1960s: In the early 1960s, Black Muslim leader Malcolm X breaks away from the Nation of Islam and begins to gain a following of his own, somewhat softening his previously hard stance against whites. In the mid-1960s, after Malcolm X's assassination, Baraka begins to shift his political affiliation away from white liberalism toward black nationalism.

Today: A controversy erupts over the ownership of Malcolm X's papers. His family is able to prevent the auction of his personal writings, at least temporarily. Baraka now considers himself a "Third World Socialist."

1960s: Four young black girls are murdered when a church is re-bombed in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963.

Today: An average of fifteen to twenty churches suffer arson attacks each month in the United States. A majority of these are either predominantly black or multiracial churches.

1960s: In the 1960s, Greenwich Village is a center for avant-garde...