Alphonso Jackson

The Bush administration is the most diverse in history because the president fills jobs on the basis of a person's capabilities and qualifications, not on the color of his or her skin.

After leaving law school, I intentionally said that I never wanted to hold a job more than six years.

America is a place where you can be born into a low-income household but still lift yourself up, and it doesn't matter what color you are.

In 1965, I marched for equality.

You can't rise as a class. You have to rise individually. It's what many of the civil rights-era people don't understand.

The largest challenge that we face, from my perspective, is the ability to continue moving forward so the agency will have a single mission: that is, to provide decent, safe, and affordable housing.

But we look back now, and we realize the Great Society was not a success.

I believe that if you are elderly, physically or mentally handicapped we have an obligation too you, but if you are able-bodied, you should be working.

For the first half of my adult life, I was a Democrat.

And what most people don't understand is the bulk of business in this country is small business.

I think that there will always be a need for Housing and Urban Development.

We believe that, by the time that we leave office, it will be institutionalized, and these programs will be addressing the needs and curing the problem that we set out to do.