Female, Black, and "Unbought"

Shirley Chisholm was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1930 to two immigrant parents; one from Barbados and the other from Guyana. At the young age of 34 Chisholm, ran and became the second woman in the New York Legislature. However, that wasn’t enough for her in 1968 she ran for a seat in Congress, which she also won. While becoming the first African American congresswoman was a win in itself, Chisholm truly wanted to make a difference. So with this being said she championed minority education and employment opportunities. By 1971 Chisholm was on a roll, which led her to co-found the National women’s political caucus. After all of these wins, one would think that Chisholm was fulfilled, yet, that was not the case. The next obstacle on her list was to run in the biggest political race of them all: the presidency. Yet, this road would be much bumpier than her other previous accomplishments.

When Chisholm first started her campaign she was not taken seriously by black or white politicians. Her only backbone in the race were black women who clung to her slogan “Unbought and Unbossed.” they became her most loyal voters in the race. Other voters such as white women and black men were making it harder for Chisholm to them over. Even though Chisholm wanted to win this presidency she knew it would not happen for three reasons; her skin tone, gender and them she lived. So who her purpose was more so to influence the winning candidate of her time to favor rights for women, black Americans, and Native people. In July of 1972, Chisholm had finally made it to Democratic Convention with 152 other delegates. That brought her in fourth place, and unable to use her delegates as leverage to influence the winning candidate in favor of equal rights for all.

Political Advancements

Due to the accomplishments of Shirley Chisholm African American women and men have been able to make bigger strides in the political world. For example, in 2008 America voted for its first African American president, Barack Obama. During Chisholm’s time, this wouldn’t have even been possible or even thought of if it wasn’t for her courageous efforts. When Shirley Chisholm was running for president she only had a majority of black women voters. When Obama ran for president had had 93% of Black voters (both men and women), 39% of White voters, 71% Hispanics and 73% Asians. Many of these voters, for example, the white voters, were not this high of even existent. But because of these, the diversity in voters for the 2012 election Barack Obama won the presidential election.

Although there has yet to be an African American woman president, many women and black women have run for president. One example is when Hilary came closest to being the first woman president in the 2016 presidential election. This is seen as an advancement in the political world for females because when Chisholm was running, many men laughed at the idea of having a female-run in this country. After Hilary Clinton came close to winning the presidential election, the amount of women running for president has increased. In this year's 2020 election there are three women still in the running for president. And before that Kamala Harris, an African American woman was running a steady democratic campaign until she dropped out due to financial reasons. However, her campaign for president shows how far African American women have made in getting themselves in the door when it comes to politics. Yet, Harris’ campaign also exposes how we still have more advancements to make because the main reason for white candidates becoming president is because they, mostly, have the money to continue their campaigns. While African Americans may not always have all of those necessary to gain voters by finding the funds for their campaigns.