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.

If all I get is a little controversy for speaking the truth, if I did less, I would not be worth living.

I think we've made tremendous progress on racism. We've even made progress on war. We've made almost no progress on poverty.

I wasn't predicted to be anything. I just followed an inner spirit, and it put me in the right place and the right time. I didn't want to be the mayor of Atlanta. I didn't want to run for Congress. I didn't want to work for Martin Luther King Jr. I wanted to work close to him and be a writer and write about the movement.

I had to get a second passport in a hurry.

Affirmative action is an effort to include every aspect of society in the decision making.

I would define morality as enlightened self-interest...That old Platonic ideal that there are certain pure moral forms just isn't where we are.