit them to keep quiet while they are in the open. It is pretty hard to hear a class reciting and at the same time to witness a boxing-match, but those who teach in the open air must be prepared for such performances. These annoyances were accentuated by the fact that some of my pupils were forty years old while others were six. After a while we moved into an abandoned house, which we used for a schoolhouse, but it was little better than teaching out of doors. When it rained the water not only came through the top, but through the sides as well. During cold winter rains I had to teach while standing with my overcoat on and with arctic rubbers to protect myself against pneumonia. During those rainy days Miss Lee would get up on a bench and stand there all day to keep her feet out of the water and would have an umbrella stretched over her to keep from getting wet from above. The little fellows would be standing in the water below like little ducks. They stood these condi- tions exceedingly well. Many of them were not pro- tected with overshoes or any shoes, but they came to school each day just as if they had been properly clad. It is impossible to describe the hardships that we suf- fered during that winter, which was severe for the South. As the winter came on and grew more and more severe a great many of the children were taken with pneumonia, la grippe, and similar ailments. I wished, in the interest of health, to abandon the school for a few weeks until better weather; but neither pupils, nor teachers, nor par- ents would listen to this, and so the schoo! continued un- der these circumstances until the new schoolhouse was ready for use. It is needless to say that some of the THE BLACK MAN’S BURDEN 95 pupils never survived those conditions ; in fact, the strange thing is that any of us did. During this time I would teach during the day, and at night would go to some appointed place from five to fifteen miles away in the country, speak to the people, stir up enthusiasm for education, and bring back a little collection to help carry forward the new school. Some- times this collection would be twenty-five cents and some- times as much as three dollars. On Thanksgiving Day we held a Thanksgiving service, the first that had ever been held among the colored people in Utica. It took nearly half the day to explain to them what was meant by Thanksgiving Day, but once they understood it, they contributed freely from their little savings, to the amount of thirty-seven dollars and fifty cents. During all this time I had been bitterly opposed by the colored Baptist minister, whose word was law to every colored man and woman in the community. He had fought me from every point of vantage; I had made one attempt to reconcile him, but he would not hear me; then I had simply let him alone. After a while he came within a hundred yards of the school in which I was teaching and sent for me to come to him, saying that he wished to talk with me. I went down to the road where he was, we sat down on the ground, and this, as near as I can remember, was the substance of his remarks: “Brother Holtzclaw, I have come to talk with you on the matter of your efforts here. I have watched you constantly and have done everything in my power to in- jure you. I have tried to block your progress, and I have tried to break you up because I thought you were a hum- 96 THE BLACK MAN’S BURDEN bug. I simply did not like your face when I first saw you, but I have seen my mistake, and I have come humbly to beg your pardon. I would have come as far as the schoolhouse, but I did not feel worthy to put my foot on the ground until I should confess my sins, and I want to beg you to forgive me. I promise you that in the future I shall help you push forward that which I now see to be a great work. Let us pray.” He got down on his knees and prayed such a prayer as I have not heard since. Then he called on me to pray, and there we were by ourselves down on the road- side. Meanwhile, a Negro passed by on a mule and went up town and told everybody that the Baptist preacher had “Professor” Holtzclaw down on his knees in the road praying over him, or doing something, he could not tell what. The news went abroad at once, and a great many people came up to see what had really happened. I think there was a mild suspicion that I had conjured the preacher. This was, perhaps, due to his sudden conver- sion, when it became known. Meanwhile, we got up out of the road and shook hands. After it was all over I found myself admiring the man, and I could see the same admiration for me in his face. Since that time we have been warm friends. No minister has done more by word or act to make the work at Utica a success than this same Baptist preacher. This story is worth telling because it is one of many like instances that took place in the