Having personally watched the Voting Rights Act being signed into law that August day, I can’t begin to imagine how we could have all been so wrong in believing that more Americans would vote once...

For most of the world, civil and political rights… come as luxuries that are far away in the future.

I had to get a second passport in a hurry.

Walking around in that suit and tie, he was in some danger. He was just another nigger, to put it bluntly, although I don’t think he realized that.

The unsung heroes of the civil rights movement were always the wives and the mothers.

I wasn’t predicted to be anything. I just followed an inner spirit, and it put me in the right place and the right time. I didn’t want to be the mayor of Atlanta. I didn’t...

She was strong if not stronger than he was.

If you’re a preacher, you talk for a living, so even if you don’t make sense, you learn to make nonsense eloquently.

I think we’ve made tremendous progress on racism. We’ve even made progress on war. We’ve made almost no progress on poverty.

There is no safer place to put your money than in the middle of the U.S.

See, for good or bad before when we [the board] met, we just did whatever Coretta wanted us to do.

I’ve always seen the Olympics as a place where you could act out your differences on the athletic field with a sense of sportsmanship and fairness and mutual respect.

I wouldn’t listen to my parents, but I found out that I absorbed. I never heard what they said – told me – but I did what they did.

I understand that she was asleep last night and her daughter went in to wake her up and she was not able to and so she quietly slipped away. Her spirit will remain with us...

If Congress can move President’s Day, Columbus Day and, alas, Martin Luther King’s Birthday celebration for the convenience of shoppers, shouldn’t they at least consider moving Election Day for the convenience of voters?

I grew up in the middle of a block where there was an Irish grocery store on one corner, an Italian bar on another corner and the Nazi Party was on the third corner.

I think there’s just going to be an outpouring of gifts. People are good and hungry for an opportunity to do good.

It is a blessing to die for a cause, because you can so easily die for nothing.

I’ve been dyslexic and had Attention Deficit Disorder at some time in my life. I still read with a highlighter, but I’ve always loved to read.

I was much more comfortable and a much better congressman running in a district that was 37 percent black, where I had to have a white constituency to get elected, than I would have been...

Without all of this, … Jimmy Carter nor Bill Clinton might never have been elected president.

Everything that has happened in my life is because of good government and because the United States of America was the greatest nation on the face of the earth.

Look at those they call unfortunate and at a closer view, you’ll find many of them are unwise.

Both the brightness and the spectrum of the X-rays are very different from what theory predicts.

If I wanted to develop a scenario to destroy America, I would do what the Republicans are doing. Take the brightest and best young black men off the streets, put them in jail, make them...

I have committed my life to helping the poor, and I believe that if more companies followed Wal-Mart’s lead in providing opportunity and savings to those who need it most, more Americans battling poverty would...

This time he wasn’t so lucky. He was caught on camera… and I think he’s going to be doing some jail time.

In a sane, civil, intelligent and moral society, you don’t blame poor people for being poor.

In a world where change is inevitable and continuous, the need to achieve that change without violence is essential for survival.

Our children lost our direction because they have been compromised. They have found freedom at the ballot box, and then they have taken on plastic chains around their minds and souls and mortgage their future...

There’s another side of the story that ought to be told.

Freedom is a struggle, and we do it together. Not only together as black citizens, but black and white together.

No one who’s white thinks he’s innocent. No one who’s black thinks he’s guilty.

the right to vote for all Americans over the age of 18.

Profits should be for a purpose. Profits should be productive. You should make money for producing benefits that make the world a better place. Making money is a good thing when it is made in...

My feeling is that you don’t go looking for troubles. The cross ought to find you. And so I never go out of my way. I figure I only get involved in things that I...

They are some of the best entry level jobs that are available to poor people. And they also make products available to the working poor.

I’m against voter fraud in any form, and I have long supported a national voter ID card. But ID cards need not – and must not – restrict voting rights in any way, shape or...

Influence is like a savings account. The less you use it, the more you’ve got.

Rosa Parks was the inspiration… simply by the act of her being who she was, a sweet and loving and simple child of God who refused to let anybody or anything force her to compromise...

Our Churches sought to do the same through teaching preaching missions, social and political action. We have always been a leader in progressive movements in faith, action, government and mission. But, I think we may...

I believe in humanitarian capitalism, and there are good people on Wall Street.

On the soft bed of luxury many kingdoms have expired.

Why do we vote on Tuesday? Why don’t we vote on the weekend?.

What we forget is that African Americans made the largest contribution to America, economically, before the Civil War of any sector of society. I read that the railroads were worth about $2 billion, but slavery...

There were lots of smart black people at Harvard before Barack Obama, but none of them ever got to head up the law review. There has been a history of discrimination.

The pluses outweigh the minuses. They do give benefits, they do have health insurance.

To whom much is given, much is required – not expected, but required.

Once the Xerox copier was invented, diplomacy died.

Centennial Olympic Park paved the way for the aquarium and the World of Coke. It laid out new possibilities for the city. And I think [the satellite development] is just getting started.