In reply to Are you Kidding Me?.

MLK said something like, "It's a cruel jest to tell the bootless man to 'pull himself up by his bootstraps'." Slavery, Jim Crow, redlining and the contemporary trumpian mindset keep many blacks 'bootless'.
Slavery existed in all 13 colonies; in Connecticut it wasn't abolished until 1844 then the state instituted its version of Jim Crow.