The legacies that parents and church and teachers left to my generation of Black children were priceless but not material: a living faith reflected in daily service, the discipline of hard work and stick-to-itiveness, and a capacity to struggle in the face of adversity.

Children don't vote but adults who do must stand up and vote for them.

[Martin Luther ] King didn't pick his leadership position. Most movements are not started by single people.

I'd like to transform the system in very fundamental ways, but you've got to do that in every way that you can. You can't wait for some magic bullet or some magic politician or some magic anything to have that happen. You got to get out there and use your vote.

The Declaration of Independence was always our vision of who we wanted to be, our ideal of freedom and justice, how we were going to be different, and what the American experiment was going to be about.

You'd better stay determined, because that's how our ancestors got us where we are.

I have always believed that I could help change the world, because I have been lucky to have adults around me who did.