I am not antiwhite, because I understand that white people, like black ones, are victims of a racist society. They are products of their time and place.

My God, what do we want? What does any human being want?

The Constitution they wrote was designed to protect the rights of white, male citizens. As there were no black Founding Fathers, there were no founding mothers - a great pity, on both counts. It is not too late to complete the work they left undone. Today, here, we should start to do so.

I have never cared too much what people say. What I am interested in is what they do.

I’d like them to say that Shirley Chisholm had guts. That’s how I’d like to be remembered.

As a black person I am no stranger to prejudice. But the truth is that in the political world I have been far more often discriminated against because I am a woman than because I am black.

Of my two `handicaps,' being female put more obstacles in my path than being black.