We Had Sneakers, They Had Guns

So I want to talk about racism. I want to talk about Mississippi. I want to talk about events I observed that turned into history. I want to talk about black people who didn't know white people and white people who didn't know black people but who shared a season of time, a long, hot summer that some people now think of as mythic. But it wasn't mythic. Myths are populated by people who are bigger than life. I want to talk about people I met a long time ago in Mississippi who were not bigger than life, just more curious than some, more loving than some, more enlightened than some, more vulnerable than some, more lucky than some. I drew their pictures when they were younger and I was younger, and I wrote their stories in Stranger at the Gates more than forty years ago. I still want to talk about them. Those conversations were never finished. Those sketches were sketches, not a finished portrait. For me, Mississippi remains a remarkable work in progress." -from the Prologue Book jacket.