Shirley Chisholm

Early life

Shirley Anita St. Hill was born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 30, 1924. Her father, Charles St. Hill, came from Guyana and her mother, Ruby Seale St. Hill, from Barbados. As a young child she was sent to live on her grandparents' farm in Barbados, where she attended school, and she returned to Brooklyn in 1934.

She studied at the tuition-free Brooklyn College, graduating in 1946, and later earned a master's degree in early childhood education from Columbia University.

Educator and state legislator

Chisholm worked as a nursery school teacher and then in childcare administration, serving as an educational consultant to New York City's Division of Day Care from 1959 to 1964. She was active in the NAACP, the Urban League, the League of Women Voters and Brooklyn's Unity Democratic Club.

In 1964 she won a seat in the New York State Assembly, where she served until 1968. The National Women's History Museum credits her with sponsoring bills that created the SEEK scholarship program for disadvantaged students, protected teachers' jobs during maternity leave and extended unemployment insurance to domestic workers.

Congress

After a court-ordered redistricting created a new 12th Congressional District in Brooklyn, Chisholm won it in 1968, defeating James Farmer, the Republican and Liberal Party candidate, in the general election. She became the first Black woman elected to Congress.

She was first assigned to the Agriculture Committee and sought posts that better served her urban district, later sitting on Veterans' Affairs and on Education and Labor. The National Archives notes her work to expand food stamps and to create the WIC nutrition program for women, infants and children. In 1971 she was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus. In 1977 she became the first Black woman to sit on the powerful Rules Committee, and she served as secretary of the House Democratic Caucus from 1977 to 1981.

Running for president

In January 1972 Chisholm announced a campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, the first Black candidate to seek a major party's nomination and the first woman to seek the Democratic one. Running under the slogan "Unbought and Unbossed," she faced both racist and sexist opposition, had little money and had to take legal action to be included in televised debates. She appeared on 12 primary ballots and received 152 delegate votes at the convention, about 10 percent, as the nomination went to George McGovern.

Later life

Chisholm did not seek reelection in 1982 and left the House in January 1983 after seven terms. She then taught at Mount Holyoke College and helped found the National Political Congress of Black Women. She died in Ormond Beach, Florida, on January 1, 2005. In 2015 she was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.