Carol Moseley Braun quotes

Carol Moseley Braun is an American politician, lawyer, and diplomat who made history as the first African American woman elected to the U.S. Senate. Her political career also includes service as U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa. She has been recognized for her advocacy on civil rights, education, and social justice. Here are 41 of her quotes:

Magic lies in challenging what seems impossible.

Carol Moseley Braun

The really important victory of the civil rights movement was that it made racism unpopular, whereas a generation ago at the turn of the last century, you had to embrace racism to get elected to anything.

Carol Moseley Braun

If we can rebuild Iraq, we can rebuild Illinois and Indiana and if we can do Baghdad, we can do Baltimore.

Carol Moseley Braun

The reason that minorities and women don't have a better shot at getting elected to the Senate or to statewide office is because the campaign finance rules are so skewed as to make it very difficult for non-traditional candidates to raise the money necessary to get elected.

Carol Moseley Braun

Well, if you pick a fight with somebody that's smaller than you and you beat them, where's the honor in that?

Carol Moseley Braun

And frankly, being a woman I think gives me a slightly different take on a lot of the issues and on a lot of the solutions to the problems we face.

Carol Moseley Braun

I think the legacy of the civil rights movement is that now whites are more open to being represented by people of color or people who are women or, again, non-traditional candidates.

Carol Moseley Braun

I think Americans want to believe in this country again.

Carol Moseley Braun

I really think that's the key, part of the spiritual renewal that America needs to have, the notion that we really can have confidence in a better tomorrow.

Carol Moseley Braun

New Zealand, by the way, where I was ambassador, has had two women prime ministers - one from either party.

Carol Moseley Braun

I was the only person of color in the Senate, and my colleagues were Strom Thurmond, Jesse Helms and Trent Lott.

Carol Moseley Braun

People just want to hear some common sense... and I bring to bear the experience in local government and state government and national government - I was the first woman in history on the Senate Finance Committee - not to mention the diplomatic international experience.

Carol Moseley Braun

Illinois has less than a 12 percent black population and I won with 55 percent of the vote.

Carol Moseley Braun

There are a number of steps that we can take to reinvigorate and rebuild the economic and the physical infrastructure of our country and then to rebuild us, frankly, on a spiritual level.

Carol Moseley Braun

I believe that our message of rebuilding America is one that will resonate with the American people.

Carol Moseley Braun

Bush is giving the rich a tax cut instead of putting that cut in the pockets of working people.

Carol Moseley Braun

The failure in Ohio to have adequate voting capacity for the people who were registered and eligible to vote was an absolute denial of their right to vote.

Carol Moseley Braun

I was very productive as a senator for my state.

Carol Moseley Braun

I want to rebuild America.

Carol Moseley Braun

There's a word, and the word is called misogynoir. And that word describes the double whammy that women of color have to face: You're vulnerable on the issue of gender, and you're vulnerable on the issue of race.

Carol Moseley Braun

All I really want to be is boring. When people talk about me, I'd like them to say, Carol's basically a short Bill Bradley. Or, Carol's kind of like Al Gore in a skirt.

Carol Moseley Braun

It's not impossible for a woman - a Black woman - to become President.

Carol Moseley Braun