Shirley Chisholm For President
Don Hogan Charles/New York Times/Getty Images
The field of Democratic candidates for the 2020 presidential race has grown to include the most women running in U.S. history. Great time for a refresher on Brooklyn’s own Shirley Chisholm, who — 47 years ago on this day — became the first woman to run for the Democratic party’s presidential nomination (and the first Black candidate for a major party’s nomination).
Seen here announcing her POTUS bid at the Concord Baptist Church of Christ in Bed-Stuy, Chisholm had already made history as the first Black woman elected to Congress and angled for the White House during her second term. She received 151 delegates at the Democratic National Convention, coming in fourth place for the party.
“I want history to remember me...not as the first Black woman to have made a bid for the presidency of the United States,” once said Chisholm, born in Bed-Stuy to parents from Barbados and Guyana, “But as a Black woman who lived in the 20th century and who dared to be herself.”
