Shirley Chisholm

The Constitution they wrote was designed to protect the rights of white, male citizens. As there were no black Founding Fathers, there…

— Shirley Chisholm

The fact is that a woman who aspires to be chairman of the board - or a member of the House -…

— Shirley Chisholm

“Racism is so universal in this country, so widespread, and deep-seated, that it is invisible because it is so normal.”

— Shirley Chisholm

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

— Shirley Chisholm

“I am not the candidate of black America, although I am black and proud; I am not the candidate of the women's…

— Shirley Chisholm

When I die, I want to be remembered as a woman who lived in the twentieth century and who dared to be…

— Shirley Chisholm

Be as bold as the first man or [woman] to eat an oyster.

— Shirley Chisholm

America is composed of all kinds of people - part of the difficulty in our nation today is due to the fact…

— Shirley Chisholm

I was well on the way to forming my present attitude toward politics as it is practiced in the United States; it…

— Shirley Chisholm

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

— Shirley Chisholm

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

— Shirley Chisholm

Political organizations are formed to keep the powerful in power.

— Shirley Chisholm

Women have learned to flex their political muscles. You got to flex that muscle to get what you want.

— Shirley Chisholm

I am not the candidate of Black America, although I am black and proud. I am not the candidate of the woman's…

— Shirley Chisholm

In the end anti-black, anti-female, and all forms of discrimination are equivalent to the same thing: anti-humanism.

— Shirley Chisholm

Laws will not eliminate prejudice from the hearts of human beings. But that is no reason to allow prejudice to continue to…

— Shirley Chisholm

When the Kerner Commission told white America what black America has always known, that prejudice and hatred built the nation’s slums, maintains…

— Shirley Chisholm

I'm finding all over America that people are sick and tired of the tweedle-dee dees and the tweedle-dee dums who constantly flip-flap…

— Shirley Chisholm

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

— Shirley Chisholm

The minorities have been confined to the city by a moat of bigotry.

— Shirley Chisholm

Of my two `handicaps,' being female put more obstacles in my path than being black.

— Shirley Chisholm

We must reject not only the stereotypes that others have of us but also those that we have of ourselves.

— Shirley Chisholm

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

— Shirley Chisholm

Mother always said that even when I was 3, I used to get the 6- and 7-year-old kids on the block and…

— Shirley Chisholm

My greatest political asset, which professional politicians fear, is my mouth, out of which come all kinds of things one shouldn’t always…

— Shirley Chisholm