BLAMELESSNESS
By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman
01/01/18
This New Year's Day, 2018, I reflect upon “blamelessness:” That which is or was without fault.
Ancient Greek and Roman writers hailed the ancient Ethiopians (Africans) as “blameless.”
Nearer in time to us, Booker T. Washington's “white glove test” is a trope for blamelessness.
A finicky New England, spinster near his community in Malden, West Virginia, where Washington had lived as a child, kept hiring and firing houseboys. She was never pleased with their housework. Her fierce reputation as a stern taskmaster preceded her. Booker T. wanted out of the hot, sweaty, salt mines where he worked. He needed money for a school that he had hoped to attend. He decided to seek her employ as houseboy. She conditionally hired him, then put him to work cleaning a room. He cleaned the room. But,the lady used white gloves to show that dust and dirt remained.. Next time, he swept, mopped, dusted, polished, waxed, that room multiple times. Finally, he called her in to inspect. She took out her pair of white gloves, and rubbed them in out-of- the- way-places; in every corner, and crevice. No spot nor stain besmirched those white gloves, so that white lady hired him as her houseboy,
Later, after he arrived at Hampton Institute in Hampton, Virginia, walking, penniless, he employed the same “white glove test” principles to earn his tuition , room and board, by cleaning college classrooms.
After graduation, now at Tuskegee, Alabama, those same “white gloves test” principles were repeated until they got their kiln to make brick of their own to construct campus facilities, buildings, and to sell.
Throughout his fabled career as educator, author, race leader, organizer, Booker T. Washington used the same “blameless Ethiopians,” white-glove test principles to perfection. He convinced Julius Rosenwald to build 5,000 black schools across the South to educate our people, and he inspired many thousands.
From January 1, 2018, let us “blameless Ethiopians” replicate the “white glove test,” as our legacy.
Monday, January 1, 2018
BLAMELESSNESS
BLAMELESSNESS
By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman
01/01/18
This New Year's Day, 2018, I reflect upon “blamelessness:” That which is or was without fault.
Ancient Greek and Roman writers hailed the ancient Ethiopians (Africans) as “blameless.”
Nearer in time to us, Booker T. Washington's “white glove test” is a trope for blamelessness.
A finicky New England, spinster near his community in Malden, West Virginia, where Washington had lived as a child, kept hiring and firing houseboys. She was never pleased with their housework. Her fierce reputation as a stern taskmaster preceded her. Booker T. wanted out of the hot, sweaty, salt mines where he worked. He needed money for a school that he had hoped to attend. He decided to seek her employ as houseboy. She conditionally hired him, then put him to work cleaning a room. He cleaned the room. But,the lady used white gloves to show that dust and dirt remained.. Next time, he swept, mopped, dusted, polished, waxed, that room multiple times. Finally, he called her in to inspect. She took out her pair of white gloves, and rubbed them in out-of- the- way-places; in every corner, and crevice. No spot nor stain besmirched those white gloves, so that white lady hired him as her houseboy,
Later, after he arrived at Hampton Institute in Hampton, Virginia, walking, penniless, he employed the same “white glove test” principles to earn his tuition , room and board, by cleaning college classrooms.
After graduation, now at Tuskegee, Alabama, those same “white gloves test” principles were repeated until they got their kiln to make brick of their own to construct campus facilities, buildings, and to sell.
Throughout his fabled career as educator, author, race leader, organizer, Booker T. Washington used the same “blameless Ethiopians,” white-glove test principles to perfection. He convinced Julius Rosenwald to build 5,000 black schools across the South to educate our people, and he inspired many thousands.
From January 1, 2018, let us “blameless Ethiopians” replicate the “white glove test,” as our legacy.