It has both social, political and historical dynamics to it. That story is not singularly an African American story, it has universality to it.

I was able to do To Sleep with Anger, a very powerful film about African Americans, their spirituality, and the things that happened within a small community and a family.

Since 1957, black people have experienced double-digit unemployment - in good times and bad times. Look at the population of African Americans in prison. They represent more than half the population of prisoners in the country, 55 percent of those on death row.

She alone has stood up for issues that are important to this country and important to the world. We're not here to judge the merits of the case; we're here to support our sister.

Some of these things I saw in foreign films - African films, Cuban films - long before I decided to really go on this course as an actor. I started to think about what values I saw in those films that I wanted to bring to my projects.

When the hurricane struck, it did not turn the region into a Third World country … it revealed one.