Nor had America got over it, despite the march from Selma, in which Mr Franklin led a posse of historians, and Brown v Board of Education, where he lent his scholarship to help prove that the Framers had not meant to impose segregation on the public schools. The “colour line”, as he called it, remained “the most tragic and persistent social problem” the country faced. His own many black firsts—president of the American Historical Association and the Southern Historical Association, membership of Washington’s Cosmos Club—had not necessarily opened the door to others. The night before he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1995, a woman at the Cosmos Club asked him to fetch her coat. He was overjoyed by Barack Obama’s election, but could not forget the poor, immobile blacks revealed by Hurricane Katrina.
美利坚也难“恢复”过来。虽然富氏曾领导一群志同道合的同行参加了始于塞尔玛的游行示威，也不管“布朗诉教育委员会案”（Brown v Board of Education）取得多么辉煌的成果（此案中的他才学并用，力证国家的宪法制定者并非要对公共学校施加“种族隔离”），似乎她都难以释怀。如他所言，那道“肤色分界线”仍是横亘在这个国家面前的“一个最可悲也最顽固的社会问题”。反观富氏自身，所取得的空前成就包括：曾任美国历史协会与南方历史学会的会长，亦是华盛顿科斯莫俱乐部（Cosmos Club）的会员。而这些显赫之位此前根本就没必要对他人开放。1995年，他获得“总统自由勋章”。之前的那晚，科斯莫俱乐部的一名女子还冲他一阵吆喝，命他去取她的外套。奥巴马成功当选总统几乎让他喜极而泣，但卡特里娜飓风席卷下的那些仓皇四顾、穷途末路的黑人同胞却在脑海中始终挥之不去。
He yearned to improve things, but wondered how. Financial reparations he was doubtful about; apologies seemed trifling. Only time, in historical quantities, seemed likely to make a difference. For some months he was chairman of Bill Clinton’s Initiative on Race, a disorganised effort that ended by recommending “community co-operation”. Hostile letters poured in, mostly from people who did not think the subject worth talking about. Mr Franklin took them in his stride. He would go and work on his next book, or retire to the greenhouse, implements in hand; and practise patience.
他渴求改良，却又叹无良策。财政赔款令其疑虑重重，而道歉，仿佛也并不重要。或许惟有时间才能在历史的长河中透出关键的光亮来。富氏担任“克林顿种族方案”主席期间（任期仅数月），因举荐“社区合作互助”计划，致使本就缺乏条理的克氏方案最终流产。威胁信随即纷至沓来（大多出自于那些认为该话题不值一提的人们），富氏却处之泰然。他会继续去写他的下一本书，间或溜进他那安静的花房，手执修剪，修行“耐心”二字。