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Kenneth ClarkKenneth Clark
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Session:         Page of 763

myself,... ‘63, ‘64, something like that-- the HARYOU document came out. Let me see the date-- 1964. That's interesting, it came out a couple of months before the Harlem riot, the grand-daddy of all of those riots that led to the cliche term “long hot summer.” “I can't help thinking that there might be some sort of ominous cause and effect relationship between our document and the riots. It's just paranoid.

But anyway, the HARYOU experience, the conflict with Adam, the disillusionment with the people who were associated with me, and, as I pointed out to you, all except Ray Jones, you know, scurrying to where they thought the power was, made me write in my own mind an epilogue to YOUTH IN THE GHETTO, which had as its main theme: “This is no place for you.” “You know? “You're too damned naive, and while you grew up in Harlem, and thought you understood it, you didn't understand this dimension of Harlem sufficiently to survive in it. So get the hell out..”

But where do you go, when you arrive at that opinion?

Well, there's academia, you know. Not that I ever left academia, but the fact is, I thought that I would retreat, literally retreat into academia, and close it over -- you know what I mean, get the protective covering. I thought I was going to -- I knew I was going to write the book DARK GHETTO, which came out of YOUTH IN THE GHETTO, but went beyond that. And what that ghetto was going to be was my rationalization for retreat.

From that point on, I would indulge myself in





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