By 1962, King had become, by the media's reckoning, the new civil rights leader.

When Thurgood Marshall became a lawyer, race relations in the United States were particularly bad.

In high school, I won a prize for an essay on tuberculosis. When I got through writing the essay, I was sure I had the disease.

Sexism, like racism, goes with us into the next century. I see class warfare as overshadowing both.

Lack of encouragement never deterred me. I was the kind of person who would not be put down.

How long must the American community afford special treatment to blacks?

In high school, I discovered myself. I was interested in race relations and the legal profession. I read about Lincoln and that he believed the law to be the most difficult of professions.