Quote

Many civil rights came about, not when they were passed into law, but because the federal government did what it should and saw them enforced.

So that the failures to pass a civil rights bill isn't because of Black Power, isn't because of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee; it's not because of the rebellions that are occurring in the major cities.

Few whites are ready to actively promote civil rights for blacks.

But black people fall for that same argument, and they go around talking about law breakers. We did not make the laws in this country. We are neither morally nor legally confined to those laws. Those laws that keep them up, keep us down.

I support the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act.

We must recognize that all the civil rights laws in the world are not going to solve the problem of minority underachievement. Ultimately, blacks and Hispanics are going to have to see that their solution is largely in their own hands.

I think the legacy of the civil rights movement is that now whites are more open to being represented by people of color or people who are women or, again, non-traditional candidates.

Segregation was wrong when it was forced by white people, and I believe it is still wrong when it is requested by black people.

In the time when my mother began standing up against prejudice and racism, the vast majority of white Americans rarely thought about civil rights.