A Seat at the Table The Life and Times of Shirley Chisholm

When Shirley Chisholm was asked why she would dare run for president, her response was, why not her?
Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm rose from being the child of immigrants to the United States to running for the highest office in the land. She was both the first African American woman elected to the US Congress and the first African American woman of a major political party to make a serious run for president of the United States.
These achievements were not in spite of her background but rather because of it. She persevered by being steadfast in her political convictions and unwilling to compromise on the issues she believed in. Chisholm directly challenged the political establishment and gave a political voice to so many segments of society that were historically ignored—women, racial minorities, young people, the gay community, domestic and agricultural workers, and the poor—not only in her home district in Brooklyn, New York, but across the country.
Her run for the 1972 Democratic presidential nomination may not have ended in victory, but it was successful in forging a grassroots campaign that united diverse Americans behind a candidate who championed their collective interests. Her efforts laid the groundwork for change then, now, and in the future.
Without Shirley Chisholm there may not have been a Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, or Kamala Harris.

Glenn L. Starks holds a doctorate in public policy and administration from Virginia Commonwealth University’s L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs. He has almost thirty years of experience working for the United States government and has written extensively on public administration and American politics, including two recent books on the history of the United States government. He has taught graduate courses at Walden University since 2014. F. Erik Brooks is the dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and director of the Whitney Young Honors Collegium at Kentucky State University. He has written extensively in the areas of African American history, public administration, and American politics. He is the author of African American and the US Presidents: Politics and Policies from Washington to Trump.