Being the first black woman member of Congress would have been enough to make history, but for Shirley Chisholm it wasn't enough. Three years after her election, she would also become the first woman to ever run for the presidency of the Democratic party.
When she announced her intention 50 years ago on January 25, 1972, Chisholm said:"I am a revolutionary at heart and now I must run, even though it may be the downfall of my career."
She may not have managed to get elected, but her career certainly didn't stop there.
Who was it
Born Shirley St. Hill on November 30, 1924 in New York, Chisholm spent part of her childhood in the islands of Barbados with her grandmother, where she was originally from. In 1946 he graduated from Brooklyn College, where he won a number of awards with the "debate team" in which he participated. Although teachers encouraged her to pursue a political career, she quipped that she faced a "double disadvantage" as both black and female.
She began working as a teacher and soon earned a master's degree in elementary education from Columbia University. She served as director of the Hamilton-Madison Child Welfare Center from 1953 to 1959 and later as an educational consultant for the New York City Bureau of Child Welfare until 1964.
This year would be especially important for the talented teacher. It was the year she ran for office, becoming only the second African-American woman to enter the New York State Legislature.
After the court's redistricting decision created a new, heavily Democratic district in her neighborhood, in 1968 Chisholm sought—and won—a seat in Congress.
There, "Fighting Shirley" introduced more than 50 pieces of legislation and strongly advocated for racial equality, gender equality, and ending the Vietnam War.
True to her ideals, Chisholm hired only women for her office, half of whom were African-American.
The nomination
In January 1972, she officially announced her intention to run for the Democratic presidency, making her the first black American woman to run for the nomination of a major party and the first woman to run for the Democratic nomination. This expectation automatically makes her the first African-American woman to enter the race for the US presidency.
During her historic campaign speech in her hometown of Brooklyn, Chisholm said, among other things:
"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 it. I am the candidate of the American people and my presence before symbolizes to you a new era in American political history".
Racism and threats
Of course, white racists could not easily digest her candidacy, and from the first moment, the obstacles they put in her way were great. They did not succeed in discouraging her, however.
There were many threats against her life, and when words turned into action, and they actually attempted to assassinate her, she was forced to accept the protection of the Secret Service.
At the same time, he would have to proceed with lawsuits in order to be able to take part in the televised debates, from which he had been excluded for obvious reasons. All he managed in the end was to appear just once on television.
And "her people" did not support her as much as they should have. Her decision to run for the Democratic nomination caught many members of the "Black MPs" off guard, which made them quite unhappy. They never approved that he acted before a formal and unified decision was made. Let's not forget that they were all men.
"When I ran for Congress and when I ran for president, I encountered more discrimination for being a woman than for being black," she would say many years later. Men are men.
But Chisholm couldn't wait any longer. On the night she announced her campaign, when someone mentioned the "Black MPs" disputes to her, she told the crowd that had gathered:
"While they strike with words, I open roads".
Although her campaign was not as well financed as her competitors, Chisholm, with the support of women, the poor and minorities, managed to get through the primaries, win 28 delegates and finally, at the following Democratic National Convention, fourth in a row. It was undeniably a great success.
After Congress
Chisholm retired from Congress in 1982, but not from the public. Although she planned to spend more time with her second husband, Arthur Hardwick Jr., she returned to teaching, this time at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. At the same time, he continued to tour colleges across the country and give speeches.
"I want history to remember me not as the first black woman to run for president of the United States, but as a black woman who lived in the 20th century and who dared to be herself," she said at one point. "I want to be remembered as a catalyst for change in America."
He died on New Year's Day 2005 at the age of 80 in Ormond Beach, Florida. Her grave is located in Buffalo, the second largest city in the state of New York and the inscription on her mausoleum reads "Unbought and Unbossed". This was her motto throughout her life.