“If, as is quite possible, America refuses to deal with the social evils that persist in the sixties, it will at the same time have turned its back on the racial minorities. There will be speeches on equality; there will be gains as the nation moves toward a constitutional definition of itself as egalitarian. The Negro will watch all this from a world of double poverty. He will continue to know himself as a member of a race-class condemned by heredity to be poor.”

— Michael Harrington, book The Other America

Source: The Other America (1962), p.81

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Michael Harrington17

American political writer 1928–1989

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Michael Harrington17

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