The strength that I have comes from irrigating the citrus plantation ploughing in the vineyard guarding the melon fields at night. I believe that's what gave me the strength.

I would rather drudge out my life on a cotton plantation till the grave opened to give me rest than to live with an unprincipled master and a jealous mistress.

It was very clear to me in 1965 in Mississippi that as a lawyer I could get people into schools desegregate the schools but if they were kicked off the plantations - and if they didn't have food didn't have jobs didn't have health care didn't have the means to exercise those civil rights we were not going to have success.