757

Shirley Chisholm. As the first black woman to run for president for a major political party, she was years ahead of her time. So why don’t more people know about her?

She championed a bill to ensure domestic workers received benefits, was an advocate for improved access to education, and fought for the rights of immigrants.

“She had guts, and she made people believe that they too can be someone, that we are equal, that gender doesn’t mean you can’t achieve the highest office of government,” her goddaughter Marya Boseley says.

That desire to break boundaries was what drove Shirley Chisholm to make a run for president in 1972, seeking the Democratic nomination a mere three years after she became a congresswoman.

Ms Chisholm, whose slogan was “Unbought and Unbossed,” said she never expected to win but hoped her candidacy would “change the face and future of American politics”.

“I stand before you today, to repudiate the ridiculous notion that the American people will not vote for qualified candidates, simply because he is not white or because she is not a male,” she told supporters as she launched her campaign.

I never heard her name in school. Other than hearing Method Man say “I voted for Shirley Chisholm” on Blackout, I knew nothing about her til I read about her on the internet as an adult.

The Democratic Party really fucked Shirley Chisolm over because they wanted a “safe” candidate in George Mcgovern. Then they lost to Nixon.