by Marcia Cantarella

About the author: Marcia Cantarella is an assistant dean at Princeton University.

Editor’s Note: This selection was originally delivered as a speech to the Fourth Universalist Society at the Fourth Universalist Church in New York, New York, on February 13, 2001.

In 1969 when my father, Whitney Young, wrote the book Beyond Racism Blacks in America had cause for optimism. We had seen passed some of the most historic civil rights legislation since the 14th Amendment nearly a hundred years earlier. Civil rights acts guaranteed voting rights, non-discrimination in housing, public accommodations and employment. Black was beautiful. Our leaders, including my father, graced the covers of Time and Newsweek. Even our urban rage, destructive though it was, reflected a self-affirming anger. We were mad as hell and not going to take it anymore. No more shuffling obsequies...