Paving the Way and Then Some!

March 14, 2022

Photo of Shirley Chisholm in front of the US Capitol Building

Petite and always impeccably dressed, Shirley Chisholm was a natural trailblazer. Born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 20, 1924, to Ruby and Charles St. Hill, Barbadian and Guyanese immigrants, Shirley Chisholm won her first Congressional seat at the age of 43 in November 1968. She was re-elected six more times to Congress by her constituents from the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York. Although she was relegated to serve on the Committee on House Agriculture, at the outset, she ably persuaded the democratic leadership that assignment to another committee would be more beneficial to her constituents. (Women in Congress, 1917-1990, pg. 44)

Shirley Chisholm graduated cum laude from Brooklyn College and went on to earn a master's in early childhood education from Columbia University. She also spoke fluent Spanish. Her life was typified of many achievements: she was the first African-American woman elected to the New York State legislature, she was the first African-American woman elected to the United States House of Representatives, and she was the first African-American, and the first woman, to run for the Democratic presidential nomination. Shirley Chisholm was one in ten billion!

See the following sources to find out more about this remarkable woman and the other women who served and are serving in Congress:

History, Art & Archives, U.S. House of Representatives, “CHISHOLM, Shirley Anita,” https://history.house.gov/People/Listing/C/CHISHOLM,-Shirley-Anita-(C000371)/ (March 08, 2022)

History, Art & Archives, U.S. House of Representatives, “Unbought and Unbossed,” https://history.house.gov/Blog/2018/March/3-5-photo-chisholm/ (March 08, 2022)

History, Art & Archives, U.S. House of Representatives, “Guts, Stamina, Audacity: Shirley Chisholm’s House Career,” https://history.house.gov/Blog/2019/January/1-3-Chisholm/ (March 08, 2022)


History, Art & Archives, U.S. House of Representatives, Office of the Historian, Women in Congress, 1917–2006. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2007. “Women in Congress,” https://history.house.gov/wic/ (March 08, 2022)


Photo credit: United States House of Representatives, Women in Congress, 1917-1990, pg. 43