We began to connect literacy and learning and the lively effects of biblical knowledge and preaching pretty early. That was a tremendous impact.

America certainly has made extraordinary progress. The collective unconscious of the nation has certainly shifted as a result of the civil rights movement and the developments in the '70s and '80s. We have witnessed a great expansion of the black middle class.

My ambition didn't grow out of nowhere. It was planted in me by a community that nurtured me.

I hope [white brothers and sisters] read this book [Tears we cannot stop] and engage with it, but other white people have a better chance of speaking more directly to the white folk they know, because they're less likely to be subject to ridicule. They're insiders, so to speak.

Tony Morrison said, 'Can't I love what I criticize, criticize what I love.'

I think it's extremely important to challenge white brothers and sisters and think more systematically and strategically about the whiteness that they possess.

I went to a segregated school; I was born a Negro, not a black man.