ROBERT NICKELSBERG/GETTY IMAGES
‘STILL NOT FREE’
Community?, he depicted the life
of African Americans, especially
men, in a way that seems alarmingly current:
“Of the good things in life he
has approximately one half those
of whites,” King wrote, “of the
bad he has twice those of whites.
... When we turn to the negative
experiences of life, the Negro has
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a double share. There are twice
as many unemployed. The rate of
infant mortality (widely accepted
as an accurate index of general
health) among Negroes is double
that of whites.” And so on.
Such statistics remain all too
real to men such as Elijah Cummings, who sees them vividly in
his Baltimore district.
He told me that he has pressed
the president, whose campaign he
oversaw in Maryland in 2008 and
Baltimore
police officers
arrest a man
for allegedly
dealing drugs
in 2010.
A recent
NAACP study
says that
“one in three
black males
born today
can expect to
spend time in
prison during
his lifetime.”