Dr. Buckner's conversation lead in ever widening circles, away from the
topic under discussion when the events of his own life were discussed,
but he is a fluent speaker and a student of psychology. Psychology as
that philosophy relates to the mental and bodily tendencies of the
African race has long since become one of the major subjects with which
this unusual man struggles. "Why is the negro?" is one of his deepest
concerns.

Dr. Buckner's first recollections center within a slave cabin in
Kentucky. The cabin was the home of his step-father, his invalid mother
and several children. The cabin was of the crudest construction, its
only windows being merely holes in the cabin wall with crude bark
shutters arranged to keep out snow and rain. The furnishings of this
home consisted of a wood bedstead upon which a rough straw bed and
patchwork quilts provided meager comforts for the invalid mother. A
straw bed that could be pushed under the bed-stead through the day was
pulled into the middle of the cabin at night and the wearied children
were put to bed by the impatient step-father.

The parents were slaves and served a master not wealthy enough to
provide adaquately for their comforts. The mother had become invalidate
through the task of bearing children each year and being deprived of
medical and surgical attention.

The master, Mr. Buckner, along with several of his relatives had
purchased a large tract of land in Green County, Kentucky and by a
custom or tradition as Dr. Buckner remembers; land owners that owned no
slaves were considered "Po' White Trash" and were scarcely recognized as
citizens within the state of Kentucky.