Vernon Jordan

“A lot of companies make diversity a part of the performance goals against which an executive gets paid. Just as you have to make a certain sales number, you have to make a diversity number to get your bonus.”

“I had a sense of what leadership meant and what it could do for you. So am I surprised that I am sitting up here on the 62nd floor of Rockefeller Plaza? No.”

“Every company, every boardroom in which I sit, has a plan, and they have objectives, goals, and a process. And to make it work, the pressure and incentive have to come from the top.”

“The last job I applied for was to be a bus driver for the Chicago Transit Authority in 1957.”

“My mother was the president of the PTA at every school I attended.”

“What I know about this world is that white people will take care of themselves. And what I have learned is that if you are where they are on an equal basis, they cannot take care of themselves without taking care of you.”

“But there will come a time and a place to give back, and each individual will recognize that time and place.”

“You have to be careful how you're using the word boycott.”

“Terrorism is not new to black people.”

“September 11 stands on its own as a terrible tragedy.”

“I'm here because I stand on many, many shoulders, and that's true of every black person I know who has achieved.”