To label family planning and legal abortion programs "genocide" is male rhetoric, for male ears.

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 would think, that our society is not yet either just or free.

As there were no black Founding Fathers, there were no founding mothers - a great pity, on both counts.

I love America not for what she is, but for what she can become.

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

I had met far more discrimination because I am a woman than because I am black.

You don't make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas.