Ahead of the civil rights movement we see Einstein front and center at HBCU in the 1940s. He was scrutinized by his fellow peers for his participation to lecture black students but Einstein felt the most important motive for work in the school and in life is the pleasure in work, pleasure in its results and knowledge of the value of the result to the community. He was focused on the foundation which awakens and strengthens the physiological forces in the young man. Einstein did not see the color but wanted them to reach their highest potential – create and awakening a movement of thought.
During his visit, Einstein received an honorary degree and treated students to a lecture on relativity. Unfortunately, this historic moment was widely ignored by the mainstream press, who turned a blind eye to the physicist’s fraternizing with people of color. The progress of science presupposes the possibility of unrestricted communication of all results and judgments – freedom of expression and instruction in all realms of intellectual endeavors. By freedom I understand social conditions of such a kind that the expression of opinions and assertions about general and particular matters of knowledge will not involve dangers or serious disadvantages for him who expresses them. How do these men feel listening to Einstein? Do they understand they are in the presence of greatness? That they also have the opportunity to deploy down a path of freedoms. This freedom of communication is indispensable for development and extension of scientific knowledge , a consideration of much practical import. In the first instance it must be guaranteed by law. But laws alone cannot secure freedom of expression : in order that every man may present his views without penalty there must be a spirit of tolerance in the entire population. Such an ideal of external liberty can never be fully attained but must be sought unremittingly if scientific thought , and philosophical and creative thinking in general, are to be advanced as far as possible.