Our history has never been told completely and truthfully. The whole truth of how these people were treated cannot be found in historical archives. Historians will touch on a few of the atrocities and quickly move on to other areas in history to redirect the mind. African American and other youth must be continually reminded of the harsh treatment slaves went through in this country. People of all races need to know that a very large amount of time was spent finding ways to keep the African American ignorant, uneducated, and economically depressed.
As you read through this book, you will find areas where the author has stressed his ideas and thoughts, and then you will find quotations from others inserted throughout these pages.
There were many outstanding things that African Americans have accomplished throughout our history here in the United States. Again, most of those accomplishments were never charted. The African American’s full potential will never be realized in the lifetime of those of us living today. Materials today, however, are unfortunately difficult to find. Little effort has been made to preserve the records of the Negro’s efforts, speeches, actions, work, wages, homes, and family functions. Nearly all has gone down beneath a mass of ridicule and caricature, deliberate omission, and misstatement. The loss is irreparable, and this research finds it impossible to find a complete picture. Only the tip of the iceberg is available. No one seems to want to tell the youth of today how bad it really was.
This book provides an excellent collection of government laws that has been enacted since slavery to protect white culture, white privilege and white access to economic opportunities in America while denying Black Americans the same opportunities to that American dream of equality for all Americans that the constitution and Bill of Rights promise.
Norward J. Brooks, Ph.D Higher Education Administration, University of Washington
African American people need to develop such documents in order to preserve the history of our suffering, allowing us to document the ways in which this nation has abused us. But of course, we were not only victims. We resisted our victimization and so documents of this sort must also include an enumeration of our attempts to resist our victimization. We must not, indeed, we dare not, forget our history for it is part and parcel of who we are today. Mr. Harold Wright, the author of Pain Inflicted By A Nation, is making a significant contribution to this effort.
Albert W. Black, Ph.D Sociology, University of California, Berkeley