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

I ran for the presidency, despite hopeless odds, to demonstrate the sheer will and refusal to accept the status quo.

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

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.

America has the laws and the material resources it takes to insure justice for all its people. What it lacks is the heart, the humanity.

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