Answer of Peace

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And Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, It is not in me: God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace. Genesis 41:16 KJV

Whether received through God’s written word, in the inward parts of one’s inner man through God’s Spirit, or through one of God’s messengers, believers (and occasionally even unbelievers), can expect to receive answers from God for perplexing and difficult circumstances in life. When one find such answers from God, they will be answers of peace, and Joseph’s communication to Pharaoh demonstrates much for discerning God’s answers of peace.

First, Pharoah was troubled and confused about a circumstance that was presented to him. (To be sure, not every dream conforms to this, for Pharoah was leader of a great people and his decisions had impact among his people and throughout many surrounding nations, including God’s people. This dream was no vain or carnal imagination for personal aggrandizement, it affected people.)

Secondly, Pharoah searched for answers (and could not find it) among the wise men and magicians of Egypt, those widely acknowledged to have preeminent, world-reknown expertise in such matters. Thirdly, Joseph’s communication was one that was “in season,” for a problem presently confronting Pharaoh in the very near future. (It will be no hindsight commentary that anyone can provide, for answers are always seemingly perfect concerning past events where all circumstances are known.)

Fourthly, God’s answer of peace provided a solution. (To be sure, it would not be Pharaoh who would be “so discreet and wise” to manage the store houses of Egypt–but someone who could (for Pharaoh had to attend to the broader and wider matters of the state) in this situation, he needed a Joseph.) In the end, God’s answer of peace not only resolved the difficulty and provided a solution, but resulted in blessing; the blessing was not only intended for a single individual, but Egypt, surrounding nations and particularly God’s own people.

‘The Talented Tenth Reexamined’: William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, August 12, 1948

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“I want then to reexamine and restate the thesis of The Talented Tenth which I laid down many years ago…I realized that it was quite possible that my plan of training a talented tenth might put in control and power a group of selfish, self-indulgent well to do men. [But] great moral leaders are needed […] my pointing out the new knowledge necessary for leadership and new ideas of race and culture still remains that fundamental and basic requirement of character for any successful leadership toward great ideals.”-W.E.B. Du Bois, “Talented Tenth: Memorial Address,” August 12, 1948, Sigma Pi Phi’s fraternity, 19th Grand Boule Conclave

Though W.E.B. Du Bois’s conception of the ‘Talented Tenth’ was most widely introduced in his 1903 _The Souls of Black Folk_ in a chapter titled, “Of the Training of Black Men,” it was very likely originally conceived by Morehouse College’s namesake, Henry Morehouse, who was a Baptist minister that had long supported the then Augusta Theological Institute founded in 1867 and subsequently became Atlanta Baptist Seminary and Atlanta Baptist College before the college’s name was changed in 1913 to honor Morehouse.

Partly in response to the widespread notoriety of Booker T. Washington’s 1895 Exposition Address which championed industrial education, Morehouse wrote in the Independent Magazine in April 1886: “In the discussion concerning Negro education we should not forget the talented tenth man. An ordinary education may answer for the nine men of mediocrity; but if this is all we offer the talented tenth man, we make a prodigious mistake…The tenth man, with superior natural endowments, symmetrically trained and highly developed, may become a mightier influence, a greater inspiration to others than all the other nine, or nine times nine like them.”

Morehouse’s article similar to many White and Black northerners sought to counter or add to Booker T. Washington’s ideals of education by offering differing views of how to properly train African Americans i]during the aftermath of enslavement. While it is difficult to decisively determine, given Henry Morehouse’s theological beliefs, the concept certainly presupposed a moral and ethical underpinning rooted in Baptist theology.

And this, in part, was Du Bois’s conception when he first introduced the term in the American Negro Academy in 1897 as part of a paper he delivered in the afternoon session of the academy’s founding titled, “The Conservation of Races.” For the Academy, which had limited its membership to literate and educated African Americans—including moral and ethical requirements—endeavored to be comprised of African American leaders who would “guide both the opinions and habits of the crude masses […] because the religious training of our race has been one-sided and disproportionate.” Booker T. Washington himself had been invited to membership to which no response was ever recorded from Washington on whether he would accept. He very likely would not although he had later contributed an essay that was published in a 1903 book publication, _The Negro Problem: A Series of Articles by Representative American Negroes of To-Day_with three of the founding members of the Negro Academy including Du Bois and Paul Laurence Dunbar.

All the same, in many ways, the failure to sustain the high-minded intentions of the American Negro Academy—in part owing to Crummell’s death the following year and Du Bois’s waning intrest in religion as the pathway to moral and ethical behavior—carried an unintended ripple effect into the education of African American men and women at liberal arts colleges in the early 20th century, which Du Bois in the twilight of his life, now sought to correct in this 1948 address. And perhaps after a full reading of his “reexamination of his original thesis,” a deeper tension—oil and water even—may be found in his initial attempts to partner with Reverend Alexander Crummell where he first conceived his Talented Tenth thesis: the formation of African American leadership in the African American community without a mutually agreed upon basis for what morality and ethics constitute.

