The whole future of America's black community is at risk. One out of every three young black men in Washington, D.C., is under one arm or the other of the criminal justice system. These are the continuing consequences of slavery.

Where does a black soul go to rest?

I wanted to write and think. Activism is a displacing kind of passion.

Bush people didn't like him, and they never liked him. They didn't like him because they don't like democracy. They like you to have an election, but they like you to elect the people they want you to elect.

I was really worn down by an American society that is racist, smugly blind to it, and hugely self-satisfied.

For anyone who is not white in America, the affronts are virtually across the board.

I never met a white person till I was a grown man. I never went to school with a white till I was twenty-six years old, at Harvard Law School. The insult of segregation was searing and unforgettable. It has left a great scar, and will be with me for the rest of my life.