When blacks are unemployed, they are considered lazy and apathetic. When whites are unemployed, it's considered a depression.

So much talent comes from the base of poverty and those in the margins. You limit the base, you miss too much talent.

If the states had to vote on slavery, we would have lost the vote.

From seeds of his body blossomed the flower that liberated a people and touched the soul of a nation.

It does not stand to give banks millions of dollars at an interest rate of one percent, when banks charge students an interest rate of 6 percent. Why should the banks be scalping students?

The fact is in a city like Chicago, for example, unemployment in the black community is around 20 percent for adults, 35 percent for youth, they bail out the banks, public schools, there is a deep divide. We need a plan for reconstruction and redevelopment and I hope that - police are the gatekeepers but behind that gate are these problems of disparities and injustice.

Hold your head high, stick your chest out. You can make it. It gets dark sometimes, but morning comes. Keep hope alive.