Shirley Chisholm
American Woman of Firsts
1924–2005 A.D.

As Vice President Kamala Harris ran for U.S. President in 2024, it was certainly newsworthy, and one element was because of various statements concerning her race. She was indeed the first Black woman to be the official candidate of a major political party; but some have claimed incorrectly that she was the first woman of color to run for the presidency. Actually that designation belonged to Shirley Chisholm who was the first Black woman to campaign for president, and who was also the first Black woman to be elected to the U.S. Congress. However, beyond the “firsts” she was a woman who throughout her career was a strong supporter for important issues for her constituents and all Americans.

Born in November, 1924 in Brooklyn, New York City, Shirley Anita St. Hill had an interesting heritage. Her parents were immigrants from the British Caribbean island of Barbados. Her laborer father and her seamstress mother struggled to care for their family, so one solution came when Shirley and two sisters traveled to Barbados in 1929, to live with their grandmother and to attend school. It was a memorable experience which had a great deal of influence on Shirley’s sense of future dedication. She later said, “Granny gave me strength, dignity and love. I learned from an early age that I was somebody. I didn’t need the Black revolution to teach me that.”

As she returned to the U.S. in 1934 she had acquired a lifelong West Indian accent.

In 1939 Shirley began attending a Brooklyn area widely regarded girls’ high school. At her graduation she was offered two prestigious out of town college scholarships but it proved to be more economical for her to attend the local Brooklyn College and live at home. She graduated cum laude in 1946.

In 1949 she married Conrad O. Chisholm, a fellow West Indian immigrant, and to their disappointment they had no children. After college graduation, Mrs. Chisholm began to work at a Harlem child care center as she continued graduate training. She earned her M.A. in childhood education from Columbia University in 1951.

In 1953 she became director of a major Child Care center in New York, serving until 1959, becoming a recognized expert in early education and child welfare. Also, from 1959 to 1964 she worked as an education consultant for the city’s daycare division. During this time, she became involved and active with community and political groups, including the NAACP as well as her local Democratic Party.

Then in 1964, as Mrs. Chisholm ran for a position in the New York State Assembly, she encountered opposition as she sought signatures for her nominating petition. One elderly Black man confronted her with the complaint: “Young woman, what are you doing out here in this cold? Did you get your husband’s breakfast this morning? Did you straighten up your house? What are you doing running for office? This is something for men.” According to Mrs. Chisholm’s later account, she explained her experience and commitment to the community to the man and “he ended up signing the petition.”

Despite some objections as to her gender, Mrs. Chisholm won the seat in 1964. She served in the Assembly from 1965 to 1968, helping to secure unemployment benefits for domestic workers, as well as programs assisting remedial education for students to enter college.

Then in 1968 she ran for the U.S. House of Representatives, with the campaign theme “Fighting Shirley Chisholm – Unbought and Unbossed.” She won the vote, and thus became the first Black woman elected to Congress and was also the only woman among that year’s new congressional representatives.

In Congress, Mrs. Chisholm continued to advocate for children with her service on several important committees. Interestingly, at first she hired only women for her office staff, half of them Black. Though she did employ male staffers later, she once said that in her New York legislative terms, she had encountered more discrimination because of her gender and not her race.

With an underfunded campaign expense total of only $300,000, Mrs. Chisholm sought to be considered a serious candidate instead of being a symbol. There was further subtle opposition from the Democratic political establishment as well as other male candidates. She was the first woman to appear in a presidential debate and as she sought the nomination she won 152 delegates before she withdrew.

After the 1972 election, Mrs. Chisholm returned to Congress where she continued to advocate for inner-city residents, deal with discrimination of women and also focused on land rights for indigenous people.

Mrs. Chisholm and her first husband were divorced in 1977, and she later married Arthur Hardwick Jr. a former New York State Assemblyman, and merchant in Buffalo. Still, she retained the Chisholm name for her public career. Then in April, 1979 her husband was injured in an accident. In 1983 Mrs. Chisholm announced she would retire from Congress to care for him and also because of continued political dissatisfaction in her own party. She said, “I’ve been so obsessed with politics and the desire to help my people all these years, I’ve never had time to think about my personal life. I think the accident was an instrument, God’s way of making me reassess my life.”

Once retired, Mrs. Chisholm had hoped that she could become a college president, but political opponents often blocked such an appointment. In 1984 she was the co-founder of what became the National Congress of Black Women. Also, she lectured widely and served as a professor at Mount Holyoke College from 1983-1987 and then as a visiting scholar at Spellman College in 1985. As she spoke she encouraged students to avoid intolerance and polarization. “If you don’t accept others who are different,” she said, “It means nothing that you’ve learned calculus.”

After her second husband died in 1986 and after moving to Florida, Mrs. Chisholm in 1993 was named by President Bill Clinton as Ambassador to Jamaica. However, she was unable to serve due to poor health. As to her legacy, she responded: ”I’d like them to say that Shirley Chisholm had guts. That’s how I’d like to be remembered.”

She passed away in January, 2005 and her monument was marked by the title of her autobiography Unbought and Unbossed.

In 2015 she was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

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Anne Adams is a retired church staffer. She lives in East Texas and has an historical column for a local newspaper. She has published in Christian and secular publications for more than 40 years.

References:
Wikipedia
Britannica