New York City honors first Black congresswoman on what would have been her 100th birthday

By Dawn Sawyer, CNN

(CNN) — New York City marked the inaugural Shirley Chisholm Day on Saturday – honoring the life and legacy of the first Black woman elected to the United States Congress on what would have been her 100th birthday.

The city council’s Committee on Civil and Human Rights voted earlier this month to declare November 30 Shirley Chisholm Day. The resolution was sponsored by council member Farah N. Louis, whose district includes part of Brooklyn, where Chisholm was born.

Chisholm was born Shirley Anita St. Hill on November 30, 1924, and is widely known for her pioneering decision to run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972. She was the first Black woman to do so.

Growing up, Chisholm was passionate about education – and she was good at it.

After graduating cum laude from Brooklyn College in the early 1940s, Chisholm taught as a nursery school teacher while pursuing her master’s degree in early childhood education at Columbia University. It was there that she met her first husband, Conrad Chisholm.

‘A catalyst of change’

Chisholm’s career in legislation started in 1964, when she became the second African American to be in the New York State Legislature.

Four years later, Chisholm became the first Black woman to win a seat in Congress. She represented New York’s 12th Congressional District for seven terms, from 1969 to 1983, according to the National Archives.

Known as “Fighting Shirley,” Chisholm introduced more than 50 pieces of legislation concerning racial and gender equity, ending the war in Vietnam and addressing concerns of the poor.

In 1972, she made a largely symbolic run for the Democratic presidential nomination. It was the first time a Black candidate had sought a major party’s nomination for president, and the first time a woman had run for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.

She was blocked from participating in televised primary debates and, after legal action, was allowed to conduct only one speech, according to the National Women’s History Museum.

In recounting the campaign in her book “The Good Fight,” Chisholm explained her run was meant to open the door for more diverse presidential candidates.

“I ran because someone had to do it first,” Chisholm said. “In this country everybody is supposed to be able to run for President, but that’s never been really true. I ran because most people think the country is not ready for a Black candidate, not ready for a woman candidate.”

After losing the nomination to George McGovern, Chisholm continued serving in the House of Representatives. In 1977, she became the first Black woman and second woman ever to be elected to serve on the Rules Committee for the House. Chisholm retired from public office in 1983.

President Barack Obama posthumously awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in November 2015.

She died in 2005 at the age of 80 in her Florida home. Saturday would have been her 100th birthday.

Vice President Kamala Harris commemorated the day in a post on X, saying, “So many of us stand on her broad shoulders. With her spirit and in honor of her legacy, let us continue to speak truth to power and fight for equality and justice for all.”

Harris’ recent campaign for president marked the first time a Black woman became the Democratic nominee for president. As Chisholm wrote in her book, she fought for candidates like Harris to be taken seriously.

“The next time a woman runs, or a black, a Jew or anyone from a group that the country is ‘not ready’ to elect to its highest office, I believe he or she will be taken seriously from the start. The door is not open yet, but it is ajar,” she wrote.

Chisholm’s life, from Brooklyn to Barbados and beyond, is the subject of a yearlong exhibit that opened in June at the Museum of the City of New York. The museum held special programming Saturday to mark her 100th birthday.

“When I die, I want to be remembered as a woman who lived in the 20th century and who dared to be a catalyst of change,” Chisholm once said. “I want to be remembered as a woman who fought for change in the 20th century. That’s what I want.”

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