toni morrison read a wonderful essay in 1993 that said on the backs of blacks. this is a noble prize-winning novelist of coors coolers are affected on the history of african-americans. why is it that immigrants are able to assimilate into mainstream america all blacks remain the permanent alien other? that is the question that drives this book. we talk with neil foley. the university of texas about his book quest for quality, dear this is your third book? >> guest: second book. latino u.s.a. in the remaking of america. that will be coming out in 20 for team with harvard university press. >> host: who were the least past and envelopment does? >> guest: that's an interesting case. it's only now being given the attention it deserves because most americans are familiar with brown v. board of education with very few students of law professors who are familiar with mendez versus westminster. this is a case in which gonzalez mendez and his family, where their children were denied at the way the school. >> guest: even naturalized immigrant. and they were denied entrance

ultimately changing 20th-centurd culture as we know it in literature.ents toni morrison who is parentsama migrated from alabama to ohio. have they made the decision to not do that she would have been raised in a world in which sheao was actually against the law for african-americans to go into a i library and take a library carde the kind of need to be able to get a library book allen then i you're going to become a nobel laureate.h people such as richard wright end marine hansberry, almost all of their works were devoted. if you think what the content of deeir work, devoted to to un understanding this migration and grat the impact that it had on the country in on themselves to read it fed the whole world of art wt and culture that we know of u.ss 20th-century culture butcentur actually is the culture and art this gre out of the great migratioatn.all of t all of the word pro merrily, if thoscan recall all of those individuale s, the manifestatiot of the great migration. 20th-century african-americans,s and that is american culture, it's hard to separate from themt culture ioof the great m

toni morrison whose parents migrated from alabama to ohio. had they made the decision to not do that, she would have been raised in a world in which it was actually against the law for african-americans to go into a library and take out a library book. and you kind of need to be able to get a library book now and then if you're going to become a nobel laureate. people such as richard wright and august wilson, lorraine hasn't bury. almost all of their work was devoted to if you think about the content of their work, was devoted to understanding this migration and the impact that it had had on the country and on themselves. it said a whole -- it fed a whole world of art and culture that we now view as 20th century culture, but actually is the culture and art that grew out of this great migration. all of the works primarily of bearden and of jacob lawrence, if you can recall all of those -- are manifestations of the great migration. 20th century african-american, and that's american culture, is hard to separate from the culture of the great migr

. >> dreams in english, and that language is the language of shakespeare and milton and toni morrison. >> the only figures who had more things written about him than lincoln r jesus, shakespeare and napoleon. >> when he mentioned lincoln, it brings back memories of how he used to read shakespeare when he was very young. did you ever study that part of lincoln? >> i didn't, but it doesn't surprise me because the fashioning of eloquence, first of all n the 19th century was bound up with reading shakespeare and still, no better way of crafting your mastery of the language, i think. of shakespeare. >> why was that? >> because he was the best. because he had the most astonishing, creative mastery of his medium. of anyone in our language. and he was unrivaled in his own time and unrivaled now. >> what makes him the best? >> he had astonishing natural gifts, that is to say there are things that are difficult to explain other than they must have been genetic action, a fantastic alertness to language and then he found a way of deepening and deepening his experience and understanding until he c