Shirley Chisholm
November 30, 1924 – Died January 3, 2005
“Of my two “handicaps” being female put more obstacles in my path than being black.”
The first AA woman elected to Congress and the first to run for President on a major party. She had my vote!
Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm (November 30, 1924 – January 3, 2005) was an American politician, educator and author. She was a Congresswoman, representing New York’s 12th Congressional District for seven terms from 1969 to 1983. In 1968, she became the first African American woman elected to Congress. On January 25, 1972, she became the first major-party African American candidate for President of the United States. She received 152 first-ballot votes at the 1972 Democratic National Convention.
Author of “Unbossed and Unbought”, and “The Good Fight”, Chisholm lived her life in the service of education, the poor and disadvantaged. Elected to the 12th district in New York, she focused on the problems of the inner city. She was nominated to the Women’s Hall of Fame in 1993. If you were not around to know this remarkable woman, it’s worth the time and effort to see the PBS features. PBS noted in their synopsis of the feature the following:
At a time when Americans were just beginning to contemplate the possibility of a black man running for president, Chisholm was black and female. “CHISHOLM ’72” describes her formative years, from modest roots in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood and a childhood in Barbados, to winning election to the New York State Assembly and then, in 1968, to become the first black woman ever elected to the U.S. Congress. Although she was no stranger to controversy, the documentary reveals the visceral opposition and blatant disregard to the Congresswoman’s candidacy that came from the establishment and the media.
Many reporters assumed she had no chance of winning and felt she was a spoiler. Feminists, who agreed entirely with Chisholm’s politics, preferred a different strategy, looking to Senator George McGovern as the realistic Democratic candidate. (McGovern eventually won the nomination.)
This is the same ex Senator George McGovern still living in SD that supported Obama against his state’s support of Clinton. Imagine if feminists had pulled together then! She garnered 28 delegates on her own. That Hubert Humphrey gave his delegates to her at the Democratic Convention was a grand gesture. However, Ron Dellum’s negotiation of this gift, apparently precluded her stump speech on the Convention floor. Thus, she never was able to address the DNC at large.
She was a cofounder of the Congressional Black Caucus. (CBC)
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Women of the Hall: Shirley Chisholm
I Own My Vote, PUMA, The Denver Group, Just Say No Deal
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[…] Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm Shirley Chisholm November 30, 1924 – Died January 3, 2005 “Of my two “handicaps” being female put more obstacles in my path than being black.” […]
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