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into an informal small group of professors and fairly selected students, who met and talked, and at this stage, I was no longer arguing. My brashness was subdued by my awe and respect for these men, who were teaching not only their subject matter, but values. They were teaching the perspective of life and race. This was when I started really to become concerned with racial injustices in America, because these men were putting this in their relationship with you. I mean, I knew that there was a possibility that disciplined intelligence could be an instrument for racial justice, social and economic justice, because the talks which I would have with them, for the most part outside the classroom, drinking beer, in their homes, in the halls, you know -- it was ferment. I mean, intellectual and ideological ferment. And they remained my friends until they died, and those who have not, now are still my friends.

The other thing about Howard that changed my life is that I met my wife there. When I was a senior, you know, I saw this young woman, and the first time I saw her, I knew that she was going to be my wife and the mother of my children. It never occurred to me that that would be different or changed. That was 41 years ago, and I remember to this day, vividly, when I ran into her, and looked at her, and asked her her name and where she was from. I guess she was so shocked at someone being so brash a guy that she answered all these questions.

She said this isn't true, except that it's true in my mind -- that I made my first date with her just then, you know. I said, “Look, I want to take you to the next dance.”

She says, no, it wasn't quite that-- that I called or