I still hear people say that I should not be talking about the rights of lesbian and gay people, and I should stick to the issue of racial justice.

Nelson Mandela sat in a South African prison for 27 years. He was nonviolent. He negotiated his way out of jail. His honor and suffering of 27 years in a South African prison is really ultimately what brought about the freedom of South Africa. That is nonviolence.

Isn't it strange how the leaders of nations can talk so eloquently about peace while they prepare for war? ... There is no way to make peace while preparing for war.

As an African American child growing up in the segregated South, I was told, one way or another, almost every day of my life, that I wasn't as good as a white child.

An evil deed is not redeemed by an evil deed in retaliation.

Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated.

Struggle is a never ending process. Freedom is never really won, you earn it and win it in every generation.