WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE AN AMERICAN?
What does it mean to you to be an American? It means to be able to live in a country where you have various freedoms and can participate in democracy. It means you’re able to exercise your God-given rights and should be able to do so to the best of one’s abilities without being discriminated against for anything. What moment motivated you to launch this effort? Problems that I saw in Montgomery, Alabama, as a teenager (motivated me). Those problems were African-Americans were being mistreated and were not receiving the same rights as other Americans. And I decided that I would try to do something about it. They told me that lawyers helped people, so I concluded that I was going to become a lawyer. I have kept focused on what I started out with. And I started out saying that I was going to become a lawyer and use the law for the purpose of changing things. And that’s what I have done. What gives you hope or what concerns you? I am very much concerned about conditions as they exist in America. America was founded by people who came to this country for various freedoms — freedom of religion, political freedoms and other freedoms. But there was one group of persons, African-Americans, who did not come to this country. People who looked like me. They were brought to this country as slaves. So we had to begin from slavery and had to go through the whole business of getting slavery done away with, going through Reconstruction, then the long process of filing lawsuits so that African-Americans could receive the same rights that other Americans received when they came to this country and those others who were born here. I think today we have a group of young people who have opportunities ... who need to realize that, as young people, (they) can make a contribution. They can make a difference. What do you hope to accomplish through your efforts? My hope when I started is the same as my hope now: to help this country develop to the fullest intent of the Constitution.