�I was the first American citizen to be elected to Congress in spite of the double drawbacks of being female and having skin darkened by melanin. When you put it that way, it sounds like a foolish reason for fame. In a just and free society it would be foolish.� �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 think, that our society is not yet either just or free.� �Of my two �handicaps,� being female put more obstacles in my path than being black.� �My God, what do we want? What does any human being want? Take away an accident of pigmentation of a thin layer of our outer skin and there is no difference between me and anyone else. All we want is for that trivial difference to make no difference.� �At present, our country needs women's idealism and determination, perhaps more in politics than anywhere else.� �There is little place in the political scheme of things for an independent, creative personality, for a fighter. Anyone who takes that role must pay a price.� �Prejudice against blacks is becoming unacceptable although it will take years to eliminate it. But it is doomed because, slowly, white America is beginning to admit that it exists. Prejudice against women is still acceptable. There is very little understanding yet of the immorality involved in double pay scales and the classification of most of the better jobs as �for men only.�� (1969) �When morality comes up against profit, it is seldom profit that loses.�
Arizona Biotech Biotech News Arizona Entrepreneurs Arizona High Tech ¶ 5/20/2005 07:45:00 AM
