Ethical example of Civil War ex-slaves for today.

Deanna, this is a first-class synthesis and analysis of West, Borgman, and Palmer.  To this, your humble servant adds wisdom from Confucius.  He taught that if we are in a mess about what to do, we need to stop and take time to reflect on our heritage, what those who have gone before us have done.  Their example will, can set the agenda for action today for tomorrow.  In the case of black Americans, consider how the slaves immediately opened schools after the Union Army set them free!  Slave masters did not allow blacks to learn.  When they had the chance they took it, good and hard!  Historians tell us they even opened schools behind the Union army battle lines as they hid from their former slave masters.  Apply the same logic to black marriage, which slavery outlawed.  With freedom from slavery, the now-free blacks embraced the institution of marriage good and hard.  I admire these examples from history, as an American, for in a sense they are part of the American heritage for all of us. But in this case, black Americans need to learn from their ancestors.  They know what to tell the present, and it would be value school and marriage for starters.  Moreover, I doubt these ex-slaves if they could come back today would have much patience with their descendants for abusing opportunities that when they lived they had not access.  Dr. Rux