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

Something which we think is impossible now is not impossible in another decade.

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

The women's rights movement of the 1970s had not yet emerged; except for Bella Abzug, I had no women supporters.

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

A Negro who does not vote is ungrateful to those who have already died in the fight for freedom. ... Any person who does not vote is failing to serve the cause of freedom - his own freedom, his people's freedom, and his country's freedom.

I was born and raised in the oldest settled part of the nation and in an environment in which racism was officially mooted.