Shirley Chisholm: First African-American Woman to Campaign for Presidential Nomination
A member of Congress from Brooklyn, New York, Shirley Chisholm announced on this day that she would seek the Democratic Party nomination for president, thus becoming the first African-American woman to campaign for the nomination for president by a major political party.
Chisholm was the first African-American woman elected to Congress on November 5, 1968. She was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus on March 30, 1971, and also the National Women’s Political Caucus on July 10, 1971.
Barack Obama shattered the ceiling on an African-American as president when he was elected to the office on November 4, 2008. And Kamala Harris broke the ceiling on African-Americans and South Asians as Vice-President on when she was elected to that office on November 3, 2020.
Chisholm announces her candidacy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjIzxFL98HgLearn more: Shirley Chisholm, Unbought and Unbossed (1970)
Learn more about women who ran for President at the National Women’s History Museum: http://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/president/president.html