A Huey Long Kingfish in reverse. In 1992 David Shipler took off on a cross-country odyssey into black and white America. A lot of what he saw and heard out there in America nearly broke his heart. I found that many whites felt that history was not important to what shapes the present. African-Americans felt just the opposite.
Many whites get upset when blacks talk about the past.
Race has long befuddled American presidents. Lincoln grappled with race in word and deed, then paid a heavy price with a bullet lodged in his skull. Woodrow Wilson ignored race - although he once jauntily proclaimed the racist ''Birth of a Nation'' a joyous movie to watch. Theodore Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington, the former slave, to the White House. Blunt and cocky, Roosevelt couldn't imagine why the public was so aghast.