The Movable School
Taking Education to "the bone and sinew of the Negro race"
[Reprinted from Issues & Views Summer 1995]
[See photos at end.]
"To my wife, who by her loving attentiveness to our six children and
home has made it possible for me to travel throughout the South for the past
twenty-three years in the development of this work." So wrote Thomas
Monroe Campbell in his dedication that opens his chronicle of a unique
educational experiment, published by Tuskegee Institute in 1936 (reprinted in
1992).
Entitled, The Movable School Goes to the Negro Farmer, the book
describes how Tuskegee Institute, during the early years of this century,
transported agricultural education to the poorest rural blacks. The movable
school, best developed at Tuskegee, was the brainchild of Booker T. Washington,
who, Campbell writes, "had unbounded concern for the fullest development
of the rural people." The idea was to adapt education to the immediate
needs of the most destitute blacks, most of whom lived in remote outback areas.
Wasting little time on theorizing, as Campbell puts it, Washington sought to
"deal with problems which were close at hand."
Journey to Tuskegee
The first half of his book is mainly autobiographical. Campbell attended
Tuskegee Institute and, after graduating from its advanced classes, went on to
operate its first movable school in 1906. Campbell’s account of how, as a
young man, in 1899, he ran away from his father’s farm in Georgia to
attend Tuskegee, is filled with pathos and humor. Like so many other young
people, he was first inspired after hearing about the man at Tuskegee. He
recounts, "The news spread among colored people throughout my section of
Georgia that somewhere in the State of Alabama at a little town, the name of
which very few people could pronounce, there was an institution where poor, yet
worthy Negro students could work their way through school."
On the last leg of his circuitous journey to Alabama, which had been fraught
with unexpected delays and dangers, a friendly railroad porter, who had shared
his breakfast with the hungry young Campbell, advised, "That train will
take you to the school and Booker T. will take care of you when you get
there."
Real Hard Work
Campbell performed so poorly on his entrance exam at Tuskegee (in
arithmetic, grammar, geography, reading, writing) that he was declared
"Unclassified," which meant, he writes, "There was no class low
enough in the institution for me." He, therefore, had to enter the
preparatory course, in hope of qualifying for regular classes. When not
studying, he worked for his room and board tending the horses owned by the
school, whitewashing fences and barns and hauling wood from the surrounding
swamps.
In spite of suffering a grave illness and grieving over the death of his
favorite brother, Campbell consistently raised his academic grades. At the
close of the first school term, he had the munificent sum of $68 in his work
account, and decided to spend the coming summer working at a job off-campus.
Because Tuskegee students had earned reputations as reliable workers,
companies were eager to hire them. Campbell and 15 other students joined a crew
of men to work on a dam being built in Tallassee, Alabama. Since they failed to
bring the proper equipment for living in a camp in the woods, their lives were
often miserable, especially when it rained. Campbell was to learn a lot about
hard work that summer.
Although a couple of the boys couldn’t take the rugged life, most of
them toughed it out, as they spent long days cutting down trees for the dam.
"Aside from malaria and mosquitoes," writes Campbell, "there was
rarely any discomfort among us which we could not manage."
The Refuge
Upon his initial arrival at Tuskegee, Campbell was stunned by all the
production that went on there, which made the campus almost a self-sufficient
society unto itself. Besides the farming, which provided the crops to feed all
who lived there, as well as leftover to sell in the market, there was real
industry going on. He writes, "When I reached Tuskegee and observed such
activities as sawmilling, brick-making; the construction of houses, carriages,
wagons and buggies and the making of tin utensils, harnesses, mattresses,
brooms, clothes, shoes--all done by Negroes, it was to me like entering a new
heaven, and I could scarcely believe that such things were possible. Then too,
there was freedom of speech and action among the students that was beyond my
comprehension. Tuskegee was truly a city of refuge . . . ."
The constant laboring must have been infectious, because Campbell seized
every possible opportunity to earn his way--from milking cows to serving as a
carriage driver to working as a lumberjack.
A New Challenge
After mastering advanced agricultural techniques at Tuskegee, one summer
Campbell temporarily took over the operation of a large white-owned farm.
"I wanted to try out some of the many things I had learned at
Tuskegee," he writes. Upon encountering the hostility and distrust of an
older worker on the farm, Campbell won the man’s friendship by offering to
teach him to read at night. He then set about altering the methods of feed and
care of the farm’s cows, which greatly increased the milk supply.
Exasperated in his attempts to cut oats with the farm’s old-fashioned
hand cradle, Campbell convinced the reluctant farmer to purchase a new mowing
machine. When he and the workman mowed enough hay in one week to last through
the year, news went out throughout the region and Campbell was inundated with
requests from other farmers to come and work on their land.
When it was time to return to school, all kinds of bribes were offered
Campbell to make him stay on the farm. The suggestion was made that he marry
"some good girl," and a house would be built for them on the
property. "I declined, of course, on the grounds that I had worked too
hard trying to get an education and had gone too far not to return to Tuskegee
and finish."
Campbell’s next summer was spent accompanying a team of geological
surveyors, who were constantly on the move throughout the district. He found
the work "intensely interesting," and was gratified that the
surveyors took enough interest in him to teach him the "practical side of
geology." Although his assigned duties were to look after the team’s
general needs and care for the horses and equipment, he learned how to read
topographical maps and to follow the geological formations of that region.
Taking Education to the People
During his last year as a Tuskegee student, Campbell determined the work he
wanted to pursue. By now, he had much experience with the countryside and the
problems faced by its rural poor. He was determined to apply the skills he had
learned by teaching others through Tuskegee’s newly expanded extension
services.
Actually, from the day Booker T. Washington arrived at Tuskegee in 1881, he
had direct and ongoing contact with the poor who lived within and around the
area. It was the children of these people who became his first pupils. He went
into their one-room cabins to get firsthand information about their needs, so
that courses could be planned to benefit not only the students but also the
families and communities from which they came.
This is when he conceived the idea of taking education to the people. He
began by holding monthly meetings at Tuskegee for farmers and workers, to
demonstrate how they could raise more produce on smaller acreage at less
expense. Of critical importance, he sought to imbue them with the desire to
educate their children.
Dr. George Washington Carver, the esteemed agricultural chemist, and a
member of the Tuskegee faculty, would set out on Saturday afternoons in his
buggy, with a few tools and some demonstration exhibits. He would also go out
on Sundays, when he knew he would find the churches full and could collect a
crowd after services. To a surprised and awed audience, he would then give
practical demonstrations in the newest way to prevent plant diseases, or on the
use of chemical fertilizers, or on a host of other topics.
Take a Load of Produce to Town
When Booker T. Washington called for the first annual Negro Farmers
Conference, to his surprise 500 farm people showed up at Tuskegee, many
traveling long distances. Campbell describes subsequent annual conferences at
which he was impressed by how well Washington conveyed his message of uplift
and improvement, without being patronizing: "Dr. Washington always
conducted the program and discussions in such an informal and simple manner
that the farmers were assured of their welcome to the school . . . . The
constraints of fear and self-consciousness were swept away . . . .Dr.
Washington, in his tactful way of approaching the most delicate subjects, would
launch into his program, calling the attention of the people to the vital facts
affecting their lives, without offending or embarrassing them."
Washington sought to bring together at these conferences, says Campbell,
"not the politicians, but the representatives of the common, hard working
farmers and mechanics--the bone and sinew of the Negro race . . . ." There
were three main principles that he tried to impress on poor farmers. He
encouraged all to abolish ties to the mortgage system "as rapidly as
possible;" to raise their own food supplies at home, rather than going in
debt for them at stores; and to make buying their own home and farm a paramount
goal, if not the paramount goal. Campbell writes, "There was no
group of people in the whole country whose cause lay nearer [Washington’s]
heart than that of the Negro farmers. He listened attentively to stories of
their failures, their disappointments," while offering possible solutions
to their problems.
They even stood still to be admonished by Washington. He would advise them
to "quit living out of tin cans and paper bags," and instead form the
habit of taking something to town to sell. Many of them went to town with empty
wagons and came back with them loaded. He insisted it should be the other way
around. It had become the habit for many to grow just the amount of crops
required as payment to the owner of the land they rented.
Washington taught that if they learned how to expand the crops they now grew
and sold these for a profit, after a few years they would be able to buy small
tracts of land, eventually building better homes, and even saving towards their
children’s education. The Washington mantra became known to blacks as
though it were biblical verse: "Take a load of produce to town to exchange
for those items that you cannot raise; keep a year-round garden, a pig, a cow
and raise some fruit; start a bank account; put aside a little money each year
until you get enough to buy a piece of land, even if it is but one acre."
The First Wagon
As Tuskegee’s influence spread into the rural districts, and its ideas
began to take hold, the "Movable School of Agriculture" was born. The
Jesup Agricultural Wagon, the first "Movable School," was outfitted
and set in operation in June, 1906. The horse-drawn wagon (and later the
motorized truck) brought up-to-date equipment and techniques to skeptical
farmers, many of whom at first resisted giving up their old implements and way
of doing things.
