Shirley Chisholm

by Brianna Carlson

Shirley Chisholm was born on November 30, 1924, in Brooklyn, New York. She was born to Charles Christopher St Hill and Ruby Seale, making Shirley the oldest of three children. Shirley Chisholm is widely known for being the first black woman ever to be elected to the United States Congress.

Starting from childhood, at the age of 5, Shirley and her two sisters traveled to live with their grandmother in Barbados on a farm in the Vauxhall village. On May 19, 1934, Shirley moved from Barbados to New York In 1939 Shirley was attending a High School located in Bedford–Stuyvesant, a neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. During high school, Shirley was elected by her peers to be vice president of the Junior Arista honor society. After graduating high school, Shirley went on to attend Brooklyn College, where she majored in sociology and minored in Spanish. Throughout her college years, Shirley was recognized for her debating skills, as well as her commitment to the Harriet Tubman Society and the Delta Sigma Theta sorority.

In 1964, Shirley ran for a seat in the New York State assembly. Appealing directly to female voters, Shirley won the seat in December, receiving over 18,000 votes over the opposing candidates. During her time in the New York State Legislature, Shirley held the 175th, 176th, and 177th seats. In August 1968, Shirley was elected Democratic National Committee woman from New York. That same year, Shirley decided to run for a seat in the U.S. To do so she ran for the 12th congressional district in New York. In the general election, Shirley beat her opponent James Farmer making her the first black woman to be elected to Congress. In 1972, four years later, Shirley became the first African American to run for a major party's presidential nomination. She achieved this while running in the 1972 U.S. presidential election; while running for the election, Shirley became the first woman to run for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination

Although Shirley made many achievements in the political scene, unfortunately, she left Congress in January 1983 and moved to Williamsville, New York. Shirley then held the Purington Chair while working at Mount Holyoke College for four years. In 1984, alongside C. Delores Tucker, Shirley cofounded the National Black Women's Political Caucus. Later on in her life, Shirley helped form the African-American Women for Reproductive Freedom. In 1991 after the death of her husband, Shirley moved to Ormond Beach, Florida. In 1993, Shirley was nominated to be the United States Ambassador to Jamaica but sadly she was unable to take the position due to poor health. On January 1, 2005, Shirley passed away in her home and was buried in the Birchwood Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Cemetery located in Buffalo, New York.