Both races as human beings [have] the obligation, the responsibility, of helping to correct America's human problems . . . In our mutual sincerity we might be able to show a road to the salvation of America's very soul.
Malcolm X, shortly before his assassination, 1965
THE struggle between the races in America is indeed the struggle for the soul of a nation. Lately a lull seems to have descended on that struggle. Since Richard Nixon became President, he has deliberately muted the rhetoric of race. Until last week's pronouncement on school desegregation, he...