Celebrating Shirley Chisholm
Today we honor Shirley Chisholm, an American politician, educator and author. Chisholm was born in New York and spent part of her childhood in Barbados with her grandmother. After graduating from Brooklyn college she began her career in public service as a teacher. She went on to obtain a Master’s in Elementary Education from Colombia University.
Her career path to politics started as an educational consultant for New York City’s Bureau of Child Welfare. As a representative of New York, she became the first first black woman elected to the United States Congress in 1968 and served 7 terms. In 1969, Chisholm became one of the founding members of the Congressional Black Caucus.
At the time she ran for office, ambitious women were not allowed to run for office. She decided to run for office after noticing that many of the women were raising all the political funds for candidates. Her slogan was “Unbought and Unbossed”. After serving in Congress for 4 years, she made a bid for the US Presidency on September 26, 1971. She came under attack three times during her candidacy for President. However, her perseverance never waivered. She received 151 delegate votes at the Democratic national convention. After her run for President she became more popular.
In 1994 she decided not to run for Congress again due to deterioration of programs she championed.
Shirley Chisholm left a legacy of championing minority education, employment, social justice and politics.
Favorite Shirley Chisholm Quotes
The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says, “It’s a girl.”
You don’t make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas.
In the end, anti-black, anti-female, and all forms of discrimination are equivalent to the same thing — anti-humanism.
When morality comes up against profit, it is seldom that profit loses.
Tremendous amounts of talent are lost to our society just because that talent wears a skirt.
At present, our country needs women’s idealism and determination, perhaps more in politics than anywhere else.
Eva is an award winning tech entrepreneur, Publisher of Tech Life Magazine and Chief Connector at The Blogger Society Influencer Network where she connects brands, small business, nonprofits and Freelance Content Developers. She writes about the intersectionality of technology, food and womanhood. She splits her time between engineering and social innovation.
