The black population now consists of two distinct classes-the middle class and the poor.

I was born and raised in the oldest settled part of the nation and in an environment in which racism was officially mooted.

I grew up in a house where nobody had to tell me to go to school every day and do my homework.

The women's rights movement of the 1970s had not yet emerged; except for Bella Abzug, I had no women supporters.

Today's white majority is largely silent about the race question.

How long must the American community afford special treatment to blacks?

We Americans entered a new phase in our history - the era of integration - in 1954.