We African Americans have now spent the major part of the 20th Century battling racism

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.

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

Whites would rather not be involved in race matters, I think.

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.

We Americans entered a new phase in our history - the era of integration - in 1954.

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.