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.

Tremendous amounts of talent are lost to our society just because that talent wears a skirt.

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

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

Defeat should not be the source of discouragement, but a stimulus to keep plotting.

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.

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