America

America in Shadow and Act is portrayed as a concept as much as it is a physical, geo-political reality; that concept being defined by certain, oft-quoted (here and elsewhere) aspects of its founding documents, its Constitution and Bill of Rights. The theory developed in both these documents is that America is to be a land in which "all men are created equal". The intention is that all men have the right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" with "justice for all". Shadow and Act's overall premise is founded on a contrary concept - that several segments of the population, and in the focus of the book, the Negro population in particular, are treated and/or viewed with narrow, restrictive, unequal perspective. It's the tension between the concept and the reality that, in the author's mind, define the core of the conflict between Negro and non-Negro...