Shirley Chisholm in Her Own Words: Speeches and Writings

by Shirley Chisholm

Looking beyond her political symbolism to celebrate not only who Shirley Chisholm was but who she is—a revolutionary thinker with much to teach us today.   In the midst of her groundbreaking 20-year career in the U.S. House of Representatives, Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm once declared, "Everyone—with the exception of the black woman herself—has been interpreting the black woman." Edited by Zinga A. Fraser, the leading scholar dedicated to the study of Chisholm's legacy, Shirley Chisholm in Her Own Words gives readers a rare opportunity to engage with the congresswoman's powerful ideas in her own voice.   Many Americans are familiar with Chisholm's importance as the first Black woman in Congress and the first woman and African American to run for president with either major party. This long-overdue treatment of her work establishes Chisholm as an unparalleled public intellectual and Black feminist both in her time and now. The book not only contextualizes the Civil Rights and Black Power era; it also provides timeless insights on issues that are exceedingly relevant in our current moment. Featuring a captivating introduction by Fraser, Shirley Chisholm in Her Own Words introduces a new generation to one of the most impactful proponents of democracy in America.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, History

304 pages, Hardcover

Published October 8, 2024

About the author

Shirley Anita St. Hill was born in Brooklyn, New York, of immigrant parents. Her father, Charles Christopher St. Hill, was born in British Guiana and arrived in the United States via Antilla, Cuba, on April 10, 1923, aboard the S.S. Munamar in New York City. Her mother, Ruby Seale, was born in Christ Church, Barbados, and arrived in New York City aboard the S.S. Pocone on March 8, 1921. At age three, Chisholm was sent to Barbados to live with her maternal grandmother, Emaline Seale, in Christ Church; where she attended the Vauxhall Primary School. She did not return until roughly seven years later when she arrived in New York City on May 19, 1934, aboard the S.S. Narissa. In her 1970 autobiography Unbought and Unbossed, she wrote: "Years later I would know what an important gift my parents had given me by seeing to it that I had my early education in the strict, traditional, British-style schools of Barbados. If I speak and write easily now, that early education is the main reason."

Chisholm is an alumna of Girls' High School, she earned her BA from Brooklyn College in 1946 and later earned her MA from Columbia University in elementary education in 1952. She was a member of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.

From 1953 to 1959, she was director of the Hamilton-Madison Child Care Center. From 1959 to 1964, she was an educational consultant for the Division of Day Care.

In 1964, Chisholm ran for and was elected to the New York State Legislature. In 1968, she ran as the Democratic candidate for New York's 12th District congressional seat and was elected to the House of Representatives. Defeating Republican candidate James Farmer, Chisholm became the first black woman elected to Congress. Chisholm joined the Congressional Black Caucus in 1971 as one of its founding members.

As a freshman, Chisholm was assigned to the House Agricultural Committee. Given her urban district, she felt the placement was irrelevant to her constituents and shocked many by asking for reassignment. She was then placed on the Veterans' Affairs Committee. Soon after, she voted for Hale Boggs as House Majority Leader over John Conyers. As a reward for her support, Boggs assigned her to the much-prized Education and Labor Committee, which was her preferred committee. She was the third highest-ranking member of this committee when she retired from Congress.

All those Chisholm hired for her office were women, half of them black. Chisholm said that during her New York legislative career, she had faced much more discrimination because she was a woman than because she was black.

In the 1972 U.S. presidential election, she made a bid for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. She survived three assassination attempts during the campaign. She campaigned in 12 states and won the Louisiana, Mississippi, and New Jersey primaries earning 152 delegates. However, she lost the hotly contested primaries to George McGovern at the convention in Miami Beach, Florida. At the 1972 Democratic National Convention, as a symbolic gesture, McGovern opponent Hubert H. Humphrey released his black delegates to Chisholm,giving her a total of 152 first-ballot votes for the nomination. Chisholm's base of support was ethnically diverse and included the National Organization for Women. Chisholm said she ran for the office "in spite of hopeless odds... to demonstrate the sheer will and refusal to accept the status quo." Among the volunteers who were inspired by her campaign was Barbara Lee, who continued to be politically active and was elected as a congresswoman 25 years later. Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem attempted to run as Chisholm delegates in New York.

Chisholm created controversy when she visited rival and ideological opposite George Wallace in the hospital soon after his shooting in May 1972, during the 1972 presidential primary campaign. Several years later, when Chisholm worked on a bill to give domestic workers the right to a minimum wage, Wallac

Reviews

[Guthrie C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm’s intellectual legacy and prowess is an inspiring, revealing and important example great leadership. By combining her published essays and Congressional records with new, unabridged transcripts of her speeches, Zinga Fraser helps readers understand the depths and motivations of Congresswoman Chisholm’s public service as political leader. Most interesting in this collection is Congresswoman Chisholm’s contemporary voice which brings to life American politics and society of 1960s, ‘70s, and ‘80s and puts in stark relief how far the grand democratic experiment of the USA has come, and how much far it has yet to go in order to realize its ideal that Congresswoman Chisholm consistently championed for throughout her life.

[Viral · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up because while I was generally familiar with Shirley Chisholm's time as a Congresswoman and her 1972 presidential run, I didn't actually know much about her political stances. I really appreciated this book, though, for consolidating Chisholm's essays, speeches, letters, and congressional statements that show her attempts to champion progressive policies in a time when it was increasingly on the retreat nationally. It's especially tough reading some of these sections as she's describing the likely consequences of the failure to live up to the promises of the Civil Rights Movement and the damage that Nixon and Reagan were doing - knowing that she was completely correct in what would follow. An interesting collection of works, and an important reminder of how many folks at the time knew the War on Crime and Drugs were going to be political disasters, they were just ignored.