January 25: Shirley Chisholm

On this date in History .... 1972:

Shirley Chisholm becomes the first major-party black candidate for President of the United States and the first woman (white or black) to run for the Democratic nomination. (The first woman to run for President on the Republican ticket was Sen. Margaret Chase who ran for the Republican nomination in 1950).

 

In 1968, she had become the first African American woman elected to Congress. 

 

A former teacher, she was an advocate for children, education and women’s rights.  In May of 1969 she gave a speech to the House of Representatives in which she introduced the equal rights amendment and pointed out that the bill had been introduced before every Congress for the previous 40 years.

 

To those who argued that women were already protected under the law, she pointed out that ….. "If women are already equal, why is it such an event whenever one gets elected to Congress?"