About This Lesson
BY
Chaitram Aklu
To celebrate what would be the 100th birthday this year of Shirley Chisholm, the Museum of the City of New York mounted an exhibition titled: Changing the Face of Democracy: Shirley Chisholm at 100. The exhibition “explores the significance of Chisholm’s life and legacy and digs deep into her politics and policies.”
Shirley Anita Chisholm (nee St. Hill) was the first Black Woman to be elected to the United States Congress 48 years after women in the US won the right to vote via the 19th Amendment of 1920. Since then 45 Black women have served in Congress and 2 in the Senate.
Chisholm was born November 30, 1924 to working class immigrant parents, Charles Christopher St. Hill from Guyana and Ruby (Seale) St Hill from Barbados, in the Brownsville neighborhood Brooklyn New York.
Chisholm achieved recognition through her decades of struggle for racial justice, advocating for police and prison reform, an end to apartheid in South Africa, end to the Vietnam War, black unity and a new generation of Black leadership.
The exhibition shows “that, in addition to her symbolic importance as a trailblazer and insurgent, Chisholm worked actively for real change within and beyond the halls of power. She fought for everyday people by working behind the scenes to build coalitions across race, gender, class, and political affiliation, making both friends and enemies along the way” according to the curators.
Women gained the right to vote in 1920, 4 years before Chisholm was born. Yet in 1964 when she launched her first political campaign and went door knocking for her petition to get on the ballot for NYS Assembly 45 District, she faced skepticism and hostility. She was asked “Does your husband approved of you running?” and why she was not at home making her husband’s breakfast.
But it was for her struggle and successful fight to raise the national minimum wage in the US and to include domestic and farm workers that was said to be one of her proudest legislative achievements of her career.
The New York Times reported Chisholm “was instrumental in uniting the women's movement with the labor movement in support of the legislation. The two movements have been on opposite sides of the equal‐rights amendment in hard‐fought ratification battles in the state legislations.”
She had set up a special office within her Congressional Office, from which she coordinated with some 39 organizations to elicit their support. The legislation passed in 1974 by a vote of 287 to 130. As a result the minimum wage increased from $1.60 to $2.20 an hour benefiting 35 million workers, and included 1 million domestic workers who previously were excluded. It also provided funding for longer opening hours of childcare facilities to benefit working mothers and low-income families. Chisholm’s mother had worked briefly as a domestic when she arrived from Barbados in 1921.
Chisholm’s road to greatness through struggle was not planned to go in that direction. When a college professor suggested Chisholm enter politics, she reminded him “you forgot two things. I’m Black-and I’m a woman.” She decided to pursue a career in education. She worked as a teacher’s aide in Harlem, and as a Day Care Administrator in Manhattan. She earned a Bachelor’s Degree from Brooklyn College and a Master’s in Elementary Education from Columbia University, the way many immigrant families sacrificed – working while studying.
When she won the New York State 45th Assembly District in 1964, it was historic - becoming only the second Black woman to be elected to the Assembly. (Bessie Allison Buchanan was first - in 1954). “During her four years in Albany, she fought for higher minimum wage, protections for domestic workers, education funding for minority students, and other policies that addressed her constituent’s needs.”
Like her father, she was a dedicated supporter of the rights of trade union members. However on one occasion in putting her constituents’ needs above everything else she opposed a union strike in which the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) led by Albert Shanker, joined with the Board of Education in its attempt to dismantle local Community Boards. A flyer calling the strike an unjust cause, rallied members of the community to join a demonstration outside UFT Headquarters: “Resistance to Integration caused Black and Puerto Rican people to say: If you are going to keep us in the Ghetto, then at least we must have control of it.” It urged.
In 1968 Chisholm was elected Representative for the 12th US Congressional District of New York becoming the first Black woman to be elected to the United States Congress. She served seven terms from 1969 to 1983.
In 1972 Chisholm became the first woman in any major political party to run for President, using the motto “Unbought and Unbossed” (later the title of her book) for her campaign: “She rallied a diverse coalition of young people, people of color, women, LGBTQIA+ folks, and other marginalized groups to join the “Chisholm Trail” where they might shape the Democratic Party and re-imagine a version of American democracy that included everyone.”
At the 1972 Democratic National Convention in Miami, she was the only Black woman who had 30 pledged delegates. However she failed to convince other black and women delegates to switch their votes for her. She was able to muster only 152 delegate votes, while George McGovern won with 1,729. McGovern won the Party’s nomination but Richard Nixon won his second term as President.
She would continue to serve another 15 years in Congress after her 1972 Presidential run.
A famous quote attributed to Chisholm was “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.” According to Donna Brazile a Democratic Party Leader, this quote was never recorded or written down but it encapsulates Chisholm’s determination for inclusion and desire to get things done.”
She was featured on the cover of Ebony Magazine of February 1969; was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus in 1971 and Congressional Black Caucus for Women’s Issues in 1977; A documentary about her life and struggle: CHISHOLM ’72 Unbought and unbossed” was produced by film producer Shola Lynch.
During her lifetime Chisholm received 35 honorary doctoral degrees and 14 awards from national and international organizations and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously in 2015.
Chisholm’s struggle for civil rights, women’s rights, and economic equality is recognized in Washington DC, and in her native Borough of Brooklyn, where the Shirley Chisholm State Park covering 407 acres – the largest State Park in New York City opened on July 2, 2019. And last year a permanent public artwork of her was commissioned to be erected in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park – the first of a series to honor women in Brooklyn. The 32-foot-tall stenciled metal in green and outlined in gold was designed by artists Amanda Williams and Olalekan B. Jeyifous.
After retiring, Chisholm moved to Florida where she spent the last decade of her life. She died on New Year’s Day 2005 at the age of 80 but she “left the door ajar” for others to enter.