Heart-Head-Hands

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“We can fill your heads with knowledge, and we can train your hands to work with skill, but unless all this training of head and hand is based upon high, upright character, upon a true heart, it will amount to nothing. You will be no better off than the most ignorant.” – Booker T. Washington, A Sunday Evening Talk

Presidential Commentary by Dr. Brian Johnson 

In this writer’s opinion, “integrity” is the greatest 9-letter word, “knowledge” is the second greatest, and “ignorance” is-by far-the worst and most dangerous. And the founding principal and president of Tuskegee (Institute) University, Booker T. Washington, gives on this Sunday evening talk his oft-repeated conception of “heart-head-hands” to help his students avoid the dread of becoming “no better off than the most ignorant.” One can easily seek the help of professors to develop one’s “head”. (These men and women have as their primary purpose to fill the “heads” of students with “knowledge”.) Likewise, professors are able to help make a student’s “hands”-or their work-“skill”[ful]. (Through repeated instruction and correction a student will either become skillful at their work or they will receive failing grades.) Yet, the matter of the “heart,” Mr. Washington suggests, is one matter where students must begin and complete this work largely alone.

(Let no man or woman ever presume to become an expert on the subject of another’s heart.) Of all subject matters, it is the one that is deeply personal and unique to the individual. Whereas both the competencies of the “head” and the credentials of the “hands” lie in full view, the character of the “heart” is always hidden from view. Yet, without it, all else “will amount to nothing.” For Mr. Washington’s complete configuration of Heart-Head-Hands in education is akin to the strength necessary to shoot arrows a great distance even as universities have shot forth their sons and daughters into rewarding and meaningful careers of service. (The heart is the unseen and invisible strength that determines how far one can bend the bow to make the arrow go. How far one can bend the bow and shoot the arrow tells you precisely what one needs to know.)

THE MISTAKES OF BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

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“I remember one young man in particular who graduated from Yale University and afterward took a post-graduate course at Harvard, and who began his career by delivering a series of lectures on “The Mistakes of Booker T. Washington.” It was not long, however, before he found that he could not live continuously on my mistakes. Then he discovered that in all his long schooling he had not fitted himself to perform any kind of useful and productive labour. After he had failed in several other directions he appealed to me, and I tried to find something for him to do. It is pretty hard, however, to help a young man who has started wrong.” – Booker T. Washington, (1911) My Larger Education

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. offers the following concerning men and women whose actions are similar to the young man described in Booker T. Washington’s aforementioned passage: “Controversy equalizes fools and wise men in the same way – and the fools know it.” And the founding principal and president of Tuskegee (Institute) University provides several important lessons about both the young man-as well as all men and women of his ilk-who seek to establish their name and reputation on the basis of disparaging the name and reputation of others-particularly those whose accomplishments they will only be brought in close proximity to only upon the basis of “controversy.”

First, Mr. Washington never ever mentions this young man’s name. While this unidentified young man knew full well that persons might give him a hearing-not upon the basis of his own person and accomplishments-but based upon the person and accomplishments of his topic, “The Mistakes of Booker T. Washington,” identifying or responding to this young man provided not a single, solitary benefit to Mr. Washington and Tuskegee.

Second, Mr. Washington understood that the young man’s premises were flawed from the onset, and it is the clearest telltale example of Mr. Washington’s oft-repeated phrase, “Let examples answer.” To be sure, the actions of no man or woman are all “good” or all “bad.” (This is naïve, simplistic and child-like thinking.) Yet, in the face of the clear, overwhelming and documentable evidence that testify to the good that Mr. Washington had done locally, regionally and nationally, this young man titled his lecture series according to what he perceived were the mistakes of Mr. Washington.

Here again, what one consistently reads and hears, one will consistently become. And this young man ought to have taken heed to how and to what he was hearing for it ultimately led to what he had become. (For this young man’s attempt to categorize and confine a man of Booker T. Washington eminence and accomplishments to a series of perceived mistakes that his limited training, limited knowledge and limited life experience identified did nothing but demonstrate his failure to understand the significance of the (2) greatest 9-letter words and the single, most dangerous 9-letter word: 1. “Integrity” 2. “Knowledge” 3. “Ignorance;”)

Finally, we should consider Mr. Washington’s demonstration of another one of his famous aphorisms: “I let no man drag me down so low as to make me hate him.” The very same young man who sought to disparage and defame Mr. Washington later sought him for assistance, and Mr. Washington “tried to find something for him to do.” (This dynamic needs no additional commentary.) Yet what is deserving of additional commentary is that this young man might have spent his time and work writing, lecturing and building his own legacy and life worth reading as opposed to seeking to denigrate another’s whose legacy and life of building Tuskegee (Institute) University spanned 34 years (1881-1915) and remains and is read to this very day.

MORE UPRIGHT IN HEART

2 Chron 29:34

34 But the priests were too few, so that they could not flay all the burnt offerings: wherefore their brethren the Levites did help them, till the work was ended, and until the other priests had sanctified themselves: for the Levites were more upright in heart to sanctify themselves than the priests.

KJV

Although there have always been ebbs and tides in the quality of the priesthood in the history of Israel and Judah, God has always left a remnant in the midst of His people who would remain upright in heart. While God has often used prophets and priests for such a task, in this instance, it was the Levites who were found faithful due to their willingness to remain faithful to God.

