In every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future. - Alex Haley

When you clench your fist, no one can put anything in your hand, nor can your hand pick up anything.

He wondered if she also knew how strange and sad he found it to hear her talking — as so many others did — about 'usn's',' and acting as if se owned the plantation she lived on instead of the other way around.

"I later heard somewhere, or read, that Malcolm X telephoned an apology to the reporter. But this was the kind of evidence which caused many close observers of the Malcolm X phenomenon to declare in absolute seriousness that he was the only Negro in America who could either start a race riot-or stop one. When I once quoted this to him, tacitly inviting his comment, he told me tartly, "I don't know if I could start one. I don't know if I'd want to stop one.