“I want history to remember me not just as the first black woman to be
elected to Congress, not as the first black woman to have made a bid for the
presidency of the United States, but as a black woman who lived in the 20th
century and dared to be herself.”
— Shirley Chisholm
The 1960s were not the easiest time to be a Black
woman in America. This period was marked with civil unrest, racial
violence, hate crimes, protests, and many changes to laws. It is easy for
younger people now to forget that just 60 years ago there was segregation,
lynching, and protests over housing and employment laws meant to equalize all
men and women in the spirit of the Constitution. In the middle of all of
this turmoil there was a trailblazer who had the gumption to run for public
office without the support of either the white feminist movement or the black
male political movement (Gill).
Shirley Chisholm was born in New York in 1924 to
immigrant parents. She was well educated, a great orator, and
ambitious. She started her career as a teacher, but went on to become an
accomplished politician who dedicated much of her service to the oppressed.
In 1968 she became the first Black woman elected to Congress, and
she later was the first woman and Black person to seek a major party
presidential nomination. All of this would be impressive for anyone, but it is
especially important to view these facts in conjunction with the upheaval of
her era. When Ms. Chisholm was born, women had just gained the right to
vote. It was unimaginable to many that a Black woman would ever be
capable of making an honest run for the presidency.
Ms. Chisholm has a long list of accomplishments,
but she was much more than a sum of her parts. She embodies the concepts
of womanism with her outspoken nature, her willingness to fight for the rights
of those who had previously been unrepresented, and her dedication to advancing
women and girls. As a masterful orator, author, and politician, Ms.
Chisholm left us a large body of work to study and appreciate. This
blog has been created as a place to tell Shirley Chisholm’s stories and gain an
appreciation for what she gave to all women and particularly women of color.
Works Cited
Gill, LaVerne McCain. African American Women in
Congress: Forming and Transforming History.
New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1997. 16-34. Print.
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