Shirley Chisholm announces her run for president, January 1972. Photo: Thomas J. O’Halloran, Library of Congress.
On November 5, 1968, voters in Brooklyn's newly drawn 12th Congressional District sent a 43-year-old former child care center director to Washington. Shirley Chisholm had just become the first Black woman ever elected to the U.S. Congress [1][2].
Fifty-eight years later, most of us know the headline. Fewer know the road that led to it — a road that ran through her grandmother's house in Barbados, a string of New York City day care centers, and years of showing up at neighborhood meetings. On the anniversary of that first win, here's the woman behind the "first."
Raised by family, on two islands
Shirley Anita St. Hill was born in Brooklyn on November 30, 1924. Her father, Charles St. Hill, was born in British Guiana and worked in a bakery at night and a factory by day. Her mother, Ruby Seale St. Hill, was born in Barbados and worked as a seamstress and a maid [3].
Money was tight. When Shirley was about four, her parents sent her and her sisters to live with their grandmother and aunt in Barbados, and she stayed until 1934 [2][3]. Those years stuck with her for life. Looking back, she put it simply: "Granny gave me strength, dignity, and love" [2].
Back in Brooklyn, she graduated from Girls' High School in 1942 and from Brooklyn College in 1946 [3][4].
The teacher years
Before she was a politician, Chisholm's work was children. She earned a master's degree from Columbia University's Teachers College in 1952 [2][5]. From 1953 to 1959 she directed the Hamilton-Madison Child Care Center, then spent five years as an educational consultant to New York City's Division of Day Care [3][4]. The National Park Service notes she became an authority on early education and child welfare [2].
At the same time, she was learning how power worked on her own blocks. She got involved with the Bedford-Stuyvesant Political League and the League of Women Voters, and in 1964 she won a seat in the New York State Assembly [2][3].
Unbought and Unbossed
In 1968, a court-ordered redrawing created a new 12th District centered on Bedford-Stuyvesant. Chisholm beat two other Black candidates in the Democratic primary, then faced James Farmer, the nationally known former director of the Congress of Racial Equality, in the general election [6]. Her slogan was "Fighting Shirley Chisholm—Unbought and Unbossed," and she won by an estimated two-to-one margin [6].
In Washington, she didn't wait her turn. First assigned to the House Agriculture Committee, she pushed back, pointing out that she represented an urban district [6]. She was moved to committees closer to her constituents' needs. Over seven terms she helped expand the food stamp program and helped create WIC, the nutrition program for women, infants and children [2][7]. In 1971 she co-founded the Congressional Black Caucus [2][7], and in 1977 she became the first Black woman to serve on the powerful House Rules Committee [3].
Then she aimed higher. On January 25, 1972, Chisholm announced a run for president — the first Black candidate to seek a major party's nomination and the first woman to seek the Democratic nomination [2][7]. Her campaign was short on money and organization, yet she still won 152 delegate votes at the Democratic National Convention [3][6]. George McGovern won the nomination [2].
"Unbought and Unbossed" — her 1968 slogan, and the words on her headstone [2][6]
A life of firsts — and of teaching
Chisholm left Congress in 1983 and went back to the classroom, teaching at Mount Holyoke and Spelman colleges and urging people to get involved in local politics [2]. She died on January 1, 2005, in Ormond Beach, Florida, at age 80, and is buried in Buffalo, New York [2]. In November 2015, President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom after her death, the nation's highest civilian honor [2][8].
What her story means now
Chisholm's life is often told as a list of firsts. But the firsts came after decades of quieter work: caring for other families' children, learning her neighborhood, sitting through the meetings. That path is open to most of us.
• Start close to home. Chisholm's career began in neighborhood clubs and a state assembly seat, and she spent her later years urging others to get involved locally [2]. Find out who represents you on your city council and school board.
• Pass the stories down. She credited her grandmother for the strength she carried. Ask the elders in your family who shaped them — and write it down.
• Read her in her own words. Her autobiography, Unbought and Unbossed, was first published in 1970, and an expanded 40th-anniversary edition came out in 2010 [3].
• Explore the archive. Brooklyn College's Shirley Chisholm Project on Brooklyn Women's Activism holds what the college calls the world's largest collection of Chisholm materials [8].
Keep the conversation going
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Sources
1. U.S. National Archives (Records of the U.S. Information Agency), "Congresswoman from New York, Mrs. Shirley Chisholm," photograph and caption 306-PSC-68-3539, National Archives Identifier 7452354, November 6, 1968, via DocsTeach. https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/congresswoman-new-york-shirley-chisholm (accessed November 1, 2026)
2. National Park Service, "Shirley Chisholm," NPS.gov, n.d. https://www.nps.gov/people/shirley-chisholm.htm (accessed November 1, 2026)
3. National Women's History Museum, "Shirley Chisholm," National Women's History Museum, 2025. https://www.womenshistory.org/node/140 (accessed November 1, 2026)
4. Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, "Shirley A. Chisholm Timeline," Avoice Virtual Library, n.d. https://avoice.cbcfinc.org/?p=234 (accessed November 1, 2026)
5. Teachers College, Columbia University, "TC Alumna Shirley Chisholm Is Posthumously Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom," Teachers College, November 24, 2015. https://www.tc.columbia.edu/articles/2015/november/tc-alumna-shirley-chisholm-is-posthumously-awarded-the-presidential-medal-of-fre (accessed November 1, 2026)
6. Jessie Kratz (with Michael J. Hancock), "Shirley Chisholm: Unbought and Unbossed," Pieces of History, U.S. National Archives, February 5, 2019. https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2019/02/05/shirley-chisholm-unbought-and-unbossed/ (accessed November 1, 2026)
7. U.S. National Archives, "Shirley Chisholm (November 30, 1924 – January 1, 2005)," National Archives, November 18, 2020 (updated November 2, 2023). https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/individuals/shirley-chisholm (accessed November 1, 2026)
8. Brooklyn College, "Obama Honors the Legacy of Shirley Chisholm with the Presidential Medal of Freedom," Brooklyn College News, November 16, 2015. https://www.brooklyn.edu/bc-news/obama-honors-the-legacy-of-shirley-chisholm-with-the-presidential-medal-of-freedom/ (accessed November 1, 2026)
Image credits: Cover: Thomas J. O'Halloran, "Shirley Chisholm" (1972), U.S. News & World Report Magazine Photograph Collection, Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division — "Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm announcing her candidacy for presidential nomination," January 1972, Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ppmsc-01264 / LC-U9-25383-33 — no known restrictions on publication (also listed as public domain by the National Park Service [2]). https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsc.01264 ·
