Be as bold as the first man or [woman] to eat an oyster.

Service is the rent that you pay for room on this earth.

The difference between de jure and de facto segregation is the difference between open, forthright bigotry and the shamefaced kind that works through unwritten agreements between real estate dealers, school officials, and local politicians.

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

We have been so patient and loyal ... and what has it gotten us? We want our full share now.

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.

Most Americans have never seen the ignorance, degradation, hunger, sickness, and futility in which many other Americans live...They won't become involved in economic or political change until something brings the seriousness of the situation home to them.