From Jeanne Simon's appearance on Booknotes in 1989:

"I cared about [civil rights] because as a Catholic, a Roman Catholic, I belonged to the Catholic Interracial Council on the North Shore -- before I was in politics. I could see for myself that we were not getting anywhere very fast. And long before I was elected I was working for interracial integration. But to meet Paul [Simon], who was really actively doing something at it, again was a marvelous combination. He was working with Lutheran Human Relations in his area before I met him. And when we both came to Springfield we thought that this was an ideal way to put some of our faith into practice by working for the Fair Employment Practice Commission -- for working for fair housing. Some of these phrases seem very old fashioned now, but in 1956, 1958, those were very important, and we needed them."