“Demonstrations must be dignified and nonviolent, as the overwhelming protests in Ferguson and Staten Island have been. Do not confuse anarchists who don't want the system to work and thugs who want...”

“Following Michael Brown's death, I went to Ferguson and met with his parents. I stood with them as they tried to hold their heads high and deal with both their immense loss and the larger issues of...”

“There's no reason why children in inner cities or rural areas do not receive the same quality education or opportunities as those in suburbs or wealthy neighborhoods. If we truly believe in giving ...”

“I was raised by a single mother who made a way for me. She used to scrub floors as a domestic worker, put a cleaning rag in her pocketbook and ride the subways in Brooklyn so I would have food on t...”

“The dream was not to put one black family in the White House, the dream was to make everything equal in everybody's house.”

“From racial profiling and being pulled over just for 'driving while black' to this new phenomenon of killing unarmed people out of some preconceived idea of fear, our lives and our children's lives...”

“He is beauty, inside and out.He is the silver lining in a world of darkness.He is my light.”

“The Sun is the light of the day.”

“As I discover, everyday is an adventure...so do what ever the Spirit tells you..don't do things out of drudgery or obligation...each day will unfold as it should...stay restful and try not to be in...”

“The thin line between life and death is still under construction.”

“Any fool can write a book and most of them are doing it but it takes brains to build a house. ”

“The palace started as a single vaulted room and grew in proportion to my despair. It began as an exercise to keep my mind from its melancholy, then it became a dream and a necessity. . . . I built ...”

“I shiver, thinking how easy it is to be totally wrong about people-to see one tiny part of them and confuse it for the whole, to see the cause and think it's the effect or vice versa”

“At sunrise everything is luminous but not clear.”

“I think it's impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves.”