Shortly after the National Endowment for the Hu<br > inanities invited me to be the Jefferson Lecturer for<br > 1976 I decided to give the lecture in three parts in<br > three different cities onRacial Equality in Amer<br > icaThe lecture was set in a historical framework<br > and the first part dealt with the problem of racial<br > equality in Revolutionarv AmericaThomas Ieffer<br > sonas the author of the Declaration of Indepen<br > dence and of the highly significant Notes on Virginia<br > and a leading thinker on social and political prob<br > lemswas inevitably a central figure in any discus<br > sion of the subjectMy choice of subject required an<br > extensive examination of his racial viewsThat the<br > 1ectureship was named in his honor had no bearing<br > on my selection of a subject or on mv treatment of it<br > And the content of the lecture was not influenced by<br > the fact that it was the Tefferson LectureIt was the<br > lectureshipnot the content of the lecturethat hon<br > ored him<br > In this lectureI have addressed the problem of<br > racial equality as Americans have confronted that<br > problem since the seventeenth centuryI have been<br > concerned primarily with the equality of treatment<br > and of opportunityand I have given considerable<br >