He realizes at last that
silently, resistlessly, the world about flows by him in two
great streams: they ripple on in the same sunshine, they
approach and mingle their waters in seeming carelessness,
--then they divide and flow wide apart. It is done quietly; no
mistakes are made, or if one occurs, the swift arm of the law
and of public opinion swings down for a moment, as when
the other day a black man and a white woman were arrested
for talking together on Whitehall Street in Atlanta.
Now if one notices carefully one will see that between
these two worlds, despite much physical contact and daily
intermingling, there is almost no community of intellectual
life or point of transference where the thoughts and feelings
of one race can come into direct contact and sympathy with
the thoughts and feelings of the other. Before and directly
after the war, when all the best of the Negroes were domestic
servants in the best of the white families, there were bonds of
intimacy, affection, and sometimes blood relationship, be-
tween the races. They lived in the same home, shared in the
family life, often attended the same church, and talked and
conversed with each other.
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