Freedom is a struggle, and we do it together. Not only together as black citizens, but black and white together.

When people ask where I studied to be an ambassador, I say my neighborhood and my school. I've tried to tell my kids that you don't wait until you're in high school or college to start dealing with problems of people being different. The younger you start, the better.

What we forget is that African Americans made the largest contribution to America, economically, before the Civil War of any sector of society. I read that the railroads were worth about $2 billion, but slavery was a $3 billion asset.

No one who's white thinks he's innocent. No one who's black thinks he's guilty.

My hope for my children must be that they respond to the still, small voice of God in their own hearts.

No nation as rich as ours should have so many people isolated on islands of poverty in such a sea of material wealth.

Some kind of affirmative action is important in a democracy and for economic competitiveness and national security. The Army was the first to realize that you had to have desegregation of a military to have it working properly.