“I want to be remembered as a woman … who dared to be a catalyst of change.”
Shirley Chisholm was the first black woman elected to the United States Congress in 1968, where she represented New York’s 12th congressional district from 1969 until 1983.
Chisholm grew up in Brooklyn, New York where she graduated from Brooklyn Girls’ High in 1942 and from Brooklyn College cum laude in 1946. A prize-winning debater, Chisholm’s professors encouraged her to seek a career in politics, but she went into teaching as she felt she faced a “double handicap” as being both black and female.
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. In 1968, after court-ordered redistricting created a new, heavily Democratic district in her neighborhood, Chisholm won a seat in Congress. She became known as “Fighting Shirley” as she 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 House Rules Committee.
From 1977 to 1981, Chisholm served as Secretary of the House Democratic Caucus. During her time in Congress she worked to improve opportunities for inner-city residents. She opposed the draft and supported reductions in military spending. She fought for spending increases in education, social services and health care. Chisholm retired from Congress in 1983.
On January 25, 1972, Chisholm formally announced her candidacy for President. She became the first black major-party candidate to run for President of the United States. She was also the first woman to run for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. In her announcement, Chisholm described herself as a representative of the people and offered a new articulation of American identity: “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 equally proud of that. I am the candidate of the people and my presence before you symbolizes a new era in American political history.”
After retiring from Congress, Chisholm went back to teaching. From 1983 to 1987, she taught politics and sociology at Mount Holyoke in Massachusetts. In 1993, Chisholm was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. She authored two autobiographical books: Unbought and Unbossed (1970) and The Good Fight (1973).