Shirley Chisholm
Born Shirley Anita St. Hill on November 30, 1924 in Brooklyn to two immigrant parents. Her father Charles Christopher St. Hill was born in British Guiana and her mother, Ruby Seale, was born in Christ Church, Barbados. Shirley had three sisters and when they were young their parents decided it would be best to send the oldest girls to Barbados to live with their grandmother while they remained in the US and worked. In 1934 she and her sisters returned to Brooklyn where in 1939 she attended Girls’ High School in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. In 1946 Shirley graduated from Brooklyn College. While at Brooklyn College she was a member of Delta Sigma Theta, the debate team and the Harriet Tubman Society.
Sometime in the late 1940s Shirley met her husband Conrad O. Chisholm, a private investigator who had migrated from Jamaica, they married in 1949 and would later divorce in 1977. Shirley earned a master’s degree from Columbia University in early childhood education. She went on to be a consultant to the New York City Division of Day Care. Along with being an advocate for education she also fought against racism and was a member of the League of Women Voters, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Urban League, and the Democratic Party club in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Shirley became the second African American in the New York State Legislature in 1964 and went on to win a seat in Congress in 1968. While in Congress she became known as “Fighting Shirley''. She introduced legislation, fought for gender and racial equality and for the end of the Vietnam War. Shirley co-founded the National Women’s Political Caucus in 1971. In 1977, after her divorce from her first husband she married Arthur Hardwick Jr. a New York State legislator and she also became the first Black woman and second woman to serve on the House of Rules Committee.
In 1972 Shirley announced her candidacy for the Democratic Party presidential nomination. She believed the candidates running did not have the interests of Black and minority voters. On her quest she faced a lot of racial discrimination. Shirley was only permitted to make one speech after she took legal action because she had been barred from participating in the televised primary debates. She famously called herself the “candidate of the people of America” (video of her speech is below) and students, women and minorities followed her and she did get on 12 primary ballots and got 152 of the delegate votes.
Shirley retired from Congress in 1983 stating she wanted more time with her second husband, Arthur. After retirement she taught at Mount Holyoke College as well as co-founded the National Political Congress of Black Women. She was offered the nomination to become an Ambassador to Jamaica by President Bill Clinton but turned it down due to her declining health.
Shirley died at the age of 80 on January 1, 2005 at her home in Florida leaving behind a legacy of a woman who was “Unbought and Unbossed.”*
Shirley Chisholm: Declares Presidential Bid, January 25, 1972
Allie’s Notes:
* Unbought and Unbossed was the name of Shirley’s Autobiography.
Sources:
https://history.house.gov/People/Listing/C/CHISHOLM,-Shirley-Anita-(C000371)/
Chicago - Michals, Debra. "Shirley Chisholm." National Women's History Museum. 2015. www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/shirley-chisholm.
Photograph Details: Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm announcing her candidacy for presidential nomination. Film negative by photographer Thomas J. O'Halloran, 1972. From the U.S. News & World Report Collection. Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/2003688123
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