Happy Birthday Shirley Chisholm
by digby
“Of my two handicaps, being female put many more obstacles in my path than being black.”
I don’t know where I first heard that famous Shirley Chisholm line but I do remember that I was shocked. It represented of huge moment of consciousness raising for me — until then, as a child of the 1960s, I could not imagine that anything could be as daunting as being black in this world. Certainly, I didn’t think I was a person who might have obstacles to overcome, however insignificant they might be by comparison. And then I learned that I did.
Shirley Chisholm was an early political hero of mine for a lot of different reasons. I remember the 1972 campaign as a teenager and thinking, “wow, a woman president?” I voted for her in my AP history class — the only one who did, if I recall correctly. I think I foolishly assumed that now that everyone could see how absurd it was that half the population was barely represented in our democracy it would happen quite soon. Funny. It’s more than 40 years later. But I’m assured by everyone that it’s almost a woman’s turn, so that’s good. Maybe it will happen before I die.
Anyway, today is Shirley Chisholm day. If you want to read a nice piece about her life and her legacy, I enjoyed this one from Andrew O’Hair from a couple of years back. She was an original. As she said, somebody had to go first, and so she did.
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