Racial Imagination and the American Dream av Charles P. (University of California at Berkeley USA) Henry

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Although the phrase "the American Dream" dates from the 1930s, the concept or idea of the American Dream is as old as the country. The values proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence and reaffirmed (and extended) in the Gettysburg Address have been continuously promoted by every American president. Moreover, they form the basis of our national collective narrative as expressed through both elite and popular culture. The American Dream is intrinsically tied to the American Creed and American Exceptionalism. It is the foundation of our national identity, the glue that holds together our individual aspirations. Yet until the mid-twentieth century, the American Dream excluded African Americans. We as a nation¿as an imagined community¿could not imagine an integrated, multiracial society with Blacks and Whites living together as equals. <P>By examining the lives of the only three African American Nobel Peace Prize winners, we can see how their lives were shaped by the American Dream, an