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

Having personally watched the Voting Rights Act being signed into law that August day, I can't begin to imagine how we could have all been so wrong in believing that more Americans would vote once they were all truly free to do so.

We were trying to transform America, not triumph over white folk.

We think it is complicated to change the world. Change comes little by little. Nothing worthwhile can happen in one generation.

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.

I always quoted to my parents from Kahlil Gibran, "The Prophet." Your children are not your children. They come through you, but not from you. You can give them your love, but not your thoughts, for they come from a land that you cannot enter, not even in your wildest dreams.

Wishing of all strategies, is the worst.