The hardest work in the world is being out of work.

No race has a monopoly on vice or virtue, and the worth of an individual is not related to the color of his skin.

Black is beautiful when it is a slum kid studying to enter college, when it is a man learning new skills for a new job. . . .

Black Power simply means: Look at me, I'm here. I have dignity. I have pride. I have roots. I insist, I demand that I participate in those decisions that affect my life and the lives of my children. It means that I am somebody.

You don’t get black power by chanting it. You get it by doing what the other groups have done. The Irish kept quiet. They didn’t shout “Irish Power”, “Jew Power”, [or] “Italian Power”. They kept their mouths shut and took over the police department of New York City, and the mayorship of Boston.

The hardest work in the world is being out of work.

I am not anxious to be the loudest voice or the most popular. But I would like to think that at a crucial moment, I was an effective voice of the voiceless, an effective hope of the hopeless.