Last year, I wrote a post on the candidacy of Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton on people stating that these two are the first viable contenders running for the highest office in the land ( https://kathmanduk2.wordpress.com/2007/10/14/race-gender-not-driving-clinton-obama/ ). Many people speak as if Obama is the first black to run for office of the president of America (nevermind that a few decades before him there was the Rev. Jesse Jackson: https://kathmanduk2.wordpress.com/2008/01/28/ghosts-of-1984/ ). Many people speak as if Clinton is the first woman to run for the presidency.
Lost in all of this gleeful concentration on these two candidates is the first black and the first woman who ran for President of the United States:
SHIRLEY CHISHOLM.
In my post on Shirley, I addressed how she was the first to pave the way for both Obama and Clinton. But, thanks to a link from another site ( http://sotablogs.blogspot.com/2008/04/carnival-electoral-politics-examination.html ), I was able to come across a spectacular post written on Shirley, by Sylvia of http://problemchylde.wordpress.com . Here is an excerpt from Sylvia’s essay http://problemchylde.wordpress.com/2008/03/08/shirley-chisholm-is-not-to-be-forgotten-now-or-ever/ :
The thing that angers me about Obama and Clinton is this is NOT a historical first with regards to a black person or a woman seeking the presidency. The REAL historical first is Shirley Chisholm back in 1972.
Clinton has been using Chisholm’s legacy as a pawn with black folks and black women since one of the things she did as a junior senator is contribute to legislation honoring her. That’s it.
Obama, on the other hand, has channeled her “Unbought and Unbossed” campaign into an appeal to the people, catered to the hopes of young people with complete audacity, and has painted himself as the Every Person Candidate. That’s it.
Just as Chisholm did! Before Jesse Jackson, even!
It’s no coincidence or surprise from either politician to give her lip service about what she did. I mean, I read these words from Chisholm and it sounds like something Obama’s used in his speeches in almost the exact same words:
“You can be part of the system without being wedded to it,” I say. “You can take part in it without believing that everything it does is right. I don’t measure America by its achievement, but by its potential. There are still many things that we haven’t tried — that I haven’t tried — to change the way our present system operates. I haven’t exhausted the opportunities for action in the course I’m pursuing. If I ever do, I cannot at this point imagine what to do next. You want me to talk to you about revolution, but I can’t do that. I know what it would bring. My people are twelve percent of the population, at most fifteen percent. I am pragmatic about it: revolution would be suicide.”
Chisholm’s the one who paved the way. All these folks can spin Obama and Clinton as historical firsts and discard the importance of her run post-Civil Rights Acts era. I don’t buy the “first with a chance” theory. The fact that she ran knowing that she may not win reflects more on the superficiality of the American people than it does on the merits of her campaign and her spirit. Junior Congresswoman vying for the ticket, all of that. People have thrown lip service in her direction and a few quick glances; but if they look at her ideals you can see so much of her in this season. So much, and yet not enough.
Such leaders must be found. But they will not be found as much as they will be created, by an electorate that has become ready to demand that it control its own destiny. There must be a new coalition of all Americans — black, white, red, yellow and brown, rich and poor — who are no longer willing to allow their rights as human beings to be infringed upon by anyone else, for any reason. We must join together to insist that this nation deliver on the promise it made, nearly 200 years ago, that every man be allowed to be a man. I feel an incredible urgency that we must do it now. If time has not run out, it is surely ominously short.
And ironically, when I look back at descriptions of how Chisholm ran her campaign and garnered support, tactically Obama’s rhetoric squares with hers. (Aside: Why is this historical first’s biography out of print?)
Yes, Shirley’s autobiography, “Unbought, And Unbossed“.
Everyone has heard of and knows of Obama’s “Audacity of Hope” book, but no one since the speech from Obama at the 2004 Democratic Convention, even gives lip service to Rep. Chisholm’s book nor to the documentary on her.
Sylvia speaks eloquently and elegantly of Shirley.
Please go to her site and learn what true history is.
Learn what real passion and dedication is.
Learn of the late, the great. . . .
Rep. Shirley Chisholm.
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Ann
The mainstream media is ignoring Ms. Chisholm’s contribution to politics. It seems to me that the media is in a rush to anoint Barack Obama as the first candidate for the presidency that they tend to forget Blacks who first pave his way to the presidency. That’s insulting to me.
Steph
Yes.
America suffers from collective amnesia when it comes to Shirley’s candidacy, as well as the candidacy of many other black women in political office:
-Carol Moseley-Braun
-Ezola Broussard Foster
-Leonora Fulani
-Cynthia McKinney ( one of 5 candidates for the presidential nomination of the Green Party)
Thanks for stopping by, Stephanie.