... all Americans are the prisoners of racial prejudice.

Rhetoric never won a revolution yet.

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

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

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.

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.

It is not heroin or cocaine that makes one an addict, it is the need to escape from a harsh reality.