This is one of a series of 's views on the topics of the greatest concern to the citizens of the United States:

Equal pay is not yet equal

Equal pay is not yet equal. A woman makes $0.77 on a dollar & women of color make $0.67. We feel so passionately about this because we not only are running for office, but we each, in our own way, have lived it. We have seen it. We have understood the pain and the injustice that has come because of race, because of gender. It's imperative that we make it very clear that each of us will address these issues. You don't hear the Republicans talking about any of this. You don't hear them talking about the disgrace of a criminal justice system that incarcerates so many more African-Americans proportionately than whites, and any kind of effort to help Historically Black Colleges and Universities, something that I'm committed to doing to make it clear that these are important institutions that have led the way for so many great leaders to be where they are today. So we have a specific set of policies and priorities that are really part of who we are, as well as part of what the Democratic Party stands for.

MLK recognized that working within the system was necessary

Q: You said recently, "Dr. King's dream began to be realized when Pres. Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act. It took a president to get it done." Critics claim you're saying Martin Luther King's speeches were a nice sentiment, but it took a white president to get blacks to the mountaintop.

A: I can't let you get away with that mischaracterization. I was responding to a speech that Senator Obama gave, where he compared himself to Pres. Kennedy & to Dr. King. Dr. King had been leading a movement. But Dr. King understood that there has to be a coming to terms of our country politically in order to make the changes that would last for generations beyond the iconic, extraordinary speeches that he gave. That's why he campaigned for Lyndon Johnson in 1964. That's why he was there when the Civil Rights Act was passed. Does he deserve the lion's share of the credit for moving our country and moving our political process? Yes, he does. But he also had partners who were in the political system.

Compiled "Handbook on Legal Rights for Arkansas Women"

Hillary Clinton has taken hits for her early writings on children's legal rights' for her activism in women's issues (she compiled three editions of a Handbook on Legal Rights for Arkansas Women), and most spectacularly for the failure of her healthcare effort. Media misogynists hold nothing back: the attacks on the First Lady have always been personal and vicious, and for years they wouldn't let up. Her looks, her parenting skills, her sexuality, even her daughters' teeth were deemed acceptable targets for right-wing talk radio and the press. To this date there are scores of Hillary Clinton websites, mostly negative.

Hillary wanted Bill's cabinet to "Look Like America"

Hillary assigned herself the task of ensuring that Bill kept his pledge to appoint more women and minorities than any previous president, to make his Administration "look like America." She pressed him to fill half of the senior positions with women. And she urged her husband to make history by appointing the first woman to one of the big four cabinet posts.

1998: Hillary predicted female President in near future

In 1998, Hillary was generating headllines of her own in Africa. Tanzanian activist Gertrude Mongella described her as "the co-pilot" of the US, and at the University of Cape Town Hillary predicted that a woman would be elected President of the United States withing two decades.

1962: met MLK Jr. preaching a sermon in Chicago

In 1962, Don Jones, the youth minister at Hillary's church took Hillary and her class to hear a speech by Martin Luther King Jr. The civil rights pioneer preached a sermon titled "Sleeping Through the Revolution," and the experience gave Jones the opportunity to leave another indelible mark on his pupils. "I wanted them to become aware of the social revolution that was taking place. It was an opportunity for them to meet a great person. Park Ridge was sleeping through the greatest social revolutio this country has ever had."

In his speech, Dr. King said too many Americans were like Rip Van Winkle, snoozing through the changes happening around them.

That night was one Hillary would never forget, particularly because of the moment after the speech, when Jones shocked the teen and her comrades by arranging to have them briefly meet with King. Later in life, Hillary would remark that these experiences opened her eyes "as a teenager to other people and the way they live which affected me."

1965: brought black classmates to all-white church

In 1965, Hillary invited a black classmate to attend church services with her at the Methodist church, a move that raised eyebrows. Don Jones later recalled that the Park Ridge Methodist folks were bothered because Hillary seemed to make the move "not out of goodwill" but simply to shock a "lily-white church." She told Jones she was genuinely interested in her minority classmates, and today, schoolmates like Karen Williamson speak warmly of Hillary: "She was a friend. As a black woman going to Wellesley at the time friends were very welcome. All the black students felt we had a close friendship in Hillary." They also sensed something more: "A lot of us thought Hillary would be the first woman president," said Williamson later.

It was Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination that produced one of the greatest shifts. The trauma seemed to catalyze Hillary's politics. Nevertheless, her classmates insist she was never a radical. Hillary was more willing to work within the system to change things.

We've come a long way on race, but we have a long way to go

Q: Is race still the most intractable issue in America?

