Mainstream media has managed to bury the fact that Shirley Chisholm was the first black and woman to run for U.S. presidency. Thirty six years ago, on January 25, 1972, Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm announced her candidacy for the president. Chisholm was a second-born Caribbean national. She was born to a father from British Guiana and a mother from Barbados. I cannot remember ever hearing Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama acknowleding her history-making feat that still resonates in American history, as well as serving as a source of pride for those of us of Caribbean origin.
At the time of her announcement, Chisholm had only served four years in the U.S. Congress. Prior to that she served four years as a representative in the New York State Assembly and which made her the first African-American woman to win an election to Congress. The 1972 Democratic Party convention in Miami was the first major convention in which a woman sought the nomination for the presidency. Though she did not win the nomination, her speech still resonates today.
She said, “I stand before you today as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the presidency of the United States. I am not a candidate for Black America, although I am black and proud. I am not a candidate for the women’s movement of this country, although I am equally proud of that. I am not the candidate of any political bosses or special interests. I am the candidate of the people.”
Chisholm ran her campaign under the slogan “Unbought and Unbossed” and she was able to cross color lines. So, for all those who are not familiar with her, she was the pioneer who led the movement for women and blacks to dare to aspire to such a high office. She, indeed, is worthy of acknowledgement by the mainstream media and by the candidates themselves.
As she said in her book “The Good Fight,” I ran for the Presidency, despite hopeless odds, to demonstrate the sheer will and refusal to accept the status quo. The next time a woman runs, or a black or a Jew or anyone from a group that the country is “not ready” to elect to its highest office, I believe he or she will be taken seriously from the start. I ran because somebody had to do it first. In this country, everybody is supposed to be able to run for President, but that has never really been true.”
In honoring this extraordinary woman, I must say I am proud to call her a fellow Caribbean sista and a visionary, who saw the potential inherent in that black man or black woman or white woman, Jew or any other American of foreign descent who dared to dream and ultimately run for the office of the President of the United States of America.
Nuff respect to Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm, you are an unsung leader and trailblazer. Though she passed away on January 1, 2005, at the age of 80, her legacy lives on.
Filed under: Barack Obama, Democrats, Hillary Clinton, Presidential Elections, Shirley Chisholm
Black Political Thought 