America is the only country in the world that classifies as Negro any person who has one drop of African blood in his or her veins.

In elective politics, it's up or out. You go up the ladder, or you get out of the game.

Election victories are a harvest. You plant the seed. For months or years, you water and tend them. In the election season, you reap the harvest.

I deplored a system that made it more profitable not to work than to work. I wanted to help change all that.

I spent many years working for voting rights, but we still see sophisticated efforts, led by white officials, to disenfranchise black voters in local and national elections.

Politics is not a tea party. When it is time to act, you have to move fast and decisively.

My parents taught me that racial prejudice is a sin, one that robs the world of great minds and talents.