Although all priests were apart of the Aaronic Levitical order, all Levites were not priests; these performed a variety of services (such as singers, scribes, judges etc.) throughout the sanctuary and among the people. And this parallel resembles the body of Christ today. For while some men are full time stewards in the house of God, other members serve in helps ministries as well as fulfilling their own vocational calling in their respective careers and callings in the civic sphere. Yet, most importantly, we find here that God was no respecter of persons in describing the Levites as more upright in heart than the priests; He regarded not the titles of the men who served Him but their hearts:

“For the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.”- 1 Samuel 16:7

MORE THAN LADIES AND GENTLEMEN

“More than that, a school that is content with merely turning out ladies and gentlemen who are not at the same time something else — who are not lawyers, doctors, business men, bankers, carpenters, farmers, teachers, not even housewives, but merely ladies and gentlemen — such a school is bound, in my estimation, to be more or less a failure.” – Booker T. Washington, _My Larger Education_(1901)

In keeping with his constant emphasis that “style”-however impressive to the eye or palpable to the ear-will never ever be a replacement for “substance,” Booker T. Washington here speaks to the central purpose of a university education: Character (Heart) Competence (Head) and Credentials (Hands).

Make no mistake, appropriate dress and eloquent speech is quite essential for the university-trained man or woman. Grades alone without accompanying poise, presence and posture will not assure one’s entrance into career fields where appearance often factors into personal prejudices and/or preferences.

All the same, “integrity” (character), “knowledge” (competence)—the first and second greatest 9-letter words—coupled with credentials are the most important attributes to be in possession of for the university-trained man or woman for not only the successful entrance into a field of activity but for the successful pursuit of career in concert with calling for the fulfilling of great purposes for people.

Whether in the 19th Century or the 21st Century, one has to possess these three. And the institution that is more concerned with what is upon the backs of her students than what is between the ears of her students, is in the founding principal and president of Tuskegee (Institute) University’s “estimation…more or less a failure.”

ROOMS THAT YOU DO NOT LIKE

ROOMS THAT YOU DO NOT LIKE

“You are going to get rooms that you do not like. They will not be, perhaps, as attractive as your desire, or they will be too crowded. You are going to be given persons for roommates with whom you think it is going to be impossible to get along pleasantly, people who are not congenial to you. During the hot months your rooms are going to be too hot, and during the cold months they are going to be too cold. You are going to meet with all these difficulties in your rooms. Make up your mind that you are going to conquer them. I have often said that the students who in the early years of this school had such hard times with their rooms have succeeded grandly. Many of you now live in palaces, compared to the rooms, which those students had. I am sure that the students who attend this school find that the institution is better fitted every year to take care of them than it was the year previous.” “A Sunday Evening Talk: Some Rocks Ahead,” Booker T. Washington

Among the many priorities Mr. Washington had in relationship to his duties as president of Tuskegee Institute (University), fostering a relationship with his students was high among these. The Sunday evening talks were designed for students to engage the founding principal and president in less formal ways than at official gatherings such as convocations, commencements and formal student body association meetings. Moreover, he used these times to try to instill in them something of the “Tuskegee spirit.”

Yet, try as one might-and in spite of the many positive aspects of the institution that are hardly ever touted-there are always areas of on-going concern for students, or “some…rocks ahead” for students within a university living-learning environment. Here, Mr. Washington addresses one of these: residential living. While it is clear that this address was for Tuskegee Institute (University) students in the 19th century as opposed to the 21st century. (And it is clear that the 21st century institution has a fiscal duty to ensure the best facilities available to its students.) Notwithstanding, there are simply some matters in residential living that are common to all persons living within a university environment that are entirely unavoidable, and a student must simply “conquer them.”

First, the room may not be as “attractive as you desire.” The living-learning environment is by no means the culmination of one’s career. It is a stop en route to a glorious career path that has as its ultimate destination a home purchase consistent with one’s desires and affordability. (This is often dependent upon your academic success as a student.)

Second, “roommates” may not be “congenial.” Everyone recalls meeting strangers for the first time and though the initial meeting was uncomfortable, these strangers became life-long friends. (Many of our best, life-long friends are cultivated in the college and university living-learning environment, and had we not endured, we would have missed a valuable relationship that might be instrumental in our future successes.)

Third, heating and air challenges are often the case even with respect to one roommate preferring it cold while the other hot. (Universities do their very best to address these situations upon proper reporting to the designated resident advisor, residential hall director, facilities director and Vice President for Student Affairs. It is not the university president who one contacts for these matters until the lines of authority are exhausted.)

Lastly, a balanced perspective recognizes that “many of you now live in palaces, compared to the rooms which [previous generations of] students had” and for most universities, “the students who attend this school find that the institution is better fitted every year to take care of them than it was the year previous.” While the “struggle” of residential living within a university environment is oft-times a real and verifiable one, students would do well to remember the following adage: “Obstacles are what you see when you take your eyes off the goal.” And the goal is the successful completion of a baccalaureate or post-baccalaureate degree.

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