A: It is abundantly clear that race and racism are defining challenges not only in the United States but around the world. We have made progress. You can look at this stage and see an African American, a Latino, a woman contesting for the presidency of the United States. But there is so much left to be done. And for anyone to assert that race is not a problem in America is to deny the reality in front of our very eyes. You can look at the thousands of African-Americans left behind by their government with Katrina. You can look at the opportunity gap. So, yes, we have come a long way, but, yes, we have a long way to go. The march is not finished, and I hope that all of us, the Democratic candidates, will demonstrate clearly that the work is yet to be done. And we call on everyone to be foot soldiers in that revolution to finish the job.

1995: Politely criticized China's human rights

In 1995, Hillary traveled to China to attend the UN World Conference on Women. She hoped "to push the envelope as far as I can on behalf of women and girls," and her speech was a loud call for women's rights to be equated with human rights.

Hillary's idealistic aims were tempered by her pragmatic politics. She did not name the host country or any other country in her speech, though she was aware of China's efforts to muzzle opponents. Even after the Chinese government blacked out her speech on the closed-circuit TV in the hall, she said nothing.

Hillary told CNN that she had been referring to violations by China. But Bill, eager to improve ties with Beijing, insisted "there was no attempt to single any country out."

The Beijing speech became, Hillary wrote, "a manifesto for women all over the world." Indeed, her message was beamed all over the world. Her speech lifted her "from being a really first-rate First Lady," observed Donna Shalala, "to being an extraordinary one."

1988: Instituted gender diversity Report Card within ABA

In 1987, a commission in the American Bar Association to study women lawyers was created, and Hillary accepted the position to chair it.

The commission held hearings and found widespread discrimination and after one year issued a report urging the bar association to publicly recognize that gender bias exists in the profession and to begin to eliminate it.

The ABA responded to the work of Hillary's commission by adopting a resolution that committed the association and its members to "refuse to participate in, acquiesce in, or condone barriers to the full integration and equal participation of women in the legal profession." The voice vote of approval was unanimous. Hillary told the delegates, "Despite the progress that has been made, there still exist instances of subtle discrimination against women." In 1991, the group created the Goal IX Report Card, an annual accounting designed to measure the progress of women in the association.

Developmental thread: tragedy of race must be made right

Betsy, [Hillary's high-school friend], and her grandfather took Hillary to hear Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speak at the Chicago Sunday Evening Club. King talked about racial segregation in the North and the South. It was the first time Hillary, then 14, grasped the notion of Negro children being the country's poorest and most vulnerable.

If there is a single developmental thread of Hillary's political, religious, and social development, it is her belief and determination that the tragedy of race in America must be made right. What in part first attracted her to Bill Clinton was her perception that he was an unusual, enlightened Southerner who wanted to go into politics and help right the country's greatest wrong. Hillary formed many of her closest friendships with blacks; her mentor was Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the Children's Defense Fund. Later, in the White House, Hillary chose several African Americans as senior aides.

Pushing for privacy bill of rights

Hillary Clinton urged creation of a "privacy bill of rights" to protect people's personal data. Clinton's speech on protecting consumers from identity theft and citizens from government snooping was the latest in a series of talks billed as "major addresses" by aides. Previous speeches were on energy and the economy. A potential presidential candidate in 2008, Clinton noted her work on a House committee investigating the Nixon administration's illegal snooping and other abuses.

Clinton said any president should have the latest technology to track terrorists, but within laws that provide for oversight by judges. "The administration's refrain has been, 'Trust us,'" Clinton said. "That's unacceptable. Their track record doesn't warrant our trust. Unchecked mass surveillance without judicial review may sometimes be legal but it is dangerous. Every president should save those powers for limited critical situations."

Argued with Bill Clinton about diluting affirmative action

Only a few months after the 1994 election, Bill and Hillary spoke to me about how they should handle this new hot-button issue. Should they side with those who wanted to end affirmative action, or remain loyal to the core constituencies of the Democratic Party?

At first, the president wanted to explore alternatives to affirmative action. He and I discussed modifying affirmative action to grant preferences to those in poverty, regardless of gender and color.

But Hillary soon ended this flirtation with moderation. She saw great danger in disappointing the black and feminist groups that supported the Democratic Party.

Hillary pointed out that many middle-class blacks and professional women felt they needed affirmative action to get ahead in their workplace or win government contracts. Diluting the program to give preference to poor people, regardless of race or gender, might strip of their privileges, and they are the core of the Democratic Party.

1972: Worked with Edelman on school desegregation in South

In 1972, I returned to D.C. to work for Marian Wright Edelman. My assignment was to gather information about the Nixon Administration's failure to enforce the legal ban on granting tax-exempt status to the private segregated academies that had sprung up in the South to avoid integrated public schools. The academies claimed they were created in response to parents deciding to form private schools; it had nothing to do with court-ordered integration. I went to Atlanta to meet with the lawyers and civil rights workers who were compiling evidence that proved the academies were created solely for the purpose of avoiding the constitutional mandate of the Supreme Court's decisions.

