First Black Woman Elected to Congress - Shirley Chisholm
Shirley Chisholm (1924-2005)
During the racially contentious period in the late '60s, she became the first Black woman elected to Congress. She represented New York's 12th District from 1969 to 1983, and in 1972, she became the first woman to run for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.
She was born November 30, 1924, Brooklyn, NY and died January 1, 2005, in Ormond Beach, FL.
She was born to immigrant parents of Barbados. She met Conrad O. Chisholm in the late 1940s. He had migrated to the United States from Jamaica in 1946, They married in 1949 in a large West Indian-style wedding. She subsequently suffered two miscarriages, and, to their disappointment, the couple would have no children. She directed daycare centers from 1953 to 1954, Friend in Need Nursery, located in Brownsville, NY and then, from 1954 to 1959, the Hamilton-Madison Childcare Center, located in Lower Manhattan. At the latter, there were 130 children, ages three to seven, and 24 employees reporting to her. From 1959 to 1964, she was an educational consultant for the Division of Day Care in New York City's Bureau of Child Welfare. There, she was in charge of supervising ten day-care centers as well as starting up new ones. She became an authority on early education and child-welfare issues. She attended Brooklyn College and the Teachers College at Columbia University. In 1968, she became the first Black woman elected to the United States Congress.
Early on in her Congressional term, Chisholm was first assigned to the House Agriculture Committee. She soon found more relevant committee assignments that would better serve her constituents. She worked to expand the food stamp program and help to create the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). She also introduced Legislation that focused on gender and racial equality and ending the Vietnam War. In 1971, she became a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC).
After the unsuccessful bid for President, in 1977 she became secretary of the house Democratic Caucus.
Chisholm moved to Florida in 1991. In 1993, President Bill Clinton nominated her to be United States Ambassador to Jamaica, however because of her health she was unable to accept that assignment. In that same year she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.
She was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015.
Sources: Oprah One day. National archives & Wikipedia
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