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I marched back then - I was in a civil-rights musical, Fly Blackbird, and we met Martin Luther King.

When I wrote the song, The Way It Is, I wanted to move people to take a stand on civil rights in this country.

The fact that we elected Obama was a sign that the black struggle inherent in the blues and so much of the music I have loved can triumph.

As a young black boy, it made me proud to see black leaders that did something amazing and made the world change.

Aretha Franklin was as important to the civil-rights movement as Malcolm X and Medgar Evers. Artists can choose to take on the tremendous amount of responsibility we have, or choose to ignore it.

When I think of the trials and tribulations that black men go through in America and that black artists went through, I feel very privileged.

From blood banking to the modern subway, from jazz to social justice, the contributions of African Americans have shaped and molded and influenced our national culture and our national character.

I think music is one of the hero/sheroes of the African-American existence.

The black artist's role in America is to aid in the destruction of America as he knows it.

It was to carry the American democratic journey beyond these failings that Black citizens and civil rights workers risked unemployment, violence and death.