The anti-blackness has generated new forms of youth involvement in anti-whiteness, which in some cases is appalling.

In all of us there is a hunger, marrow-deep, to know our heritage, to know who we are and where we came from.

I certainly wasn't seeking any degree, the way a college confers a status symbol upon its students. My homemade education gave me, with every additional book that I read, a little bit more sensitivity to the deafness, dumbness and blindness that was afflicting the black race in America. Not long ago, an English writer telephoned me, asking questions. One was, "What's your alma mater?" I told him, "Books.

The anti-blackness has generated new forms of youth involvement in anti-whiteness, which in some cases is appalling.

Unless we learn from history, we are destined to repeat it. This is no longer merely an academic exercise, but may contain our worlds fate and our destiny.

It's always intrigued me that amidst the group called slaves there were individuals who were extremely able, who were extremely colorful, who were powerful personalities, who by no means fit the usual images of slaves. They were people who, through their personalities and abilities, were very respected in the community where they lived by both black and white.

In my writing, as much as I could, I tried to find the good, and praise it.