"I believe in the power of education to change lives."

"The greatest lesson I learned was to never give up."

"Life is not a spectator sport. If you're going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, in my opinion you're wasting your life."

"I don't think I'm a hero. I'm just a man who did what had to be done."

"The way I figured it, I was a black man in a white man's world. I had to make my own way."