My hero, my idol, my role model.

‘To have once been a criminal is no disgrace. To remain a criminal is the disgrace. I formerly was a criminal. I formerly was in prison. I’m not ashamed of that. You never can use that over my head… I don’t feel that stick.

They charged Jesus with sedition. Didn’t they do that? They said he was against Caesar. They said he was discriminating because he told his disciples, “Go not the way of the gentiles, but rather go to the lost sheep.” Go to the people who don’t know who they are, who are lost from the knowledge of themselves and who are strangers in a land that is not theirs. Go to these people. Go to the slaves. Go to the second-class citizens. Go to the ones who are suffering the brunt of Caesar’s brutality.

And if Jesus were here in America today, he wouldn’t be going to the white man. The white man is the oppressor. He would be going to the oppressed. He would be going to the humble. He would be going to the lowly. He would be going to the rejected and the despised. He would be going to the so-called American negro.’