Contrary to modern-day assumptions, for much of the history of the United States — from the Draft Riots of the 1860s to the violence over desegregati… - Isabel Wilkerson

In Germany, restitution has rightly been paid, and continues to be paid, to survivors of the Holocaust. In America, it was the slaveholders who got restitution, not the people whose lives and wages were stolen from them for twelve generations.

Our era calls for a public accounting of what caste has cost us, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, so that every American can know the full history of our country, wrenching though it may be. The persistence of caste and race hostility, and the defensiveness about anti-black sentiment in particular, make it literally unspeakable to many in the dominant caste. You cannot solve anything that you do not admit exists, which could be why some people may not want to talk about it: it might get solved.

One county in Virginia — Prince Edward County — closed its entire school system for five years, from 1959 to 1964, rather than integrate.