Our History is American History - Shirley Chisholm

Representation matters! As a little black girl in the 70s, most of my dolls were white. My favorite doll was the Drowsy Doll. You pull her string and she said, "I'm Sleepy". She probably said some other things but that's all I remember. One thing I definitely remember is that I tried to color her little white plastic skin. Drowsy looked a mess before all was said and done. Now you're probably thinking, I tried to color her black or brown. Those colors were there but Drowsy ended up with a lot of colors on her face. I guess I embraced DIVERSITY before I knew I should. As I got older, I began to appreciate having black dolls, seeing black people in entertainment, and learning about Shirley Chisholm! A Black Woman ran for the office of President...OH BOY! That was pretty cool! Well we know how the story goes, Shirley was the first but she wasn't the last. On Presidents Day, thank you Shirley for bringing that folding chair to the table! 

In 1968, Shirley Chisholm became the first African-American congresswoman. Four years later, she became the first major-party black candidate to make a bid for the U.S. presidency. Her motto and title of her autobiography—Unbossed and Unbought—illustrated her outspoken advocacy for women and minorities during her seven terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. Throughout her political career, Chisholm fought for education opportunities and social justice.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, November 30, 1924, Chisholm was the oldest of four daughters to immigrant parents Charles St. Hill, a factory worker from Guyana, and Ruby Seale St. Hill, a seamstress from Barbados. She graduated from Brooklyn Girls’ High in 1942 and from Brooklyn College cum laude in 1946, where she won prizes on the debate team. Although professors encouraged her to consider a political career, she replied that she faced a “double handicap” as both black and female. Prior to politics, Chisholm worked as a nursery school teacher. In 1949, she married Conrad Q. Chisholm, a private investigator who she later divorced in 1977. She went on to earn a master’s degree from Columbia University in early childhood education in 1951. By 1960, she was a consultant to the New York City Division of Day Care. Ever aware of racial and gender inequality, she joined local chapters of the League of Women Voters, the NAACP, the Urban League, as well as the Democratic Party club in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.

In 1964, Chisholm ran for and became the second African American in the New York State Legislature. After court-ordered redistricting created a new, heavily Democratic, district in her neighborhood, in 1968 Chisholm sought and won a seat in Congress. There, “Fighting Shirley” introduced more than 50 pieces of legislation and championed racial and gender equality, the plight of the poor, and ending the Vietnam War. She was a co-founder of the National Women's Political Caucus in 1971, and in 1977 became the first black woman and second woman ever to serve on the powerful House Rules Committee. That year she married Arthur Hardwick Jr., a New York State legislator.

Chisholm went on to make history yet again, becoming the first African American and the second woman to make a bid for the U.S. presidency with a major party when she ran for the Democratic nomination in 1972. In announcing her bid, Chisholm said: "I am not the candidate of black America, although I am black and proud. I am not the candidate of the women's movement of this country, although I am a woman and I am equally proud of that. I am the candidate of the people, and my presence before you now symbolizes a new era in American political history." Discrimination followed Chisholm’s quest for the 1972 Democratic Party presidential nomination. She was blocked from participating in televised primary debates, and after taking legal action, was permitted to make just one speech. Still, students, women, and minorities followed the “Chisholm Trail.” She entered 12 primaries and garnered 152 of the delegates’ votes (10% of the total), despite an under-financed campaign and contentiousness from the predominantly male Congressional Black Caucus. Although she ran a spirited campaign, Chisholm was unable to consolidate the support of influential black leaders, giving way for South Dakota Senator George McGovern to claim the Democratic nomination.

Chisholm retired from Congress in 1983 and went on to teach at Mount Holyoke College. She also co-founded the National Political Congress of Black Women. In 1991, she moved to Florida and later declined the nomination to become US Ambassador to Jamaica due to ill health. Of her legacy, Chisholm said, “I want to be remembered as a woman … who dared to be a catalyst of change.” Shirley Chisholm died on January 1, 2005, at the age of 80, in Ormond Beach, FL. In November 2015, she was posthumously awarded the distinguished Presidential Medal of Freedom.