One must learn how to be black in America.

We really invented the genre of tracing family trees and going back as far as we could on the paper trail. When the paper trail disappeared, we used DNA analysis. The technology was just being invented that allowed you to trace ancestry through DNA.

I didn't feel particularly close to my father.

Without doubt, President [Barack] Obama is a great historical figure.

Politicians will not put forth programs aimed at the problems of poor blacks while their turnout remains so low.

A more humane form of capitalism is about the best I think we can get. Which might sound very reformist or conservative, but that's basically where I am.

It turns out one of my ancestors fought in the Continental Army, so I was inducted into the Sons of the American Revolution.