Chisholm, Shirley

Source:

 Black Women in America, Second Edition

Chisholm, Shirley

Sex:  Female

Born:  Bedford-Stuyvesant, New York, New York, United States
30 November 1924

Died:  Ormond Beach, Florida, United States
1 January 2005

Activity/Profession:  U.S. Representative, Educator, Presidential Candidate, Orator

(b. 30 April 1924, d. 1 January 2005),
politician.

Chisholm made a career out of breaking down barriers. She was both the first black woman to be elected to United States Congress and the first woman or African American to mount a serious run at a major party's nomination for president. Chisholm forged a strong reputation for doing things her own way, spurning both the New York Democratic political machine and political decorum. Despite the obstacles that came with bucking the system, Chisholm always held her ground on important issues such as abortion, women's rights, and civil rights.

Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman to be elected to the United States House of Representatives.

Florida State Archives

view larger image

Chisholm was born the eldest of three sisters to West Indian parents, Charles St. Hill and Ruby Seale, in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York. Shirley's father worked as a baker's helper and later a factory hand, and her mother found employment as a seamstress. However, Hill and Seale quickly realized that their wages were insufficient to support their children.

In 1928 Shirley and her siblings moved to their grandmother's farm in Barbados, where they spent their early childhood while their parents gained a financial foothold in the United States. Shirley lived with her grandmother from 1928 until March 1934. During this time she developed a special bond with her grandmother, later declaring that she “made the biggest imprint on [Chisholm].” She learned to respect her grandmother's strong commitment to discipline and found in her a role model as a strong black woman.

When Shirley returned to the United States, she found another role model, her father. Charles St. Hill, an ardent Garveyite, passed on to his daughter an interest in current affairs and public policy. She credits him with nurturing her interest in politics and civil rights. She and her father shared a close bond until his sudden death in 1963.

Because of consistent prodding from her parents and a knack for doing well in school, Chisholm was consistently rated in the top portion of her class at Brooklyn's Girls High School. In addition to academic achievement, she was also elected vice president of the Girls Honor Society during a time when few black students were considered for elected positions within the student body. After her graduation in 1942, Chisholm received a number of scholarship offers from such schools as Vassar and Oberlin. However, for financial reasons, she was forced to stay close to home and attend Brooklyn College.

In the early 1940s, most paths in higher education remained closed to African Americans, especially African American women. This influenced Chisholm's decision to major in sociology and pursue a teaching degree. Still, her earlier interests in politics could not be suppressed altogether. While attending Brooklyn College, she was active in a number of groups—the Political Science Society, NAACP, Urban League, and Harriet Tubman Society, to name a few—that showed her concern for social affairs. In fact, one of her favorite professors, Dr. Louis Warsoff, even suggested that she might want to consider going into politics during this time. Nonetheless, Chisholm continued pursuing a degree in teaching, graduating cum laude in 1946.

After graduation Chisholm found it difficult to secure a job as a teacher's aide because of her youthful appearance. However, after boldly demanding she be given a chance, she received her first job as an aide at Mt. Calvary Child Care Center in Harlem. She worked at Mt. Calvary for seven years, during which time she also pursued a master's degree in early childhood education at Columbia University.

Despite the fact that she was satisfied in her role as an educator, Chisholm remained active on the local political scene. She joined the local political club, the Seventeenth Assembly District Democratic Club. The club was unofficially segregated, and the white members made all of the decisions about which candidates were and were not elected in the primaries. During her early membership, Chisholm made waves when she argued that women did most of the fund-raising but reaped none of the benefits. In addition to her protests on behalf of women, Chisholm also pointed out that, even though black people were the majority in the district, they received no say in the club and their neighborhoods received sub par police service and garbage pickup.

Disillusioned with club politics, Chisholm joined forces with Mac Holder, who formed the Bedford-Stuyvesant Political League. Holder's group sought to get more black politicians elected and had a victory in 1953 with the election of Lewis S. Flagg. Despite this early triumph, the League was never able to duplicate the success. Tensions came to a head in 1958 when Chisholm and Holder's relationship erupted in a power struggle for the League. Holder eventually won out, but his reputation and the League itself were badly damaged in the effort.

