It wasn’t clear the day before Carol Moseley Braun’s lecture who would introduce her Wednesday.

Denise Wilkes, senior in child, adult and family services, was supposed to make the introduction, but she was so congested she was not sure whether she would feel better before the speech. After “sucking down Halls” all afternoon Wednesday, Wilkes was able to announce Braun, a fellow Chicago native, to nearly 300 people in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union.

“I was shocked they would ask me [to introduce her],” Wilkes said.

“Carol Moseley Braun is a great person. She has done a lot for the country as a U.S. Congresswoman and ambassador to New Zealand.”

Braun, the first black female U.S. senator, said when Thomas Jefferson declared that “All men are created equal,” he wasn’t entirely forthcoming. Equality, at the time, was not granted to the poor, females, blacks or American Indians.

But since then, changes in opinion have made it possible for the dream of equality to be realized, Braun said.

Had it not been for the Brown v. Board of Education decision, Braun said, segregation laws would have prevented her from even attending public schools.

“I have been fortunate to be a beneficiary of the efforts of a lot of ordinary people,” Braun said. “Those who gave life to the intent of the Declaration of Independence made the reality of what we are experiencing right now possible.”

Still, Braun said, one of the reasons she ran for the Democratic presidential nomination this year was to prove women have the credentials and the competence to “stick it out and show we can be president of this country.”

“It is no big deal to have a woman in leadership in New Zealand,” Braun said. “It is still a matter to be hoped for in America.”

Dianne Bystrom, director for the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics, said she applauds Braun for bringing a voice different than those presented by “white male politicians.”

“She ran as a woman of color, and she made it clear that was the voice she was bringing,” Bystrom said.

Most polls show Americans believe they will see a female president in their lifetime, she said.

“There have been women willing to run,” Bystrom said.

“If we have a woman run every presidential cycle, even as the underdog, it is going to help the American public view or understand a woman is qualified to be president.”

However, it was another prominent woman in politics who felt the wrath of Braun’s tongue after Karla Hardy, senior in sociology, asked Braun what advice she would give to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.

“I would have expected her to take responsibility for the mistakes this administration has made,” Braun said, but instead Rice has stood behind the administration, saying it did the right thing.

“Tell that to the American people who are less secure than they’ve ever been,” Braun said. “I’m going to do everything I can to help John Kerry name a new national security adviser.”