You must be able to put yourself as nearly as possible into the place of the other fellow in order that you may be able to see his point.

I'm absolutely convinced that our nation or the world

will never rise to full maturity

until somehow we can get rid of the long night of man's inhumanity

to man, until we can get rid of racial injustice.

The Negro artist, the Negro writer in particular does have a particular vantage point, which is a little different from the white writer.

We have the peculiar stance of being within and without. We're never really quite into the mainstream.

Yet we are obviously entirely completely American. And It's notes from America. I'm Kay Wright. Welcome to the show.

It's notes from America. I'm Kay Wright.

Welcome to the show. You probably recognize some of the

voices you just heard. You almost certainly recognize the people they belong to.

Giants of American history and specifically black Americans who spent their lives trying to make this

thing called the United States work out for them and we start by hearing those voices today because we're going to do something a little different and hopefully really fun.

So first off here's the context for today's show.

WNYC, New York Public Radio, which makes this show, it turns 100 years old this year.

And the station maintains this massive archive, and I must say kind of important audio archive that covers those

hundred years. So people here have been going through those audio archives as

we you know celebrate our birthday and they've come across a bunch of stuff that they thought

would be a particular interest to the Notes from America family. So one of our

editors she has lined up some of that audio to play for me and for you and a friend of this show and of this public radio station, Christina Greer.

Now, Christina is an associate professor of political Science at Fordham University,

author of a couple of books about the history of black politics

...