“I was lucky to find a teacher, a guide — Rabbi Joseph Singer, 62, born in Poland to a family of rabbis, the 10th-generation descendent of Gershon Kitover, who was the brother-in-law of Baal Shem Tov, founder of the hasidic movement.”
“The battle in Kanawha is a cultural revolution, in the strictest sense of the term: an effort by the rural working class to wrest schools — the means of production of their children — away from the permissive technocrats who now control them.”
“Most members of the American left have become revolutionaries because they see no other alternative — they still want to save the country, not to destroy it”
“By 3 a.m. Tuesday the liberals had been routed at the convention, the kids had been repulsed on the street ... Almost every noise was martial: fire sirens, the squawking of radios, cop cars racing, the idle chatter of police on duty”
“Tom, who now lives in the Bronx, was raised on a plantation in the Delta. Emmett Till was one of his best friends. Indeed, he was with Till until about 7 p.m. on the horrible, legendary 1955 night when Till was murdered allegedly for whistling at a white woman”
“Despite the presence of some modern stores on Mott Street — banks, insurance companies, gift shops, a pinball parlor — it still seems to exist outside of New York City.”