We are not a problem people, we are people with problems.

If the times aren't ripe, you have to ripen the times.

Civil rights are civil rights. There are no persons who are not entitled to their civil rights... We have to recognize that we have a long way to go, but we have to go that way together.

When you're a black woman, you seldom get to do what you just want to do; you always do what you have to do.

The black woman had had to struggle against being a person of great strength.

I am the product of many whose lives have touched mine, from the famous, distinguished, and powerful to the little known and the poor.

We have to realize we are building a movement.