Quotes By Constance Baker Motley

In high school, I discovered myself. I was interested in race relations and the legal profession. I read about Lincoln and that he believed the law to be the most difficult of professions.

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

Sexism, like racism, goes with us into the next century. I see class warfare as overshadowing both.

All Southern state colleges and universities are open to black students.

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.

There is no longer a single common impediment to blacks emerging in this society.

Lack of encouragement never deterred me. I was the kind of person who would not be put down.

The women's rights movement of the 1970s had not yet emerged; except for Bella Abzug, I had no women supporters.

Too many whites still see blacks as a group apart.

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

By 1962, King had become, by the media's reckoning, the new civil rights leader.

King consciously steered away from legal claims and instead relied on civil disobedience.