Her career in politics started in the early 1950's at the lowest rung on the political ladder, in Brooklyn's boss-run Democratic clubhouses. Persistently challenging the inequities of the machine, she came to be regarded as a trouble-making maverick -but one to be reckoned with. Her rise from local clubhouse worker to New York State Assemblywoman in Albany to Representative in the U.S. Congress was accomplished by the will of a dynamic, fighting woman with an unswerving belief in her own purpose: to put the needs of her people before political expediency.