Obviously these conditions [violence, poverty] predate the [Barack] Obama presidency and the president has limited ways to dent this violence. But funding war weapons in cities, as opposed to more community policing, is not the solution.

The voter problems and voter suppression, in some ways they're the same thing, but in some ways they're not, because the suppression is evil.

I don't regret my votes for President Obama by any stretch of the imagination.

Do you really think I'm going to go on record telling you the craziest thing I've ever done. There's a reel in my brain, and I think I'll keep it there. No regrets, though.

People will be talking about the [Barack] Obama legacy for decades, and I wanted to include my voice in the analysis of this presidency.

This is a column collection, or as one colleague called it, "history in real time," recounting my perspective on the highs and lows of this presidency from an African-American perspective. More than simply a column collection, the book has a substantial introduction that frames the [Barack] Obama presidency, explores the way Obama was treated by the political establishment and also how this first black president treated "his" people. In the epilogue, I use numbers to tell the story of African-American gains and losses during this presidency.

North Carolina is a fascinating state, because you've got these urban areas. You've got the Piedmont Triangle - Greensboro, Winston-Salem and High Point.