The first time I learned about Shirley Chisholm wasn’t until my second semester of undergrad. I was sitting in a non-renovated second Plassmann classroom, in my women in politics class (a class I highly recommend taking if you get the chance) and we started talking about Shirley Chisholm.
Who is Shirley Chisholm? She was the first African American woman to be elected to Congress and she was the first African American to seek a major party’s presidential ticket. Shirley was also the first woman to seek the Democratic party’s presidential nomination.Â
Now I am sure you have realized by now that Chisholm did not win because we have yet to have a female president. But the fact that she tried is way more important. Why? Because it shows others that you do not have to be an old white man to be interested in or successful in politics.
In that same women in politics class, we had a guest speaker who had worked for the Chisholm campaign. She talked about how all the campaign workers were incredibly excited about what they were doing, and the campaign inspired many women to vote and participate in politics, even though the campaign did not succeed.
Chisholm helped pave the way for women like Hillary Clinton who became the first female to receive a major party’s nomination and Kamala Harris the second female to receive a major party’s nomination and the first African American women to receive a major party’s nomination. Both of these women lost like Chisholm, but they have all helped to inspire others.Â
What I do not get is why I did not learn about Chisholm until I got to college? Chisholm is an important part of our political history. She came into Congress when there were only 11 women and 10 African Americans. She was the first woman of this intersectionality to be elected yet, this was not taught in any of the multiple US history classes I took in high school.Â
I asked my younger sisters, who are still in high school, if they had ever heard of Shirley Chisholm, and their answers were no. I am going to be optimistic and hope that there are some schools that do teach about Chisholm in their history or government classes, but I also know there are probably many high schools like mine that do not teach about Chisholm. I hope that this changes, but until it does, I will continue to tell everyone I know about Chisholm and her inspiring accomplishments.