Blacks could not eat in the same restaurants, use the same restrooms or be treated in the same hospital wards. Newlyweds Colin and Alma Powell, traveling through Virginia in 1962, had to pull off the road and relieve themselves in the woods rather than risk asking for service at a filling station where blacks were not allowed. Racism was a form of madness, a pathological hatred and cruelty that took its most despicable form in outright murder. From that grim history, we have made unbelievable strides. The most popular American leader today is Colin Powell.
Human history is shot through with cruelty and injustice.
The American history of racism is not as surprising as our national recovery from it. Mona Charen writes a syndicated column.