The black revolt of the 1950s and 1960s-North and South-came as a surprise. But perhaps it should not have. The memory of oppressed people is one thing that cannot be taken away, and for such people, with such memories, revolt is always an inch below the surface. For blacks in the United States, there was the memory of slavery, and after that of segregation, lynching, humiliation. And it was not just a memory but a living presence-part of the daily lives of blacks in generation after generation.
In the 1930s, Langston Hughes wrote a poem, "Lenox Avenue Mural":
As the twentieth century progressed, frustrations from blacks and fear from whites mixed together to cause the taught racial tension of the country. these tension often exploded in the form of riots especially as the fight for Civil Rights became a more pressing matter.
In this chapter, Zinn goes through the cause, effects and feelings of America at the time of racial revolution.