Shirley Chisholm was born on November 30, 1924 in Brooklyn, New York. She
moved to Barbados to live with her grandmother and she moved back to Brooklyn
when she was eleven years old. In 1946, she graduated from Brooklyn College. She
received a Masters degree from Columbia University in New York City in 1952.
Shirley was elected to the New York State Assembly in 1964. She served for four
years. She was the first African American woman elected to Congress. Shirley was
elected to the House of Representatives in 1968 and she served seven terms. In 1972
Shirley ran for President of the United States. She did not get her party's
nomination and she remained a Congresswoman until she resigned in 1982. Shirley
became a professor at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. She
is the author of Unbought and Unbossed (1970) and The Good Fight
(1973).
"No one can feel proud and secure about himself if he is not able to
make a contribution to his family and community on the basis of is talent, his
skill, and his innate desire to be an active participant in this
environment....In the end anti-black, anti-female, and all forms of
discrimination are equivalent to the same thing, anti-humanism."
by Kira, third grade, 2002
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