I was the first American citizen to be elected to Congress in spite of the double drawbacks of being female and having skin darkened by melanin. When you put it that way, it sounds like a foolish reason for fame. In a just and free society it would be foolish. That I am a national figure because I was the first person in 192 years to be at once a congressman, black and a woman proves, I think, that our society is not yet either just or free.

Some members of Congress are among the best actors in the world.

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.

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.

Racism is so universal in this country, so widespread and deepseated, that it is invisible because it is so normal.

Rhetoric never won a revolution yet.

At present, our country needs women's idealism and determination, perhaps more in politics than anywhere else.