Remembering Shirley Chisholm

"My greatest political asset, which professional politicians fear,
is my mouth, out of which come all kinds of things one shouldn’t always
discuss for reasons of political expediency."

Shirley Chisholm made her own way, remaining, as her book title proudly
asserts, "unbought and unbossed" throughout her political
life. The first black woman elected to Congress (1968), she was a founding
member of the Black Congressional Caucus and also ran for president
in 1972, a symbolic move that she hoped would pave the way for "a
black, a woman or a Jew" to be taken seriously as future presidential
candidates. During 14 years in Congress, she opposed the Vietnam War,
supported the War on Poverty and remained an activist and a fighter
against racism and sexism.

Some Shirley Chisholm quotes:

"When morality comes up against profit, it is seldom profit that
loses."

"The United States was said not to be ready to elect a Catholic
to the Presidency when Al Smith ran in the 1920’s. But Smith’s nomination
may have helped pave the way for the successful campaign John F. Kennedy
waged in 1960. Who can tell? What I hope most is that now there will
be others who will feel themselves as capable of running for high political
office as any wealthy, good-looking white male."

"In the end antiblack, antifemale, and all forms of discrimination
are equivalent to the same thing – antihumanism."

"Congress seems drugged and inert most of the time… its idea
of meeting a problem is to hold hearings or, in extreme cases, to appoint
a commission"