The death penalty symbolizes whom we fear and don't fear, whom we care about and whose lives are not valid.

I talk about my grandmother a lot, because she's an amazing person - not in some dramatic, distinct, unique way, but anybody who is the daughter of enslaved people and who has found a way to be hopeful and create love and value justice and seek peace is a remarkable person.

Whenever society begins to create policies and laws rooted in fear and anger, there will be abuse and injustice.

The greatest evil of American slavery was not involuntary servitude but rather the narrative of racial differences we created to legitimate slavery. Because we never dealt with that evil, I don't think slavery ended in 1865, it just evolved.

Lynching is an important aspect of racial history and racial inequality in America, because it was visible, it was so public, it was so dramatic, and it was so violent.

We all have a responsibility to create a just society

Are you the sum total of your worst acts?