Biography of Shirley Chisholm

Shirley Chisholm was an American politician and a social activist. She became the first woman of African American origin to be elected to the United States Congress. She represented New York's 12th Congressional District, for seven successive terms, from 1969 to 1983. She was the founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus, an organization which represented the African American members of the Congress.

Biography of Shirley Chisholm
Shirley Chisholm was born on 30th November, 1924, in Brooklyn, New York City, to Charles Christopher St. Hill and Ruby Seale. She spent seven years of her childhood with her maternal grandmother, in Barbados. In 1946, she completed her BA from Brooklyn College. She married Conrad Chisholm, a private investigator from Jamaica, in 1949. She got her Masters degree in elementary education from Columbia University, in 1952. Between 1953 and 1959, she worked as the director of Hamilton-Madison Child Care Center, and between 1959 to 1964, she worked as an educational consultant for New York City's Bureau of Child Welfare.

In 1964, she decided to venture into politics, and was elected to the New York State Legislature. Four years later, she contested the elections for New York's 12th Congressional District as a Democrat candidate. She defeated the Republican Candidate, James Farmer, to get elected to the House of Representatives, thus becoming the first woman of African American origin to be elected to Congress. After being assigned the House Agricultural Committee and the Veterans' Affairs Committee initially, she finally got the Education and Labor Committee as a reward for supporting Hale Boggs to become the House Majority Leader. In 1970, she authored a book titled, 'Unbought and Unbossed'.

In 1972, she became the first black woman to bid for the United States presidential elections, when she ran for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. Although, she won 152 first-ballot votes for the nomination at the 1972 Democratic National Convention, she lost this close fought contest against George McGovern. In 1973, she authored her second book, 'The Good Fight'. During the 95th and the 96th Congress, she was appointed the Secretary of the House Democratic Caucus. She was awarded the Honorary Doctor of Laws degree by Smith College, Massachusetts, in 1975. After seeking a divorce from Conrad Chisholm in 1977, she married a Buffalo businessman, Arthur Hardwick Jr. She opted for retirement from active politics in 1982.

Throughout her political career, she worked for the betterment of all the sections of the society. An ardent supporter of women's rights, she backed the concept of women's liberation and women's right to choose. She felt that the modern woman should escape the stereotypical life which has been forced upon her. Her stance on women emancipation made her popular among the female students in America. A firm antagonist of the Vietnam War, she advocated the idea of reducing military expenditure, and hiking the expenditure on education, health care and other basic services.

After retirement she worked as an instructor at Mount Holyoke College, in Massachusetts, for a period of four years. In 1993, she was inducted into National Women's Hall of Fame. In 2002, renowned scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed her in his list of the '100 Greatest African-Americans'. Shirley Chisholm died on 1st January, 2005, near Daytona Beach, in Florida.