Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm (November 30, 1924 – January 1, 2005) was an American politician, educator, and author. In 1968, she became the first African American woman elected to the United States Congress, and represented New York's 12th Congressional District for seven terms from 1969 to 1983. In 1972, she became the first major-party black candidate for President of the United States, and the first woman ever to run for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.
Chisholm's legacy came into renewed prominence during the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries, when Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton staged their historic 'firsts' battle – where the victor would either be the first major party African-American nominee, or the first woman nominee – with observers crediting Chisholm's 1972 campaign as having paved the way for both of them.
Shirley Anita St. Hill was born on November 30, 1924, in Brooklyn, New York, to immigrant parents from the Caribbean region. She had three younger sisters, two born within three years after Shirley, one later. Their father, Charles Christopher St. Hill, was born in British Guiana, lived in Barbados for a while, and then arrived in the United States via Antilla, Cuba, on April 10, 1923, aboard the S.S. Munamar in New York City. Their mother, Ruby Seale, was born in Christ Church, Barbados, and arrived in New York City aboard the S.S. Pocone on March 8, 1921. Her father worked in a factory that made burlap bags and her mother was a seamstress and domestic worker.
"Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth."
"In the end antiblack, antifemale, and all forms of discrimination are equivalent to the same thing - antihumanism."
"It is not heroin or cocaine that makes one an addict, it is the need to escape from a harsh reality. There are more television addicts, more baseball and football addicts, more movie addicts, and certainly more alcohol addicts in this country than there are narcotics addicts."
"At present, our country needs women's idealism and determination, perhaps more in politics than anywhere else."
"Service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on this earth."
"Tremendous amounts of talent are lost to our society just because that talent wears a skirt"
"The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says: 'It's a girl"
"I don't measure America by its achievement but by its potential"
"The liberals in the House strongly resemble liberals I have known through the last two decades in the civil rights conflict. When it comes time to show on which side they will be counted, they excuse themselves."
"There is little place in the political scheme of things for an independent, creative personality, for a fighter. Anyone who takes that role must pay a price."
"Congress seems drugged and inert most of the time... its idea of meeting a problem is to hold hearings or, in extreme cases, to appoint a commission."
"Of my two handicaps, being female put many more obstacles in my path than being black."
First, there was her piercing fixation as Suzanne 'Crazy Eyes' Warren in 90 episodes of 'Orange Is the New Black.' Then, her room-commanding gaze as politician Shirley Chisholm in 'Mrs.
By this time, the U.S ... They soundly proved it ... That doesn’t mean we won’t win.” With that line, Harris was nodding to Shirley Chisholm, who in 1972 was the first black woman to campaign for a Presidential nomination ... Read More ... .
of “Shirley Chisholm ...Born in Brooklyn to immigrant parents, in 1968 Chisholm became the first Black woman elected to Congress, where for seven terms she represented a Brooklyn district centered in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
“If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair,” said Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to the US Congress and the first black candidate to stand for election as ...
It wasn’t until the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that all African Americans were granted the full right to vote, but the fight began in the 1800s alongside the women’s suffrage movement ... Ida B Wells-Barnett ... Shirley Chisholm ... Shirley Chisholm.
Target Corporation’s stock plummeted by approximately $27.27 per share by the end of February, erasing about $12.4 billion in market value ...NNPAPresident/CEO Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. said ... Rev ...Target is also facing legal battles ... Shirley Chisholm ... ....
by April Ryan,. “She was a warrior in the truest sense of the word and activist extraordinaire.” Those words are from Rev. Al Sharpton while celebrating the life and activism of the iconic Dr ... Dr ... Russell, told Black PressU.S.A. that Dr ... Shirley Chisholm.
The NNPAWorld News app has unveiled the ‘Missing & Black 2025’ campaign, a nationwide initiative aimed at addressing the glaring disparities in media coverage and law enforcement response to missing Black individuals ...Benjamin F ... Shirley Chisholm.
AM New York
17 Mar 2025
AM New York
17 Mar 2025