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Even during my youth, I can recall very few black people living on any kind of public assistance. People were working, doing some kind of job that was useful to the community.

Being black, I'm involved in the reparations movement. It's focused toward the African-American audience. We could begin to heal.

My mother went to work in the homes of white folk, usually living in and looking after their children. The money was small.

One of the prices that we pay for integration was the disintegration of the black community.

I grew up in poverty. For 25 years I was fed on aid.

I got into economics because I wanted to make things better for the average person.

I'm building shopping centers and movie theaters in the inner cities. So that means supplying jobs and letting blacks understand that we have to build our communities back, not looking to anybody else.

When I go in to see people - and I sell an occasional ad now - I never say, 'Help me because I am black' or 'Help me because I am a minority.' I always talk about what we can do for them.

The hopeless grief of those poor colored people affected me more than almost anything else.

I went to an all white school where I dealt with racism.