beginning; and be- cause it reveals the cause of the failure of many an en- terprise in various communities. If you cannot get on + Principal Holtzclaw and the farmers felling the trees used in the construction of the first schoolhouse at Utica THE BLACK MAN’S BURDEN 97 with the colored preachers in a place, your chances of success are slim in that community. The work on the new schoolhouse was progressing. Strange to say, all the lumber that I have spoken of, which was provided by the Curry Brothers, was finishing material. It contained no framing. All the work that had been done up to this time was finishing work; we had not yet bought the material for the foundation. As we had no money with which to buy it, we felled some trees in the forest, which came to us as a sort of con- tribution. Colored people do not regard trees as private property in the far South,—at least, they did not use to do so,—and it was not difficult for us to obtain the gift of those whom we consulted. I led the farmers into the woods where we felled the trees, then we placed them on the wagons, hauled them to a near-by saw-mill, and had them cut into lumber on shares. In this way we succeeded in getting enough framing to finish the first building. Despite the start we had made, however, I was fully aware of the weakness of our organization, and so I be- gan to strengthen it by forming a more extensive organi- zation on a legal basis. It was then that I obtained the services of the Hon. Paul D. Rattcliff, a reputable at- torney of Raymond, the county seat of Hinds County; and he drew all the plans of the organization according to my wishes and as nearly like those of Hampton and Tuskegee as we could. We obtained a charter from the State of Mississippi, and elected a new board of trustees. This body consisted of some of the Negroes already serving as trustees, together with some influential white 98 THE BLACK MAN’S BURDEN men in the community and some white men and women in the North and West, whose consent to serve on the board I had previously obtained. The wisdom of having a mixed board of Northern and Southern white men and of Negroes has been amply justified. These trustees were not simply figureheads, but were men and women deeply interested in the prog- ress of the colored race and of the South in general. Not long after this organization was formed some of the trus- tees began to visit the school, coming from as far away as Wisconsin and California, in order to familiarize themselves with our effort. The Southern white men who were chosen were of the highest type of progressive citizens, and were not only interested in the school as a school, but would have been just as much interested in any other effort that had for its object the betterment of the condition of the whole people. These Northern and Southern whites have met the Negro trustees annually at the institution, and all the meetings have been of the most harmonious sort. They have investigated the school and all its conditions, and have remedied matters very often as they could not otherwise have been remedied. The majority of the trustees pass a whole day at the school once a year; and the Chairman of the Board, Dr. Henry E. Cobb, of New York City, usually performs the annual duty of presenting diplomas to the graduates. After twelve years of contact with these men from va- rious parts of the country, I am convinced that the best sort of an organization for this kind of Southern work is an organization composed of Southern white men, Southern Negroes, and Northern white men. In such THE BLACK MAN’S BURDEN 99 an organization the corporation gets the benefit of the various points of view, and under such circumstances there is little reason why it should not keep itself in line with all that is best for itself and for everybody con- cerned. As I have said before, our Board of Trustees, —to whom all our property is deeded, and who control and direct the destiny of this work,—is made up of in- terested individuals from various parts of the country. The personnel of the Board as it now stands is as fol- lows: The Northern and Western whites are: Messrs. Henry E. Cobb, of New York City; Francis B. Sears, of Boston; W. J. Schieffelin, of New York City; George L. Paine, of New Haven, Conn.; John H. Storer, of Boston; Miss Fidelia Jewett, of San Francisco, and Miss E. M. Perkins, of Cleveland, Ohio. The Southern whites are: Bishop Theodore D. Bratton, of Jackson, Miss.; Messrs. R. W. Millsap, of Jackson, Miss.; W. J. Fer- guson, of Utica, Miss.; D. C. Simmons, of Utica, Miss., and Z. Wardlaw, of Utica, Miss. The Southern Negroes are: Messrs. Emmet J. Scott, of Tuskegee, Ala. ; Charles Banks, of Mound Bayou; L. K. Atwood, of Jackson, Miss.; and W. H. Holtzclaw, Dan Lee, Ples McCadney, Harrison Flanders, and Isaiah Marshall, of Utica, Miss.