Shirley
Chisholm, profile of the African American woman who
was candidate for the Democratic Presidential Nomination.
Shirley St. Hill Chisholm was born on November 30,
1924 in Brooklyn, New York to Charles and Ruby St.
Hill. Her father was from British Guiana and her mother
was from Barbados. In 1927, Shirley was sent to Barbados
to live with her maternal grandmother. She received
a good education from the British school system, which
she later credited with providing her with a strong
academic background.
In 1934, she rejoined her
parents in New York. Shirley excelled in academics
at Girls High School in Brooklyn from which she graduated
in 1942. After graduation she enrolled in Brooklyn
College where she majored in sociology. Shirley encountered
racism at Brooklyn College and fought against it.
When the black students at Brooklyn College were denied
admittance to a social club, Shirley formed an alternative
one. She graduated in 1946 with honors. During this
time, it was difficult for black college graduates
to obtain employment comparable to their education.
After being rejected by many companies, she obtained
a job at the Mt. Calvary Childcare Center in Harlem.
In 1949, she married Conrad
Chisholm, a Jamaican who worked as a private investigator.
Shirley and her husband participated in local politics,
helping form the Bedford-Stuyvesant political League.
In addition to participating in politics, Chisholm
worked in the field of day care until 1959. In 1960,
she started the Unity Democratic Club. The Unity Club
was instrumental in mobilizing black and Hispanic
voters.
In 1964 Chisholm ran for a
state assembly seat. She won and served in the New
York General Assembly from 1964 to 1968. During her
tenure in the legislature, she proposed a bill to
provide state aid to day-care centers and voted to
increase funding for schools on a per-pupil basis.
In 1968, After finishing her term in the legislature,
Chisholm campaigned to represent New York's Twelfth
Congressional District. Her campaign slogan was "Fighting
Shirley Chisholm--Unbought and Unbossed." She
won the election and became the first African American
woman elected to Congress.
During her first term in Congress,
Chisholm hired an all-female staff and spoke out for
civil rights, women's rights, the poor and against
the Vietnam War. In 1970, she was elected to a second
term. She was a sought-after public speaker and cofounder
of the National Organization for Women (NOW). She
remarked that, "Women in this country must become
revolutionaries. We must refuse to accept the old,
the traditional roles and stereotypes."
On January 25, 1972, Chisholm
announced her candidacy for president. She stood before
the cameras and in the beginning of her speech she
said, "I stand before you today as a candidate
for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency of
the United States. 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 not the candidate of any political bosses or
special interests. I am the candidate of the people."
The 1972 Democratic National Convention in Miami was
the first major convention in which any woman was
considered for the presidential nomination. Although
she did not win the nomination, she received 151 of
the delegates' votes. She continued to serve in the
House of Representatives until 1982. She retired from
politics after her last term in office. She has received
many honorary degrees, and her awards include Alumna
of the Year, Brooklyn College; Key Woman of the Year;
Outstanding Work in the Field of Child Welfare; and
Woman of Achievement. She continues her work as a
lecturer, teacher and political mentor.
In summary, Shirley Chisholm,
born in 1924, got her degrees from Brooklyn College
and Columbia University. She became an influential
education consultant and authority on child welfare.
She was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives
from home state of New York in 1968. She fought for
women’s independence all her life time and we can
see this in her works, such as: Unbought and Unbossed
(1970, autobiographical), The Good Fight (1973), I’d
Rather Be Black Than Female (the present text).
