Shirley Chisholm And The Civil Rights Movement

Shirley Chisholm was strong-willed, well accomplished woman. She was an educator, activist, and politician. She achieved what many women dreamed of doing in her career. Shirley believed in being a person to fight for change and all her life she worked to improve to lives of other people. She fought for what she believed and what she believed was right. She made such a big difference in the world. Shirley Chisholm is remembered for her fight for change in the 20th century. Shirley St. Hill was born in New York on November 30, 1924. She was the oldest of four daughters and youngest of four brothers of Charles St. Hill, a factory laborer from Guyana, and Ruby St. Hill, a seamstress from Barbados. When Shirley was three years old she was sent …show more content…
Chisholm, a private investigator. They went into politics together. Shirley and Conrad Chisholm were married 30 years until he died in 1977 and she then married Arthur Hardwick in 1986. Shirley Chisholm spoke strongly for the poor and for women. She worked for civil rights for African-Americans. She opposed the Vietnam War. In 1969 she helped form the Congressional Black Caucus. She also was a member of the National Organization for Women. Ms. Chisholm was an activist for people of color, including Native Americans and Spanish-speaking immigrants. She often spoke about cultural and social issues. Chisholm joined a local Democratic club who worked to get rid of the white Democratic machine that held the power in her Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. The group challenged the white leaders on why the black neighborhoods were being ignored. The leaders tried to quiet Chisholm by placing her on the board of directors and when she continued to speak out, they removed her from the post. The group managed to elect a black man, Thomas R. Jones, to state assembly in 1962 and, when in 1964 he decided to run for a judgeship, the community replaced him with Chisholm. During the time that she served in the assembly Chisholm sponsored fifty bills, but only eight of them passed. One of the successful bills she supported provided assistance for poor students to go on to higher education. Another provided employment insurance coverage for personal and …show more content…
She said many voters did not understand her. She said her influence as a truthful, tough politician was decreasing in conservative times. Also, she wanted to spend more time with her second husband, Arthur Hardwick. During her time in office she was one of the four founders of the National Women's Political Caucus in 1971, was appointed to the “powerful” House Rules Committee in 1977 and introduced more than 50 pieces of legislation. President William J. Clinton nominated Chisholm to be the U.S. Ambassador to Jamaica, but she declined due to ill health. Ms. Chisholm went on to teach at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Years after leaving Congress, she continued to be invited to speak before many groups and organizations and she co-founded the National Political Congress of Black Women, which represented black women’s concerns. Shirley wrote two books Unbought and Unbossed and The Good Fight. When asked how she wanted to be remembered, Chisholm said, “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. I don’t want to be remembered as the first black woman who went to Congress. And I don’t even want to be remembered as the first woman who happened to be black to make the bid for the presidency. I want to be remembered as a woman who fought for change in