Walking with the Wind, John Lewis's memoir of the civil rights movement, details the efforts of pacifists, in the late 1950s and the 1960s, to integrate lunch counters, buses, and public restrooms, and to register blacks to vote. Every time they tried to claim the rights of full citizenship, these mostly young, freshly-scrubbed black people put life and limb on the line, as did those whites who later joined their ranks.
Now, segregation no longer delineates with bold brush strokes between black and white. It draws thin lines with a .5 pencil, subtly shading experience according to tradition, education, income, and opportunity. The effect? De facto segregation. Families live in areas where their neighbors are, for the most part, of their same race. Children attend schools where their peers are, for the most part, of their same race. People go to jobs where those with whom they work (though not necessarily those for whom they work) are, for the most part, of their same race. This is a far cry from the "Beloved Community" civil rights activists sought to establish.
