Shirley Chisholm

BORN: NOVEMBER 30, 1924, BROOKLYN, NY

DIED: JANUARY 1, 2005, ORMOND BEACH, FL

You don’t make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas.

Throughout her life, Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm was keenly aware of the dual obstacles of being Black and a woman. But those obstacles never stopped her. In 1968, she became the first Black woman elected to the United States Congress, and in 1972, she was the first to run for the highest office in the land when she sought the Democratic nomination for president of the United States.

Shirley’s mother was a seamstress in Barbados, and her father was a domestic worker in Guyana. They both immigrated to Brooklyn, where they raised four daughters. Shirley, the oldest, was an excellent student and won prizes for her debate skills at Brooklyn College. While studying for her master’s degree, she taught in a nursery school. Later, she became a director of daycare centers in Brooklyn and lower Manhattan, where she developed a keen understanding of child welfare and early-education issues. Advocating for children led Shirley to the world of politics. She worked with the League of Women Voters, the Urban League, and the Democratic Party. In 1964, she was elected to the New York General Assembly, and in 1968, she launched a campaign for the United States House of Representatives to represent Brooklyn’s 12th Congressional District. Shirley served until 1983. While there, she championed bills for equal employment opportunities, built alliances with women’s groups and people of color, fought for improved services for women and children, and protested the country’s involvement in the Vietnam War.

Shirley’s determined spirit paved the way for others, including women and minorities. When she died in 2005, she left a tremendous legacy of educational and governmental service. In November 2015, she was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama. Shirley’s campaign slogan when she ran for president, “Unbought and Unbossed,” aptly described the woman known to many as Fighting Shirley.