Excerpt from his Playboy interview in 1971 where he was talking about the current Civil Rights movement going on in America:

I believe in white supremacy until blacks are educated to a point of responsibility. I don't believe in giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people.... The academic community has developed certain tests that determine whether the blacks are sufficiently equipped scholastically.... I don't feel guilty about the fact that five or ten generations ago these people were slaves. Now I'm not condoning slavery. It's just a fact of life, like the kid who gets infantile paralysis and can't play football like the rest of us.

And when asked about how blacks can address the inequities of the past:

By going to school. I don't know why people insist that blacks have been forbidden to go to school. They were allowed in public schools wherever I've been. I think any black man who can compete with a white can get a better break than a white man. I wish they'd tell me where in the world they have it better than right here in America.

Opinions?

@RoosterCogburn: I'm no expert on the Duke, but keeping in mind that 1971 was not a politically correct time, the first quote sounds like a badly worded way of saying he didn't think people should be given breaks and opportunities simply because of their skin color. I think "I don't believe in giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people...." is more the heart of what he was saying, and I think he meant "irresponsible people" in general, not that "blacks = irresponsible people."

I think the second quote is absolutely true, but shows both an ignoring of history (not ignorance, but ignoring) and an ignoring of the way things went unsaid but understood. Education is the best way to balance the scales of opportunity between any peoples, but school integration was still a relatively new thing in 1971, and like any other change towards equality, took time to be properly enforced. Having integration on the books as a law is one thing, but getting prejudicial teachers to grade blacks in an equitable fashion is another. I was a child in the Seventies, but I don't think things really began to become equitable until the Eighties.

John Wayne was into politics when he died. I think he's probably a good example of one of those folks who was raised in a prejudicial atmosphere that passed for normal at the time, that had to reconcile that with other things he was taught. Keep in mind: white people aren't horrible ogres that live only for evil, like some comic villain. They have lofty notions of honor and right-and-wrong as well, and those were being taught at the same time they were living in their prejudices. I can't speak for John Wayne, but I can tell you from personal experience of the 70's & 80's, I had to reconcile those two extremes when I was growing up.

My grandfather was a hardworking business owner who liked his liquor and liked the "N" word. Before he owned a business, he was literally one of those bus drivers who said "All N's to the back." My dad grew up seeing that, but became a police officer. As a cop, he had to serve and protect all people - not just white people - so he had to change his worldview from what he had been shown by my grandfather. What I saw was that my dad looked at blacks with more suspicion than he did whites, but he was a fair-minded cop, and I can hardly ever remember hearing him drop the "N" word. From one generation to the next, that's significant change.

I grew up in an odd neighborhood, in a house that sat on the corner of a three way intersection. Down one way, the families were mostly white, with black families at the far end of that street. Down the other two directions, it was just about all black families, so I was thrust into a situation where I had to learn to get along, or learn to fight (I chose to get along). Meaning I had to change my worldview from what I had been shown by my father. Having come into my own during the 80's and 90's, I think I have a much more equitable view of things than my father and grandfather - my one holdback being that I probably use the term "black" as much as "African-American" (I use it more here, because that's what was used in the John Wayne quotes).

I think things in the USA are about as equitable as they are ever going to be. Hatred and prejudice will never be wiped out completely, until Judgment Day. And it's not a one-way street. Latinos, African-Americans and other ethnicities have just as much hatred and prejudice as whites, but it's hidden behind the labels of "righteous indignation" or "a right to be angry," rather than acknowledging it as "hatred" and "prejudice." After all, if we admit that we carry the same qualities that we criticize in others, we either have to stop complaining or change our own ways, and for many, that's hard to do.

I think that John Wayne came up in a time that wasn't concerned about being politically correct, but he had a good sense of right-and-wrong and a desire to be honorable, with which he filtered those prejudices. Those quotes wouldn't be tolerated by today's standards, but for 1971, they show a great stride towards change. He at least represented a white voice that was willing to talk about the issues in a public forum, and that's a positive step towards the changes that needed to be made.