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.

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.

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.

Don't list to those who say YOU CAN'T. Listen to the voice inside yourself that says, I CAN.

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.

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