Shirley Chisholm: Champion of Black Feminist Power Politics

470 Pages·2023·4.087 MB·English

by  Anastasia C. Curwood

shirley chisholm
Shirley Chisholm
champion of black feminist power politics
Anastasia C. Curwood
The University of North Carolina Press
Chapel Hill
Chisholm
champion of black feminist power politics
★
Anastasia C. Curwood
The University of North Carolina Press
Chapel Hill
This book was published with the
assistance of the Anniversary Fund of the
University of North Carolina Press.
© 2023 Anastasia C. Curwood
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Designed by Richard Hendel
Set in Utopia and Real Text Pro by codeMantra
Jacket photograph: Representative Shirley Chisholm
campaigning for president in Framingham, MA,
March 25, 1972. © Michael Dobo / Dobophoto.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Curwood, Anastasia Carol, 1974– author.
Title: Shirley Chisholm : champion of Black feminist
power politics / Anastasia C. Curwood.
Description: Chapel Hill : The University of North Carolina Press,
[2022] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022020614 | ISBN 9781469671178 (cloth) |
ISBN 9781469671185 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Chisholm, Shirley, 1924–2005. | African American
women politicians—Biography. | Politicians—United States—Biography. |
African American women legislators—Biography. |
Legislators—United States—Biography. | African American
feminists—Biography. | Feminism—Political
aspects—United States. | LCGFT: Biographies.
Classification: LCC E840.8.C48 C87 2022 |
DDC 320.082/0973092 [B]—dc23/eng/20220527
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022020614
Poems by Shirley Chisholm, “The Law of the Land” and
“The Albany Impasse of 1965,” are reprinted with the permission
of the Shirley Chisholm estate.
For Carol
and
For Black girls who want
to be president
This page intentionally left blank
contents
List of Illustrations ix
Introduction: Beyond the Symbol 1
1. Daughter of the Caribbean 7
2. In Pursuit of the Highest in All: The Making of a Young Intellectual 28
3. Brooklyn Politics 44
4. The First Victory 62
5. Bringing Women’s Rights and Civil Rights Together 77
6. Unbought and Unbossed 93
7. Fighting Shirley Chisholm 112
8. Building the Chisholm Mystique 126
9. Black Feminist Power Politics on Capitol Hill 148
10. Guns, Butter, and Justice 157
11. The Book: A Black Feminist Power Manifesto 174
12. Institution Building: The Congressional Black Caucus
and the National Women’s Political Caucus 185
13. Chisholm ’72 203
14. The Challenges of Coalitions on the Chisholm Trail 216
15. Winning Delegates on the Chisholm Trail 230
16. The Chisholm Coalition on the National Stage: Miami ’72 256
17. Coalition Politics in Congress, 1972–1976 275
18. Fighting the Tide, 1977–1982 305
19. Professor and Chair 335
Epilogue: Bring a Folding Chair 351
Acknowledgments 355
Appendix 359
Notes 369
Bibliography 439
Index 453
illustrations
figures
Emmeline Chase Seale 19
Vauxhall Primary School 21
Shirley St. Hill’s high school graduation photo 29
Conrad and Shirley Chisholm at their wedding, 1949 39
Shirley Chisholm with Ruby and Charles St. Hill at
her wedding, 1949 40
Shirley Chisholm and Anthony Travia dancing, 1968 75
Brooklyn’s Ninetieth U.S. Congress districts prior to
redistricting, 1968 86
Brooklyn’s Ninety-First U.S. Congress districts after
redistricting, 1968 99
Shirley Chisholm in a sound car, Brooklyn, 1968 107
“The Chisettes,” 1969 130
Democratic Select Committee, 1969 143
Gloria Steinem, Bella Abzug, Shirley Chisholm, and
Betty Friedan at the founding of the National Women’s
Political Caucus, 1971 197
Supporters listening to Rep. Shirley Chisholm, St. Paul AME Church,
Roxbury, Massachusetts, 1972 224
Shirley Chisholm and Elma Lewis at St. Paul AME Church,
Roxbury, Massachusetts, 1972 239
Shirley Chisholm campaigning in Roxbury, Massachusetts, 1972 241
Shirley Chisholm at the Democratic National Convention podium,
1972 269
An interracial feminist coalition at the Capitol, 1973 282
Shirley Chisholm and Arthur Hardwick on their wedding day, 1977 309