All over Harlem, Negro boys and girls are growing into stunted maturity, trying desperately to find a place to stand; and the wonder is not that so many are ruined but that so many survive.
ATTRIBUTION:
James Baldwin (1924–1987), U.S. author. repr. in Notes of a Native Son, pt. 2 (1955). “The Harlem Ghetto,” Commentary (New York, Feb. 1948).
