Last updated on November 22nd, 2025 at 01:56 am
SHIRLEY CHISHOLM
The closet any woman of color ever got to the Oval Office was Shirley Chisholm. Though delivered in Brooklyn, NY, like Harris she was born of immigrant parents; and was of Guyanese and Bajan decent. However, for American expediency she was given the simple label of Black and that was her political identity. Her presidential campaign in 1972 so galvanized the nation that her opponent, Alabama Governor, George Wallace, focused on sidetracking her constituents and promoting false information on Chisholm.
He felt she was a treat and had to be marginalized. (She came in 4th on the delegate count at the democratic national Convention and obtained almost half of the Mississippi delegates). Chisholm was also the first woman to run for the Democratic nomination (the first woman ever was Margaret Chase Smith – as a Republican in 1964) and the first woman in a presidential debate.
Chisholm is a multiple pioneer. She’s the first Black woman elected to the US Congress. The year was 1968 and she represented the 12th District in New York for 7 terms (1969-1983). She began her rise as a teacher’s aide, who became the director of the Friends day Nursery in New York (‘53-’59) then educational consultant (’59-’64).
In 1964 she ran for New York Assembly and won handily by mobilizing female voters after her so-called organization, the UDC hesitated in supporting her because she was a woman. In 1968 she landed in the House fo representatives. In 1971 Chisholm founded the National Women’s Political Caucus. Chisholm died on January 1, 2005 after suffering several strokes.
