Quotes from Tavis Smiley

I thought our community should have a deep dialogue to make black America better. I believe if we make black America better, we make all of America better.

I wanted to be a theater actress, and initially, I wanted to work in musical theater

This is not a skill problem, this is a will problem. Does America have the will to make education a priority? We know the things that work. Why don't we scale up those things that do work.

That is still the case in this country for too many students, the soft bigotry of low expectations. If you don't expect them to learn, if you don't expect them to succeed - then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

This administration and these folk who run Washington are no more interested in our welfare and our well being than the man on the moon. And we have got to start taking our destiny into our hands.

Poverty and wealth inequality are a form of instability into the future.