li mm o st blackAmericanscontinuedtobe less well
placedin lifethanw hiteA mericans. I n th elate 1 9HOs
blackunemployment was still higherthanwhite
unem ploy men t.T h ea\Tragein comesofblack
Americanswerest illlo w er th an tho seofw hites .So
weret heirstand ar dsofhealth and educ ation. Even
so,th ei rpositionhadimpro vedgreatly sincethe
ItJ6Us. Largep art so fMartin Lut her Kin g's1% 3
" d ream " hadcometrue. Blacks andwhite sstudied
sideby sideinschoolsandco lleges.Theyworked
side by sidemallkind s ofoccu pa t io n s.In creasing
numberslivedsideby sidein th e samedistricts.As
Kin g had dreamed.peopleseemedtobe learn ingto
Judgeeachothermoreb y thecontentofthei r
character sthanby the coloroftheir sk ins.
(r(~hlljes,<'j.,cb"""'"IO"'J[i".~lliJ,,,udidoUr f ortilc/ 988 I'r"sid,."I' ,1!
,·INI'''''.Blackis beautiful
Inthe1960s black America nsbegantakingnew
p ride in their African ancestry.Itb ecamefashion-
abletotakeAfricannames,to wear lo ngAfrican
robesand shor tAfricanjackets called"dash cks."
Bus hyAfricanhairsrv lcsbecame th e fashionfor
black America and wereeven ad op ted b ywhite
youngsters. Before longth e m ostfreq uentlyseen
andheardslo g an inAmerica wasthethreewords:
"Black is beaut if ul."T ileD""uThca/ITofH ,, /em.27 l h. A C KA.~IERICANSButblackpride andracialawarenessshoweditself
inmorethandress andappearance. Scho olswere
set uptoreachblackchildren th e histo ry, languages
and custo m so fth eirAfncanances to rs.Oneofthe
moststrikingventures was aballet schoo l f ounded
b ya young dancer nam ed Arrhur Mitch ell. In
M it chell 'sschool, youn gs tersfromthe stree tsof
N ew. York 's Harl emlearnedto crea tenewand
excitingdance swh i chcombin ed thetech niq ueso f
classica l Euro pean ballet withthebeatofAfrican
drums. With in a few years they had become
internation ally famous as th eDanceTheater of
H arlem, playingtofulltheatersallover theworld.
ArthurMitch ell wasa d ancer, no t a p olit ician. His
ways oftryin g to impro ve the p ositi on o f his
fellowblack s werevery different fro m Martin
LutherKing 's.YetIus und erl yin g view of peo ple,
oftheirh o pes and needs,wasnot sodifferent."I
usedtobefu llofan ger."M it chell tolda reporter
w henth e D an ceTheater of Harlcmvisited London
in 1976 , "butnot any more. Screa ms and yells
don'tgetyouanywhere. I d isco veredthatblacko r
white, g reen or purple, all kids arc the same.
Peoplearcth e same. Idon' t thinkofmyselfas a
blackm an,first and foremos t.I'mjustamanw ho
happensto beblack ."115