There are reasons all over the nation to realize that we have failed to seal the deal on the proposition that “all men are created equal.” This summer that began with cries for racial justice and erupted into riots ended on the same notes, and we wonder if any progress has really been made.

One hundred years ago, as told in an article in this week’s paper, the ancestors of present residents of Gloucester and Mathews counties felt the need for interracial conversation and solutions. We are unable to tell how or even if these committees went to work, but like the Founding Fathers before them, the local men on these committees put their names forward in favor of an idea that others probably did not agree with. They wanted to find ways for the races to understand each other.

A century later, while our society and laws have advanced in many ways, we have stayed the same in another: many, many Americans seem unable to imagine or understand the views of others with differing skin tones...