IN HIS SEMINAL treatise on blacks in the United States, W. E. B. Du Bois pondered a question that still confounds this country and particularly the black community. He asked if blacks could be accepted as Americans while still maintaining the culture and identity of Africa. Du Bois argued that such "twoness" would present a monumental challenge to blacks in the twentieth century.1 Certainly, other immigrants have faced similar challenges, but none faced the daunting task of overcoming the legacy of slavery.