The Booker T. Washington Papers, Vol.3, page 554, May 1895, U. of Illinois Press

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The BOOKER T. WASHINGTON Papers A Sunday Evening TalkGROW rH Tuskegee, Ala., May ~ 2th, 1895 I want especially to urge to-night, upon those who finish their course of study here this year, and upon all of the students who are to; go home or elsewhere for their vacation, the importance and necessity of trying to continually grow. That is going to be one of the hardest things that you are going to have to contend with. It is going to be very hard for some of you to grow, and, as I have often said, a person cannot stand still; he is either growing better or is growing worse, he is either getting hold of more knowledge, or is becoming more ignorant. Some of you are going to find it a pretty hard task to go forward. Many of you will find everything tending downward instead of upward. You will have temptations to wrong-doing instead of right-doing. Evils win beset you on every hand, both in conversation and in the temptation to read that which you ought not to read; and so, you will have to make a special effort to keep yourselves from going downward instead of upward. Many people who are inclined to help in the work of education, often become discouraged that the Indians, after becoming educated, often go back to their tribes and resume the old customs and habits which they had before they were educated. But people very often overlook the tremendous sentiment and opposition to education that exist among the Indian tribes. The educated Indian returns to the reservation, where he is surrounded constantly by people who believe in the old customs, who scorn civilization, and the tendency downward is so great, that unless he has great force of character, he will soon go back to the blanket. Perhaps, in a less degree, the same thing is largely true of those who graduate from these Southem institutions. You go into the cities as well as into the country, and there is something that will pull you downward. There is nothing so discouraging to teachers and others, as to come in contact with young men and women on whom much time and money have been spent, who are going downward instead of upward. These young men and women, who are soon to graduate, are going downward or upward, beginning with the day they leave this institution. In the first place, in order to keep yourselves growing, you want to 554