Susan Bruce [01/07/2005]

By Susan Bruce

Shirley Chisholm died on Jan. 1, 2005, at the age of 80. She was the first African-American woman elected to Congress, and the first to run for president. Ms. Chisholm was a tireless activist for women and minorities. Her election to Congress in 1968 shook things up in white suburbia.Shirley Chisholm was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. Her father was from British Guiana, and her mother from Barbados. She was sent to Barbados to live with her grandmother and attend school. Many of us remember that she spoke withthe combination British/Caribbean-accented speech throughout her life. Shirley came back to the United States to attend high school and college. Black students were denied entrance to a social club at Brooklyn College, where she was majoring in sociology. Shirley responded by forming an alternative club. After graduating from college, Shirley went into the field of child care and elementary education. She married Conrad Chisholm, and together they became active in local politics, helping to form the Bedford-Stuyvesant Political League. In 1960, Shirley was one of the founders of the Unity Democratic Club, a group which mobilized black and Hispanic voters. In 1964, Chisholm ran for a N.Y. State Assembly seat, which she won. She served in the N.Y. General Assembly from 1964 to 1968. In 1968, she ran for Congress, with the campaign slogan, Fighting Shirley ChisholmUnbought and Unbossed. During her first term in office, she hired an all-female staff, spoke out for civil rights and womens rights, and spoke against the war in Vietnam. Chisholm was assigned to the House Agriculture Committee, which she felt was irrelevant to her urban constituents, so she demanded to be reassignedan action that was unheard of. She was reassigned to the Veterans' Affairs Committee. She supported Hale Boggs (who was white) over John Conyers (who was black) for majority leader. Boggs assigned her to the Education and Labor Committee. By the time she left Congress, she was its third ranking member.Shirley told voters, My greatest political asset, which professional politicians fear, is my mouth, out of which come all kinds of things one shouldnt always discuss for reasons of political expediency. She was elected to Congress at a time of social upheaval in the country. Anti-war protests, Johnsons War on Poverty, urban riots, and the assassination of both Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy. I was growing up in white suburbia, and I remember the response to Shirley Chisholm as being less than warm. White people were threatened, especially white men. I was in my early teens in 1968, a time when girls still couldnt take certain classes or do certain things because they were girls. Shirley Chisholm rocked our perceptions and our world. I remember (with some shame) men telling me that women had to earn equal rights, and nodding, as if that made sense. Good girls didnt question thatuntil a few years later. I was not as courageous as Shirley Chisholm.In 1972, Chisholm ran for president. When she announced her candidacy, she said, I stand before you today as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency of the United States. I am not the candidate of black America, although I am black and proud. I am not the candidate of the womens movement of this country, although I am a woman, and I am equally proud of that. I am not the candidate of any political bosses or special interests. I am the candidate of the people. She won 152 delegates before withdrawing from the race. In her book The Good Fight Shirley wrote, I ran for the presidency, despite hopeless odds, to demonstrate the sheer will and refusal to accept the status quo. The next time a woman runs, or a black, or a Jew, or anyone from a group that the country is not ready to elect to its highest office, I believe he or she will be taken seriously from the start. The door is not open yet, but it is ajar.During her presidential bid, Chisholm went to the hospital to visit George Wallacea rival candidate and outspoken racist who was recovering from a gunshot wound. Her supporters were horrified. She told him, I wouldnt want what happened to you to happen to anyone. Wallace cried. Two years later, when she needed support to extend the minimum wage, it was Wallace who got her votes from the southern delegation. Shirley prided herself on being a pragmatic politician. Women have learned to flex their political muscles. You got to flex that muscle to get what you want. She left Congress during the second year of the Reagan administration, feeling her influence was waning in conservative times. After leaving Congress, Shirley was named to the Purington Chair at Mount Holyoke College and was a visiting scholar at Spelman College. She was also a popular speaker on the lecture circuit. Shirley wrote two autobiographical books, Unbought and Unbossed, in 1970, and The Good Fight in 1973. She was the subject of a documentary on her presidential run, Chisholm 72: Unbought and Unbossed.Robert E. Williams, president of the Flagler County NAACP said, She was our Moses that opened the Red Sea for us. Reverend Jesse Jackson said of Chisholm, She was an activist and she never stopped fighting. She refused to accept the ordinary, and she had high expectations for herself and all people around her. Shirley was once asked what her legacy might be, and she said, Id like them to say that Shirley Chisholm had guts. Thats how Id like to be remembered.Shirley Chisholm did indeed have guts, and she spoke for many of us who either lacked them or lacked a voice. Shirley made us uncomfortable in the early seventies, and she made us think. Thanks (in no small part) to her; women have a voice in politics today. Its not a big enough voice, but it is audible. The idea of a woman in the White House still seems distant, but Shirley put her foot in the door to hold a place for the women who would follow.Our representative democracy is not working 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. Shirley Chisholm, from Unbought and Unbossed." Susan Bruce is a writer and activist, who lives in Jackson. She can be reached at madameovary@msn.com