Black History: Chisholm Did It All, 'Unbought and Unbossed'

Before there was a Hillary Clinton or a Barack Obama, there was a Barbadian Brooklynite who tore down multiple barriers in her own lifetime. On November 5, 1968, Shirley Chisholm was elected as the first black congresswomen and the 33^rd black person in congress; she did it unbought and unbossed. Her remarkable tenure in congress spanned from the ninety-first through the ninety-seventh congress (1969 – 1982), in which she represented Brooklyn’s 12^th Congressional District. Chisholm will always be remembered as a bold black woman who adamantly jockeyed on behalf of the poor inner-cities, never forgetting her origins to the moment she passed on January 1, 2005.

Chisholm was born Shirley Anita St. Hill on November 30, 1924 in Brooklyn, NY. Born of humble beginnings, Chisholm and her 7 siblings spent most of their early years with their Grandma on a Barbadian farm. When she turned ten, her grandmother sent them back to live with their hardworking parents in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn during the height of the Great Depression. Despite her harsh socio-economic upbringings, Chisholm was able to excel in a predominately white classroom, which eventually garnered the attention of colleges and universities that were willing to offer her scholarships. Unfortunately, the scholarships were only able to provide for tuition and books; Chisholm did not have enough financial resources to fund her room and board. Chisholm went on to carry the issue of college affordability in her later political career.

From 1942 through 1964, Chisholm was able to build up an astounding educational and professional record. From graduating from Brooklyn College with honors in 1946, earning her Master’s in Elementary Education from Columbia University in 1952, becoming involved in the NAACP’s campus leadership team, teaching and directing early childhood education centers, joining the League of Women Voters and vocally challenging the societal and professional roles of women, Chisholm was able to earn a strong following in her community and beyond.

Her array of supporters and “it-girl” aura prompted her to run a successful campaign for the 17^th Assembly District in 1964. As an assemblywoman, she saw eight of her 50 proposed bills pass into legislation, including one bill that provided additional financial assistance for poor students to more comfortably fund their higher education and a bill that prohibited schools from denying or striping female teachers of their tenure on the basis of a maternal leave.

Finally, in 1968 she was ready to run for Congress. Her platform challenged the status quo of political party machine-made candidates and made a promise for honest and loyal representation of her constituents — thus, her slogan became “unbought and unbossed.” In a relative upset, she was able to defeat Freedom Ride organizer James Farmer, who ran under the Republican and liberal ballots, by a significant margin. On November 5, nearly 43 years before today, Chisholm made history.

It didn’t take long for the outspoken Brooklyn woman to make a splash into Congress. She immediately challenged the seniority system that the House practiced at the time when she was assigned to the Agriculture Committee. Chisholm lamented that her constituency did not elect her for agricultural issues, but instead to tackle pressing educational, labor and socio-economic issues that are rampant in inner-cities.

"Apparently all they know here in Washington about Brooklyn is that a tree grew there," Chisholm told a Washington Post reporter.

House Speaker John McCormack reluctantly agreed to reassign her to the Veterans Affairs Committee, and eventually to the Education and Labor Committees.

As a congresswoman0, Chisholm used her leverage to make a strong anti-war stance against the expensive and seemingly endless campaigns in Vietnam and Korea, as well as to bring women’s rights issues into political discourse — that includes controversial talks that may have bought abortion into political discourse.

Ms. ‘unbought and unbossed’ was never shy or hesitant to speak her mind. In one instance, she upset several officials when she criticized the government in a book that was titled after her slogan.

"Our representative democracy is not working," she wrote "because the Congress that is supposed to represent the voters does not respond to their needs. I believe the chief reason for this is that it is ruled by a small group of old men."

Despite her critics, Chisholm was able to build a strong enough following to make one of the most historical political moves, which was manifested and personified in the recent presidential primary battle between president Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In 1972, Chisholm became the first black person and the 17^th woman to ever run for presidency. Though she was unsuccessful, receiving 152 delegates at the National Democratic Convention and ultimately coming up short at the primary ballots, she said that she ran "in spite of hopeless odds... to demonstrate the sheer will and refusal to accept the status quo."

Perhaps the most symbolic and controversial moment in her campaign was when Chisholm visited well-known segregationist Gov. George Wallace of Alabama at a hospital following his attempted assassination in May 1972. Chisholm claims that she did it because it was the right and compassionate thing to do. The hardened politician, who would later apologize for his pro-segregation sentiments in the south, returned the favor by galvanizing southern support for Chisholm’s push to set a decent minimum wage for domestic workers.

Chisholm went on to serve in Congress for the next 25 years before retiring and becoming a college professor and scholar at Spellman College and Mt. Holyoke, a renowned all girl college. She retired in Florida and died on January 1, 2005. To this day, inspired women of all colors and nationalities pay respects at her grave site at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo, New York.