When the author recalls the long gallery of persons whom, in the course of this inquiry, he has come to know with the impetuous but temporary intimacy of the stranger — sharecroppers and
plantation owners,
workers and employers, merchants and bankers, intellectuals, preachers, organization leaders, political bosses, gangsters, black and
white, men and women, young and old, Southerners and Northerners — the general observation retained is the following: Behind all outward dissimilarities, behind their contradictory valuations, rationalizations, vested interests, group allegiances and animosities, behind fears and defense constructions, behind the role they play in life and the mask they wear, people are all much alike on a fundamental level And they are all good people.