This book has been many years in the making. My academic interest in racism and racial equality dates from graduate school at Vanderbilt University, where I minored in Afro-American studies (as we called it then) at neighboring Fisk University while working on my Ph.D. in philosophy. After completing my Ph.D., I also did an M.A. degree in sociology, writing a thesis on racial integration of higher education. I later taught for nearly a decade at historically black Tennessee State University in Nashville.

Faculty and students at Tennessee State worked in appalling conditions, often overcoming obstacles that nobody should have to put up with, while a few miles away predominantly white Middle Tennessee State University enjoyed far better facilities. In an attempt to redress this injustice and eliminate de facto segregation, another faculty member and I decided to organize a biracial group of faculty and students in order to go to Federal Court. Our suit accused the State of Tennessee of violating the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution through its failure to desegregate its educational system and for its neglect of Tennessee State University. We eventually agreed to accept a settlement offer that brought new programs and millions of dollars to improve Tennessee State University as well as a new Desegregation Plan for the state's entire system of higher education. I decided to write a book about racial equality during those years, and I have worked on it intermittently ever since.