As part of my investigation, I drove to Alabama. At a local private school, I had an appointment to meet an administrator to discuss enrolling my imaginary child. I went through my role-playing, asking questions about the curriculum and makeup of the student body. I was assured that no black students would be enrolled.

Apologize for slavery, but concentrate on civil rights now

Q: Will you support reparations for African-Americans?

CLINTON: We have mental, emotional and psychological reparations to pay first. We have to admit that we haven’t always treated people in our own country fairly. We have some issues that we have to address when it comes to racial justice right now. I’m willing to work hard to be a strong advocate for Civil Rights and human rights here at home and around the world. I want to do everything I can to make sure that the programs and policies that have helped generations of African-Americans have a better life in this country continue. I think we should be focused on the present and on the future. We owe an apology to African-Americans for hundreds of years of slavery.

LAZIO: I believe it is time for us to move past the issue of reparations among African-Americans and work for ways in which we can bring more opportunity and better educational opportunities to African-American children.

Crack down on sex trafficking of women and girls

Leaders of a coalition of women’s groups and politically conservative groups sent a letter of protest to the first lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton. The letter accused the administration of taking a position that was “extremely detrimental to women” in negotiations over a new UN treaty on sex trafficking. They were referring to the administration’s support for wording in the treaty that would define “forced prostitution” - but not other types of prostitution - as a form of “sexual exploitation.” The letter said [that] wording would make it more difficult to prosecute prostitution rings because the definition “would not cover some of the most common methods of sex trafficking, which prey on and profit from the economic desperation of women, girls and their families by securing their ‘consent.’” Clinton has focused on the issue in her foreign travels and has repeatedly called for a crackdown on all types of trafficking of women and children across international borders.

Human rights are women’s rights

Traveling abroad on behalf of our country, Hillary has been an eloquent voice for human rights & democracy, highlighting the need for education for girls & boys, and access to health care for women and men. At the 1995 UN World Conference on Women, Hillary said, “We must respect the choices that each women makes for herself and her family. If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, let it be that human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights.”

Women’s rights are human rights

At the 1995 UN World Conference on Women, held in China:“Women comprise more than half the world’s population. Women are 70% of the world’s poor and illiterate. Much of the work we do is not valued--not by economists, not by historians, not by popular culture, not by government leaders. We need to understand that there is not one formula for how women should lead their lives. We must respect the choices that each woman makes for herself and her family. Every woman deserves the chance to realize her God-given potential.“

The First Lady lambasted China’s Communist government for suppressing free speech and the right to assemble at the grassroots women’s forum [of the UN Conference]. She inspired the women there to make their voices heard against selling girls into prostitution, against rape as a tactic of war, against forced abortion or sterilization. ”Human rights are women’s rights. And women’s rights are human rights, once and for all.“

Support National Endowment for the Arts

Regarding cutbacks on art funding]: We will continue to promote the arts. I’ve tried to do that with a sculpture garden at the White House and the crafts collection for the White House, which is on exhibit here in N.Y. We will also support the National Endowment of the Arts. The arts speak to us; they tell us who we are. I think that as a nation we need

Affirmative living: involve entire village against racism

There is probably no more important task parents--and the rest of the village--face than raising children not only to tolerate but to respect the differences among people and to recognize the rewards that come from serving others. I call this affirmative living--the positive energy we derive from taking pride in who we are and from having the confidence and moral grounding to reach out to those who are different.

Some of the most effective approaches to promoting affirmative living are those that involve the entire village. An annual event in Boston called Team Harmony brings middle and high school students together with local sports figures and business leaders to take a stand against prejudice and bigotry. After the Team Harmony event in 1994, many students wrote about the positive messages they received. "Since the event, I want to do all that I can to stop racism," one of them wrote. "I want everyone to live in peace & harmony, where there is no hatred & no violence."

Sex selection, prostitution & war rape: human rights issues

It is a violation of human rights:

• when babies are denied food or drowned because they are girls.
• when women and girls are sold into prostitution.
• when women are doused with gasoline, set on fire, and burned because their marriage dowries are too small.
• when individual women are raped in their own communities and women are subjected to rape as a tactic or prize of war.
• when a leading cause of death among women 14 to 49 is the violence they are subjected to by their own relatives.
• when girls are brutalized by genital mutilation.
• when women are denied the right to plan their own families and that includes being forced to have abortions or being sterilized against their will.
• If there is one message that echoes forth, let it be that human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights.