Constance Baker Motley

My parents never told us that our great-grandmothers had been slaves. ”

Had it not been for James Meredith, who was willing to risk his life, the University of Mississippi would still be all white. ”

I rejected the notion that my race or sex would bar my success in life. ”

Living at the YMCA in Harlem dramatically broadened my view of the world. ”

New Orleans may well have been the most liberal Deep South city in 1954 because of its large Creole population, the influence of the French, and its cosmopolitan atmosphere. ”

Affirmitive action is extremely complex because it appears in many different forms. ”

How long must the American community afford special treatment to blacks? ”

I never thought I would live long enough to see the legal profession change to the extent it has. ”

We Americans entered a new phase in our history - the era of integration - in 1954. ”

I remember being infuriated from the top of my head to the tip of my toes the first time a screen was put around Bob Carter and me on a train leaving Washington in the 1940s. ”