Each individual has a responsibility to get out of bed, learn their ABCs, learn your math tables, not use race and racism as an excuse.

In America there is institutional racism that we all inherit and participate in, like breathing the air in this room - and we have to become sensitive to it.

The story of the African-American people is the story of the settlement and growth of America itself, a universal tale that all people should experience.

The first step toward tolerance is respect and the first step toward respect is knowledge.

The thing about black history is that the truth is so much more complex than anything you could make up.

In Ethiopia, the black people became Christians 1700 years ago, hundreds of years before Northern Europe turned to Christianity... And here, most of the saints are black.

We can revolutionize the attitude of inner city brown and black kids to learning. We need a civil rights movement within the African-American community.

I want to be a figure for prison reform. I think that the criminal justice system is rotten.

Censorship is to art as lynching is to justice.

Wherever you go in the history of America, there have been Black people making contributions, but their contributions have been obscured, lost, buried.

Well, certainly one of the ironies of the success of affirmative action is that the middle class within the black community no longer lives within 'black community' by and large.

Sigh like the wind--open your arms, your chest, your heart--and all creatures will hum to you.

The man who sees an opportunity and does nothing is asleep with his eyes open.

Go ahead and believe in God , if you like, but don't imagine that you have been given any grounds for such a belief by science.

I take the definition and title of my job - Representative - seriously. Thats what I will be above and beyond everything else.

Beholding the bright countenance of truth in the quiet and still air of delightful studies.

The language of the law must not be foreign to the ears of those who are to obey it.

Christians aren't people who never sin or always do the right thing. We're people who live in continual repentance.

As one scientist puts it, we can now assume that just as children need good nutrition and adequate sleep, they may very well need contact with nature.

Some lesser husbands built a latrine on the hillside.

Liberals were intimidated by the Reagan administration and did not want to appear naive by talking about programs that called for government support. I just said, 'The hell with that. I'm out there.'