What about equality? Wanting to be equal within the white value structure?
JB: "'Why in the world... What makes you think I want to be accepted...'"
LH: "'... into this?'"
JB: "'... into this?'"
LH: "'Make something else.'"
JB: "'Make something else. We have to remake this house.'"
LH: "'Yes. And quickly!'"
JB: "'And very quickly!'"
"The Negro in American Culture," Interview, 1961
What was it like when the two lived, worked? Existed as as comrades, dear friends? Look at them in one or the other's apartment, in Chicago or in Paris. The two warriors. Lorraine is in the foreground, arms outstretched. She's snapped her fingers, and her neck is turned to her left; but she's not quite facing James, who, behind her, arms stretched out, too, seems to follow her moves. He's snapping his right fingers to the beat of music playing on the record player or on a radio, out of view.
The warriors dancing in defiance.
And she is certainly out front.
Sweet Lorraine.
"That's the way I always felt about her, and so I won't apologize for calling her that now."
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