At City Running Tours, we love to highlight the people who have shaped and bettered our cities. Through highlighting the incredible diversity of key historical figures, we find pride in showing off the important legacies and stories our cities leave behind. Today, in honoring Women’s History Month, we are excited to share the inspiring life of Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman in congress.
Chisholm was born in Brooklyn, New York on November 30, 1924. Her father was an immigrant from Guyana, and her mother was born in Barbados. Although incredibly smart, having graduated from Brooklyn College cum laude in 1946, Chisholm recognized the inequality that faced her as both an African American and a woman. That didn’t deter her from making history, though.
Chisholm took an interest in political life after earning a master’s degree from Columbia University for early childhood education and working as a nursery schoolteacher. She joined the League of Women Voters, the NAACP, the Urban League, and the Democratic Party club in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Her passion for equality and progress led her to becoming the second African American in the New York State Legislature in 1964. In 1968, she became the first Black woman in Congress.
While in Congress, Chisholm introduced over 50 pieces of legislation that raised issues of racial and gender inequality. In 1983, Chisholm retired and co-founded the National Political Congress of Black Women.
Chisholm was a powerful voice for change throughout her political career, and her legacy lives on today, as we continue to struggle with the causes she championed. She is currently being honored with a statue in Brooklyn. We are proud to share her story with all of our City Running Tours clients.
This Women’s History Month, we remember Chisholm as exactly the person she endeavored to be; “I want to be remembered as a woman…who dared to be a catalyst of change.”
