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

My father kept his distance from working-class American blacks.

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

Living at the YMCA in Harlem dramatically broadened my view of the world.

My parents never told us that our great-grandmothers had been slaves.

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.

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