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DR.
NATHAN
WRIGHT, JR.
compelling motive to press, not simply for control over their own im–
poverished turf, but for sllch changes as a radically new approach to
the distribution of employment and income whi ch mig-ht, for example,
set as its goal a situation in whi ch no Ameri can family earned less
than the median income (approximately $7,000 today ) . This would, of
course, be equally in the interests of the white poor, though few of
them now think in these terms.
Whether or not anything so wildly visionary has any political rele–
vance depends largely, of course, upon men and institutions upon which
neither Black Power spokesmen nor readers of
PR
have much influence.
But clarity of purpose on the part of angry blacks and their white
allies is surely of some value, and I suggest that mere self-determination
tl fa
the Irish model is a dangerously limited aim.
If
the prospects
for larger changes which would benefit the American poor, black and
white alike, are bleak, then the prospects for the Negro are bleak, and
we had best face the fa ct and do what we can to alter it.
Dr. Nathan Wright, Jr.
It is said that when the Emancipation Proclamation became
legally effective on January 1, 1863, large numbers of those who had
been enslaved went about their past routines of enslavement as though
nothing new had happened.
Some fonner slaves took days, others took weeks and months,
to become adjusted to the idea of freedom. The hope of freedom was
one thing. Entering into its realization was another.
The experience portrayed here speaks in some crucial respects to
our condition today. There are few in America who do not wish for
life's fulfillment for all in this our beloved land. To will that men might
have free access and encouragement toward becoming the best that
they might be is one thing. Doing our part to bring about those adjust–
ments in all of our human relationships which are necessary for free–
dom is another thing altogether.
Old ways, however sacred among our memories of the past and
however sanctified by the encrustations of tradition, clearly have brought
us to where we are today. Because we or our fathers have committed
ourselves to a particular course of action with good intent is never
