The arc of American history almost inevitably moves toward freedom. Whether it's Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation the expansion of women's rights or now gay rights I think there is an almost-inevitable march toward greater civil liberties.
Until justice is blind to color until education is unaware of race until opportunity is unconcerned with the color of men's skins emancipation will be a proclamation but not a fact.
The reason is that till date in spite of advances in information technology and strategies of information the written word in the form of books still remains one of humanity's most enduring legacies.