Classifications and distinctions based on race or color have no moral or legal validity in our society. They are contrary to our constitution and laws.

The First Amendment serves not only the needs of the polity but also those of the human spirit - a spirit that demands self-expression .

Our Constitution is the envy of the world, as it should be for it is the grand design of the finest nation on earth.

To the contrary, the government they devised was defective from the start, requiring several amendments, a civil war and momentous social transformation to attain the system of constitutional government, and its respect for the individual freedoms and human rights, we hold as fundamental today.

A child born to a Black mother in a state like Mississippi... has exactly the same rights as a white baby born to the wealthiest person in the United States. It's not true, but I challenge anyone to say it is not a goal worth working for.

Equal means getting the same thing, at the same time and in the same place.

None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps.