In a brilliant essay called “Rediscovering Black History,” she tells a story about racist statuary and the NAACP. The civil-rights organization had booked a hotel for a convention on the condition that two statuettes of Black jockeys be removed from the lobby. “The hotel management reluctantly agreed,” Morrison reports, “but before the statuettes could be temporarily removed, they were draped with sheets.” Morrison’s reaction to the incident was, and still is, remarkable. She did not criticize the management; she chided the NAACP for forgoing the opportunity to honor a little-known instance of Black accomplishment. Never mind that the statuettes were meant to be demeaning. Better to mine an artifact for history than conceal it for fear of white contempt: