Black History Month: Shirley Chisolm

Shirley Chisholm 

known for making History in 1972 when she became the first African American from a major political party to run for president. Shirley is the first Democratic woman of any race to do so. Chisholm’s presidential bid wasn’t her only accomplishment throughout her 80-year life.

Born: November 30, 1924 in New York City

Education Brooklyn College

Became part of Delta Sigma Theta sorority and the Harriet Tubman Society

Causes: She advocate for an African American history curriculum. As well as for women to be student government leaders, among other causes.

Career: Worked in Preschools

Consulted: New York City Bureau of Child Welfare

Politics: She worked to get Lewis Flagg Jr. to become Brooklyn’s first Black judge and she worked in Belford-Stuyvesant Political League

She ran for New York State Assembly in 1964

In 1968 she won, becoming the first African American woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives

1970 Autobiography Unbought and Unbossed,”

Accomplishments:  honorary co-president of National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws (NARAL) in 1969 and  co-founder to National Organization for Women (NOW) in 1970. 

1971, Chisholm became a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus and the National Women’s Political Caucus

She establish the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children

Her second book she published was The Good Fight, published in 1973

In  1974 minimum wage law— was passed through Congress thanks to her.

Co-Founded the National Congress of Black Women

1990, she co-founded African American Women for Reproductive Freedom

President Bill Clinton nominated her to serve as United States Ambassador to Jamaica in 1993