The challenge of social justice is to evoke a sense of community that we need to make our nation a better place, just as we make it a safer place.

So often we are depressed by what remains to be done and forget to be thankful for all that has been done.

Education remains one of the black community's most enduring values. It is sustained by the belief that freedom and education go hand in hand, that learning and training are essential to economic quality and independence.

Don't feel entitled to anything you didn't sweat and struggle for.

Ordinary women of grace are, in a sense, my real role models.

I also grew up with community co-parents who looked out for each other. They looked out for children and tried to be the hands of God. They tried to live their faith.

Luckily, I had incredible parents who, when they saw a problem, didn't say, "Why doesn't somebody do something?" They would say, "Why don't we do something?".