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I Stand Before You Today As A Candidate For The Democratic Nomination For The Presidency Of The United States. I Am Not The Candidate Of Black America, Although I Am Black And Proud. I'm Not The Candidate Of The Women's Movement Of This Country, Although I Am A Woman, And I'm Equally Proud Of That. I Am Not The Candidate Of Any Political Bosses Or Fat Cats Or Special Interests... I Am The Candidate Of The People...

-Shirley Chisholm

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I Stand Before You

Shirley Chisholm

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I Stand Before You Today As A Candidate For The Democratic Nomination For The Presidency Of The United States. I Am Not The Candidate Of Black America, Although I Am Black And Proud. I'm Not The Candidate Of The Women's Movement Of This Country, Although I Am A Woman, And I'm Equally Proud Of That. I Am Not The Candidate Of Any Political Bosses Or Fat Cats Or Special Interests... I Am The Candidate Of The People...

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Laws Will Not Eliminate Prejudice From The Hearts Of Human Beings. But That Is No Reason To Allow Prejudice To Continue To Be Enshrined In Our Laws - To Perpetuate Injustice Through Inaction.

One Distressing Thing Is The Way Men React To Women Who Assert Their Equality: Their Ultimate Weapon Is To Call Them Unfeminine. They Think She Is Anti-male; They Even Whisper That She's Probably A Lesbian.

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.

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.

It Is Not Heroin Or Cocaine That Makes One An Addict, It Is The Need To Escape From A Harsh Reality.

It Is Not Heroin Or Cocaine That Makes One An Addict, It Is The Need To Escape From A Harsh Reality. There Are More Television Addicts, More Baseball And Football Addicts, More Movie Addicts, And Certainly More Alcohol Addicts In This Country Than There Are Narcotics Addicts.

Racism Keeps People Who Are Being Managed From Finding Out The Truth Through Contact With Each Other.

Tremendous Amounts Of Talent Are Lost To Our Society Just Because That Talent Wears A Skirt.

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.

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.

As There Were No Black Founding Fathers, There Were No Founding Mothers - A Great Pity, On Both Counts.

My Greatest Political Asset, Which Professional Politicians Fear, Is My Mouth, Out Of Which Come All Kinds Of Things One Shouldn't Always Discuss For Reasons Of Political Expediency.

I Ran For The Presidency, Despite Hopeless Odds, To Demonstrate The Sheer Will And Refusal To Accept The Status Quo.

I Am Not Antiwhite, Because I Understand That White People, Like Black Ones, Are Victims Of A Racist Society. They Are Products Of Their Time And Place.

I Don’t Measure America By Its Achievement But By Its Potential.

Some Members Of Congress Are Among The Best Actors In The World.

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.

There Is A Good Deal Of Evidence That The United States Is Moving To The Right, And That The Main Force Behind The Movement Is A Resurgence, In A New Form, Of Racial Prejudice.

Health Is A Human Right, Not A Privilege To Be Purchased.

The Constitution They Wrote Was Designed To Protect The Rights Of White, Male Citizens. As There Were No Black Founding Fathers, There Were No Founding Mothers - A Great Pity, On Both Counts. It Is Not Too Late To Complete The Work They Left Undone. Today, Here, We Should Start To Do So.

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As Things Are Now, No One Can Tell To Whom Members Of Congress Are Responsible, Except That It Does Not Often Appear To Be To The People. Everyone Else Is Represented In Washington By A Rich And Powerful Lobby, It Seems. But There Is No Lobby For The People.

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That's What's Wrong With The Country. There Are Too Many 'good Soldiers' Accepting Too Many Bad Decisions.

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The Emotional, Sexual, And Psychological Stereotyping Of Females Begins When The Doctor Says, 'it's A Girl.'

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African American

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Congress Seems Drugged And Inert Most Of The Time... Its Idea Of Meeting A Problem Is To Hold Hearings Or, In Extreme Cases, To Appoint A Commission.

Don't List To Those Who Say You Can't. Listen To The Voice Inside Yourself That Says, I Can.

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Political Organizations Are Formed To Keep The Powerful In Power.

I’d Like Them To Say That Shirley Chisholm Had Guts. That’s How I’d Like To Be Remembered.

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Be As Bold As The First Man Or [woman] To Eat An Oyster.

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I Stand Before You Today As A Candidate For The Democratic Nomination For The Presidency Of The United States. I Am Not The Candidate Of Black America, Although I Am Black And Proud. I'm Not The Candidate Of The Women's Movement Of This Country, Although I Am A Woman, And I'm Equally Proud Of That. I Am Not The Candidate Of Any Political Bosses Or Fat Cats Or Special Interests... I Am The Candidate Of The People...

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