Malcolm X raised my consciousness about myself and my people and other people more than any person I know. I knew him before he became Malcolm X.

Nobody black or white who really believes in democracy can stand aside now; everybody's got to stand up and be counted.

Always be smarter than the people who hire you.

You have to be taught to be second class; you're not born that way. But the slanting process is so subtle that you frequently don't realize how you're being slanted until very late in the game.

It's ill-becoming for an old broad to sing about how bad she wants it. But occasionally we do.

I was lucky, as many of my generation was, in having a man like Dr. King in our lives. He came at a time that we needed to take a long look at each other and see how similar we were.

50 years old is like springtime to me.