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

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.

I grew up in a house where nobody had to tell me to go to school every day and do my homework.

All Southern state colleges and universities are open to black students.

There is no longer a single common impediment to blacks emerging in this society.

New Orleans may well have been the most liberal Deep South city in 1954 because of its large Creole population, the influence of the French, and its cosmopolitan atmosphere.

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