When dozens of African nations gained their independence in the early 1960s, their diplomats arrived in the United States to present their credentials and assume their posts. But just south of the Mason-Dixon line in northern Maryland, many of them soon met the ugly side of America — they were routinely refused service in hotels and highway diners because of their race. When a journalist asked one proprietor why an African dignitary was treated so poorly, she responded, “He looked like just an ordinary run of the mill n—– to me. I couldn’t tell he was an ambassador.”