Herland Sister Resources

Shirley Chisholm November 30, 1924 - January 1, 2005

“At present, our country needs women’s idealism and determination, perhaps more in politics than anywhere else.”

Shirley Chisolm, the first black woman elected to the U.S. Congress, as well as the first woman to run for the presidency, died January 1, 2005. She was 80 years old. Representative Chisholm served seven terms in the House of Representatives, from 1969 until 1982. In 1972, she sought the Democratic presidential nomination.

Born in New York in 1924, Shirley Chisholm was the eldest of four children of Caribbean immigrants to America. She began her professional career as a nursery school teacher, and soon became actively involved in local politics with the Democratic Party. She ran successfully for the New York State Assembly in 1964, before becoming the first black congresswoman - representing her native Brooklyn district - in the House of Representatives five years later.

During her terms in office she campaigned tirelessly for women’s and minority rights, and was also a taunch critic of the Vietnam War. Her failed presidential bid in 1972 was viewed as more symbolic than practical.

“I ran for the presidency, despite hopeless odds, to demonstrate the sheer will and refusal to accept the status quo,” she later wrote in her book The Good Fight. She also said regarding that quixotic race, “The United States was said not to be ready to elect a Catholic to the Presidency when Al Smith ran in the 1920’s. But Smith’s nomination may have helped pave the way for the successful campaign John F. Kennedy waged in 1960. Who can tell? What I hope most is that now there will be others who will feel themselves as capable of running for high political office as any wealthy, good-looking white male.”

After retiring from Congress in 1982, Representative Chisholm remained active as a political figure, an educator, and a spokesperson for women’s rights, and held several university teaching positions. She also created and chaired the National Political Congress of Black Women, and served on the Advisory Council of the National Organization for Women.

Herland has always held Shirley Chisholm in the highest esteem; we mourn her passing and celebrate her life, her courage and her wisdom. Here is a little sample of that wisdom:

• Racism is so universal in this country, so widespread and deepseated, that it is invisible because it is so normal.
• Of my two “handicaps” being female put more obstacles in my path than being black.
• That I am a national figure because I was the first person in 192 years to be at once a congressman, black and a woman proves, I think, that our society is not yet either just or free.
• At present, our country needs women’s idealism and determination, perhaps more in politics than anywhere else.
• One distressing thing is the way men react to women who assert their equality: their ultimate weapon is to call them unfeminine. They think she is anti-male; they even whisper that she’s probably a lesbian.
• Rhetoric never won a revolution yet.
• The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says: It’s a girl.
• When morality comes up against profit, it is seldom profit that loses.
• I am, was, and always will be a catalyst for change.