[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 16 (Tuesday, February 15, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E247-E248]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        PAYING TRIBUTE TO SHIRLEY CHISHOLM: AN AMERICAN HEROINE

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. AL GREEN

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 15, 2005

  Mr. AL GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor an 
extraordinary woman in American history. Shirley Chisholm, an outspoken 
advocate for women and minorities during her seven terms in the House 
of Representatives, passed on January 1st. This iconoclastic political 
figure has been lost and forgotten in many of today's civic classes in 
this country but her ideals have seen a rebirth.
  Born in 1924 to parents that emigrated from the West Indies, Chisholm 
was raised in an American society that told African Americans to stay 
in their place and women to stay at home. Chisholm vehemently rejected 
this canon which ultimately shaped and fueled her political career--
becoming both the first African American woman elected to Congress and 
the first black or woman to wage a serious campaign for a major party's 
presidential nomination in 1972.
  Shirley Chisholm excelled in academics at Girls High School in 
Brooklyn, New York, from which she graduated in 1942. After graduation 
she attended Brooklyn College where she majored in sociology. It was 
there that she experienced blatant racism. When black students at 
Brooklyn College where denied admittance into social clubs, Chisholm 
formed alternate ones. She would go on to graduate with honors in 1946 
but found herself turned away by employers time and time again. During 
this time many black graduates found it difficult to obtain employment 
commensurate to their education. It was a culmination of these events 
in her life that led Chisholm to vow to fight against injustices 
everywhere. After graduation, she would earn a masters degree in child 
education from Columbia University and later served as director of the 
largest nursery school network in New York.
  In 1949, Chisholm participated in local politics, helping to form the 
Bedford-Stuyvesant political league. She also became active in the 
Brooklyn chapter of the National Urban League and in the National 
Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), where she 
debated minority rights. Chisholm's political career took off in 1964, 
when she won, by a landslide, her campaign for the New York State 
Assembly. As an assembly person (1965-1968), she sponsored legislation 
that instituted programs which provided college funding to 
disadvantaged youths, and successfully introduced a bill that secured 
unemployment insurance for domestics and day-care providers. In 1968 
Chisholm won a seat in the House of Representatives becoming the first 
African American woman to be elected to Congress. She found herself one 
of ten women and nine African Americans in the prestigious body.

  Representing an entirely inter-city constituency, Chisholm protested 
her relegation to the Agriculture Committee, an assignment she 
considered insulting. She would often criticize Congress for being too 
clubby and unresponsive. It was during these challenging times that 
Chisholm exemplified one of the most important characteristics of a 
pioneer--the determination to strive for more and to not accept ``no'' 
for an answer. With a character that she has described as ``unbought 
and unbossed,'' Chisholm became known as a politician who refused to 
allow her colleagues, including the white male-dominated House of 
Representatives, to deter her from her goals. She remarked that, 
``Women in this country must become revolutionaries. We must refuse to 
accept the old, the traditional roles and stereotypes.'' She 
subsequently served on a number of committees, including the Education 
and Labor, and campaigned for a higher minimum wage and increased 
federal funding for disadvantaged communities. In her first term in 
Congress, Chisholm hired an all female staff and was an unyielding 
advocate of social justice, women's rights, the underprivileged and 
people of all races, nationalities and faith.
  On January 25, 1972 Chisholm became the first African American woman 
to campaign for the presidency. She admitted that she stood no real 
chance of winning but wanted to galvanize minority communities, working 
class whites and young people into a sizable political force. Chisholm 
ran as ``the candidate of the people,'' receiving 151 delegate votes at 
the Democratic National Convention that year.
  During the campaign, she experienced resistance from her colleagues, 
including the Congressional Black Caucus for which she was a founding 
member, and was attacked four times on the campaign trail. Chisholm's 
bid for the presidency was not fruitless--her legacy and work has 
ushered in a generation of exceptional leaders--from presidential 
candidate Jesse Jackson, to former U.S. Senator Carol Mosley Braun to 
Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi.

[[Page E248]]

  Shirley Chisholm once commented, ``There is little place in the 
political scheme of things for an independent, creative personality, 
for a fighter. Anyone who takes that role must pay a price.'' Mr. 
Speaker, I believe obscurity is too high a price for Mrs. Chisholm to 
have to pay. We all owe her a debt of gratitude for the work that she's 
done to advance the causes of all Americans and for that legacy our 
country will be eternally grateful.

                          ____________________