Chisholm retreated from politics for nearly two years before resurfacing in 1960 with the formation of the Unity Democratic Club. Chisholm and a few others intent on undermining the Democratic political machine in Bedford-Stuyvesant organized the club. After a rocky start, the UDC was able to mount successful challenges to the white Democratic Club machine under the slogan “end boss-ruled plantation politics.” By 1962, the white Democratic Club had been destroyed in Bedford-Stuyvesant and Chisholm's UDC was firmly in control.

Two years later, Chisholm decided to enter the political arena herself and ran for the New York State Assembly. Despite some initial misgivings about running a woman for the job, the UDC eventually backed her in an underfunded campaign. Chisholm withdrew $4,000 of her own money from the bank and ran an old-fashioned campaign, beating the streets on a grueling schedule. Chisholm reached the people and won her first official position in politics in 1964.

During her short stay in state-level politics, Chisholm was remarkably successful both in breaking down the political machine and in pushing through her own bills. She was hard nosed about her voting strategy, refusing to be bullied into voting with the political machine despite threats that her career would be over if she continued. While she was in the Assembly, she managed to pass eight of the fifty bills she introduced. Her bills addressed important issues relevant to her district: one bill made it easier for disadvantaged youth to attend college, and another prevented female teachers from being denied tenure based on interruption in service due to pregnancy.

After the districts were redrawn to prevent the longstanding gerrymandering that had limited black involvement in politics, Chisholm took the opportunity to run for the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1968 she launched a campaign for the newly formed seat in the Twelfth District, which contained 69 percent black and Puerto Rican residents. The Republican Party put up former national chairman of CORE, James Farmer, even though he did not live in the district. The results were overwhelming. “Fighting Shirley Chisholm—Unbought and Unbossed” had become the first black woman ever elected to the U.S. Congress.

Just three years later, Chisholm made history again when she threw her hat into the Democratic pool of nominees for presidency “to demonstrate sheer will and refusal to accept the status quo.” Chisholm made her bid for the presidency in order to convince an apathetic public that politics could make a difference in their lives and close the distance between the everyday people and the national political stage. Chisholm faced amazing obstacles in her run for the Democratic nomination. She had difficulty collecting funds for her campaign, and she received a lukewarm reception from both the Democratic Party and African American groups. However, the campaign funds she did manage to collect were from private citizens in donations that were almost always less than $10. Despite the financial burden and the slim chance of victory, Chisholm continued her campaign all the way to the 1972 Democratic National Convention in Miami. She received 151 votes in the first round and was the first woman or African American ever to be considered for a presidential nomination at a major party convention.

Chisholm remained in the House of Representatives for ten years after her bid for the presidency. She was a strong supporter of the cause to legalize abortion as well as other progressive issues for both women and minorities. Chisholm was also an early member of the National Organization for Women (NOW) and one of the founders of the National Women's Political Caucus in 1971.

From her retirement in politics in 1983 into the early twenty-first century, Chisholm remained active on the college-lecture circuit. She was a Purington Professor at Mount Holyoke College from 1983 to 1987 as well as a visiting scholar at Spelman College in 1985. She also came out in support of Jesse Jackson's presidential campaigns in 1984 and 1988. She won a number of awards after her retirement, both for her work with children in the education field and for her work in advancing women's issues. Chisholm died at her home in Ormond Beach, Florida, in 2005 after suffering several strokes.

During her career, Chisholm challenged the status quo to make government work for the people. By confronting racial and gender barriers, attacking political bosses, and staying true to herself, Chisholm continued to serve as a role model to black people, women, and anyone interested in improving the way that politics works for the people. By remaining “unbought and unbossed,” Shirley Chisholm exhibited a level of integrity and commitment that should serve as the standard for politicians and citizens alike.

processed xml | source xml