Former Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm Dies
Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to Congress, died Saturday at the age of 80. During her seven terms beginning in 1969, Chisholm was a champion of women and minorities, and an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War. She was also the first African-American to seek a major party's presidential nomination, running for the Democratic party's nomination in 1972.
Chisholm always took activism seriously, including fighting racist policies as a student at Brooklyn College, hiring an all-female staff during her first term in Congress, and working as a co-founder of NOW.
Rev. Jesse Jackson offered his praise. "She was an activist and she never stopped fighting," Jackson told The Associated Press from Ohio. "She refused to accept the ordinary, and she had high expectations for herself and all people around her."
Written By:jackson On January 3, 2005 4:24 PM
I find a lot of hope in this section of Chisholm's obit:
During her failed presidential bid, Chisholm went to the hospital to visit George Wallace, her rival candidate and ideological opposite, after he had been shot - an act that appalled her followers.
"He said, `What are your people going to say?' I said: `I know what they're going to say. But I wouldn't want what happened to you to happen to anyone.' He cried and cried," she recalled.
And when she needed support to extend the minimum wage to domestic workers two years later, it was Wallace who got her the votes from Southern members of Congress.
Maybe someday, the South will be redeemed.