it is a terrible thing for an entire people to surrender to the notion that one ninth of its population is beneath them and until the moment comes when we, the Americans - we, the American people - are able to accept the fact (that I have to accept, for example) that my ancestors are both white and black; that on that continent we are trying to forge a new identity. That we need each other and that I am NOT a ward of America. I’m not an object of missionary charity. I am one of the people who built the country.
Until that moment there is scarcely any hope for the American Dream.