Campbell tells of an incident when he loaned a farmer a walking cultivator
to prove that with this tool one man and a mule could cover twice as much
ground as with a small single plow. When Campbell came to pick up the
cultivator, the farmer begged him to let him keep it longer. Several days
later, the grateful farmer purchased his own cultivator. And a few days after
that, his neighbor did the same. Often, the desire to own better farm equipment
gave these farmers their first incentive to become serious about saving for the
future.
As the Movable School team traveled throughout rural areas, it became
apparent that illnesses, due mainly to poor sanitation and hygiene, prevailed
in many homes. Campbell got permission from the State of Alabama to add a
registered nurse to the team. The team’s first nurse, Uva Hester, a
Tuskegee graduate, not only attended to immediate health needs, but instructed
mothers, especially, on how to make more hygienic their close living quarters
and teach better health practices to their children.
The Tuskegee team worked with families to update outhouse facilities and,
for those who could afford it, helped them move such facilities indoors. In
addition to learning modern methods of canning produce and caring for poultry,
women without skills were taught sewing and other crafts, so they might create
items for sale in the market. While the wagon educated the farmer in the field
and the mother at home, the Institute was teaching their children.
Testimonials
Campbell gives a fascinating account of how a particular dilapidated house
would be chosen for a complete makeover. With the family occupants providing
the materials, all the neighbors would join in learning how to screen the
house, cover the well, paint the outbuildings, construct a sanitary toilet, set
out an orchard, terrace the land and renovate the house’s interior. The
men and boys measured and cut lumber, mixed concrete, and made whitewash.
Everybody learned by doing. The farmer’s family would benefit by
possessing a newly renovated homestead, while the neighbors now knew how to
improve their own properties.
Campbell cites cases of farmers and others whose standard of living greatly
improved, because they applied what they learned from Tuskegee. O.C. Crowe, of
Montgomery County, describes his experience: "I used to hear Dr.
Washington speak about ‘owning your home’ and ‘living at
home,’ and a man named Stokes used to tell me how my father used to pay
rent year after year; enough to have bought a farm twice the size he was paying
rent on. I rented this place in 1916. I wanted to own it, but didn’t have
the money. In 1917, I borrowed $200 to make the down payment on six acres, a
house, a store and a barn. The man gave me terms of $200 a year, skipping the
first year. I sold hogs that year and made the payment. After I finished paying
for this I was able to buy 30 acres more, which I paid for in the same way . .
. I made all the payments with money from the sale of pigs and cattle."
Tom Moss, who once rented land, became convinced of the practical need to
buy his own. When he found it difficult to increase his crops, he turned to
Tuskegee for assistance. After learning that he needed to plant a few acres in
winter cover crops, his next harvest was very successful. "I was surprised
at my corn. The increase was about 20 bushels per acre. After these results I
put in 14 acres the following fall. . . . I planted 12 acres of cotton and made
over eight bales on the plot. . . . Every year afterwards, I was able to save a
little money. I began to buy better farm tools and a better grade of hogs and
chickens."
The Deeper Significance
The fame of the Movable School spread around the world and visitors came to
Tuskegee from Africa, India, China, Japan, Poland and Russia for firsthand
study. Campbell writes, "Many have taken the idea back to their countries
and are putting it into practice with such modifications and changes as will
adapt it to their needs." He then describes variations that were developed
by the Madras Agriculture Department in India and the Ting Hsien Experiment in
Hopei, China.
At the time he completed this book in 1936, Campbell realized that for all
of Tuskegee’s accomplishments, it could not begin to solve the problems of
the masses of rural poor throughout the South. He lamented the school’s
inability to reach more people, and promoted a drive for extension services to
be duplicated in other regions. He was, however, optimistic enough to conclude,
"The Negro farmer who has come under the influence of systematic
instruction is enjoying an emancipation of a new kind, and accordingly is
raising his economic status. In agricultural practices, he is learning to raise
livestock profitably, to market his produce advantageously, to educate his
children . . . . The Movable School idea is no longer an experiment. It is an
investment that pays abundantly in dollars and cents. . . . The deeper
significance of it all is seen in the enrichment of the lives of the
people."
| Working and learning at Tuskegee Institute |
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See also
Booker T. Washington: Legacy Lost
Booker T. Washington: True Believer
A Trip to the Southwest
Copyright © 1995 Issues & Views
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