CBTU

Shirley Chisholm 2.8.21 If you ever wondered what it is like for a black woman in politics, look no further. Shirley Anita St Hill Chisholm was the very first B...lack American woman to enter Congress in 1968, and the first African American seek presidency. On November 30, 1924, Shirley was born in Brooklyn, New York, Chisholm is the oldest of four daughters to immigrant parents Charles St. Hill and Ruby Seale. Her dad Charles St. Hill worked as a factory worker, and her mother Ruby Seale was a seamstress. Chisholm graduated from Brooklyn Girls High School in 1942 and went on to attend Brooklyn College which she graduated from in 1946. As you can see education was no laughing matter for Shirley. Even though her professors were constantly encouraging her to go to into the political field, Chisholm responded that she faced a double handicap being black and a woman. Early in her career, Shirley worked as a preschool teacher. She married a private investigator, Conrad Q. Chisholm in 1949, Shirley and Conrad later divorced in 1977. Then, in 1951 she received her master's degree in Early Childhood from Columbia University. 9 years later, in 1960 she was a consultant to New York City Division of Daycare. Being aware of gender and racial inequalities, she joined local council of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), League of Women Voters, the Urban League, and the Democratic Party Club in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. In 1964, Chisholm ran and became the second Black American in the New York Legislature. After court-ordered redistricting created a new, Democratic, district in her neighborhood, Shirley saw this as a chance and won her seat as a congress member in 1968. She spoke on racial and gender equality, she was able to introduce over 50 pieces of legislation, the conditions of the poor, and ending the Vietnam War. She was a co-founder of the National Women’s Political Caucus in 1971, then in 1977 she became the first Black woman and second woman to serve on the powerful House Rules Committee. That same year she remarried, she married Arthur Hardwick Jr, a New York legislator. Shirley faced discrimination on her journey to the 1972 Democratic Party presidential nomination. She was restricted from participating in televised primary debates, only after taking legal action was this ban lifted. Even with the lift she was still only allowed to make one speech. That still didn’t stop people from hearing her out students, women and minorities stayed on the Chisholm Trail. She entered 12 primaries and earned 152 of the delegates votes, regardless of her under financed campaign and the belligerence from the predominantly male Congressional Black Caucus. In 1983, Chisholm retired from Congress. She became a teacher at Mount Holyoke College and co-founded the National Political Congress of Black Women. In 1991, she moved to Florida where she turned down the nomination to become a U.S. Ambassador due to poor health conditions. Chisholm once said, I want to be remembered as a woman who dared to be a catalyst of change. #ThisIsBlackHistory #ShirleyChisholm #blackexcellence

This is Black History

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