The Woman Washington Couldn't Control | Shirley Chisholm

This week's conversation, featuring Aya Fubara Eneli Esq. and Adesoji Iginla,  delves into the life and legacy of Shirley Chisholm.  the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Congress. 

The discussion highlights her candidacy for the presidency, her advocacy for women's rights and civil rights, and her critique of the American political system. 

Chisholm's emphasis on empowerment, political agency, and the need for systemic change resonates throughout the conversation, making it clear that her vision and impact continue to inspire future generations.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Good morning and welcome to another episode of Rethinking Freedom. I am your host, Aya Fabarinelli, and today we have an incredible show for you. We're doing something a little different. You are actually going to hear a reenactment of a conversation that we imagine would have happened with the great Shirley Chisholm. This is in celebration of International Women's Day, which of course was yesterday, March 8th. If you don't know who Shirley Chisholm is, well, you're in for a treat. Shirley Chisholm was the first woman and also African-American woman to run for the presidency of the United States of America. And she actually was a forerunner, if you will, of Jesse Jackson's presidency. And we just laid him to rest. And of course, Jesse Jackson's run for presidency opened the doors, paved the way for Barack Obama ultimately becoming the first Black president of the United States of America. In addition to sharing her story, what we also want you to pay attention to is the parallels between what she experienced as a woman, as a Black woman politician in her day, and the experiences of black female politicians today, including what just happened with Jasmine Crockett, with a racist president who was so threatened by this woman that they redistricted here in the state of Texas to make sure that she could no longer represent her district, which then propelled her to run for U.S. Senate. And then we see how some members of our citizens are the populace, voting populace, maybe um choosing their proximity to whiteness, even though she was an ardent um protester against ICE, fighting hard for the rights of Latinos and immigration. And we see how so many more Latinos chose to align with James Tallerico versus Jasmine Crockett. But at any rate, notice the parallels. And so we invite you to listen to this reenactment of an interview that is happening between me acting as Shirley Chisholm and Adeso G. Iguinla. You can find the entire interview on our weekly podcast, which is called Women in Resistance. But please listen in.

SPEAKER_01 3:01

Welcome to Women in Resistance, a powerful podcast where we honor the courage, resilience, and revolutionary spirits of women across the globe. Hosted by Aya Fuberi Enelly Esquire and Addisoji Iginla, we uncover untold stories of defiance against systemic oppression, whether colonialism, racism, sexism, or economic injustice. From historic icons like Winnie Mandela and Fanny Lou Hamer to today's trailblazers, we shine a light upon those shaping a more just world. This is a call to honor the past, embrace the present, and build an empowered future. Yes, greetings, greetings, and welcome to another episode of Women and Resistance, where we explore the lives and the lives and times of women who have helped shape our reality, and hopefully we can learn pick uh a lesson or two about how to shape our future. That said, I am your host, Addis Or J Ginla, and with me as usual is my sister from another mother, Aya Fabera and Ellie Esquire. Or you sister? Yes. Today we are looking at the life of the incredible and unbossed Shirley Chisholm. Um what else is there to say but to ask me surely what makes her unique? Welcome. Good evening. Good evening.

SPEAKER_00 4:44

Thank you for this opportunity. Um I thought about what I want to share with the people today. Given the times that we live in, it struck me that remarks that I made when I announced my candidacy for the president of the United States of America in January of 1972 are as appropriate today as they were fifty-three years ago. And so if you and my people and all the others who might be so inclined would indulge me, I would like to take this time to remind you of those remarks. I believe that you would find them to be as appointment and as relevant today, and I think that they might even be more striking. Let me begin. I stand before you today as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the presidency of the United States of America. I am not the candidate of Black America, although I am black and proud. I am not the candidate of the women's movement of this country, although I am a woman, and I am equally proud of that. I am not the candidate of any political bosses or fat cats or special interests. I stand here now without endorsements from many big name politicians or celebrities or any other kind of prop. I do not intend to offer to you the tired and glib cliches which for too long have been an accepted part of our political life. I am the candidate of the people of America. And my present before you now symbolizes a new era in American political history. I have always earnestly believed in the great potential of America. Our constitutional democracy will soon celebrate its two hundredth anniversary, effective testimony to the longevity of our cherished constitution and its unique bill of rights, which continues to give to the world its inspirational message of freedom and liberty. We Americans are a dynamic people because of our rugged individuality and our cherished diversity, because of our belief in human dignity, because of our generosity and goodwill to our fellow man, and most importantly, because of our tradition of moving forward to actively confront those problems which plague us in a world growing more complex each year. Like all human beings, we have made mistakes. Our involvement in Vietnam was and remains at this very moment a terrible tragedy. To have intervened in the civil war in that country and then later to have intervened in still two more countries, Laos and Cambodia, was an ill-conceived blunder whose consequences all of us have had to suffer. To leave our men there or to increase massive bombing in the process of withdrawing them is to compound the havoc and misery which we are inflicting on the peoples of Indochina, on our own young men who have been killed and mutilated and rendered drug addicts, and ourselves, ourselves whose hard-earned has during a serious economic recession made up billions of dollars spent in Vietnam when we so urgently needed those resources at home. During last year, 1971, more civilians were killed and wounded in Indochina, and many more made refugees than at any other time in our history. And Vietnam continues to cost us one million dollars a day. This despite President Nixon's promise four years ago to end this nightmare. Yet we have undergone another economic recession in which millions of Americans have lost their jobs and are unable to find work, the highest number in ten years. And at the same time, prices have soared on even the essentials of life food, clothing, and medical care. And beyond Vietnam and its horrors, which have dominated our newspapers and televisions for eight long years, and beyond the economic recession which has caused severe hardship at home to so many Americans, is the visible ongoing destruction of our natural environment and our loss of a sense of personal security in our own daily lives. I pause and add, does any of this ring true for your listeners today?

SPEAKER_01 10:09

Very much true.

SPEAKER_00 10:10

Let me return to my remarks from 53 years ago. Perhaps even more fundamental is our loss of the feeling of community. Shock are the continuing injustices and inequities in the land that we love, our suspicions of pervasive constitutional incompetence and corruption, our feeling that there's an absence of respectable authority in our nation, and our loss of confidence in ourselves with apathy or despair arising from the conviction that we are powerless to make ourselves heard or felt in remedying our ills. Fellow Americans, we have looked in vain to the Nixon administration, to the Trump administration for the courage, the spirit, the character, and the words to lift us, to bring out the best in us, to rekindle in each of us the faith in the American dream. Yet all that we have received in return is just another smooth exercise in political manipulation, deceit and deception, callousness and indifferences to our individual problems, and the disgusting plane of divisive politics pinning the young against the old, labor against management, North against South, black against white, may I add red against blue, immigrants against citizens. The abiding concern of the administration has been one of the political expediency rather than the needs of man's nature. The president has broken his promises to us and has therefore lost his claim to our trust and confidence in him. I cannot believe, I cannot believe that this administration would have ever been elected four years ago if we had known then what we know today, that we are entering, we are entering a new era in which we must, as Americans, demand stature and size in our national leadership. Leadership. Leadership which is fresh, leadership which is open, and leadership which is receptive to the problems of all Americans. I have faith in the American people. I believe that we are smart enough to correct our mistakes. I believe we're intelligent enough to recognize the talent, energy, and dedication which all Americans, including women and minorities, have to offer. I know from my travels to the cities and small towns of America that we have a vast potential which can and must be put to constructive use in getting this great nation together. I know that millions of Americans from all walks of life agree with me that leadership does not mean putting the ear to the ground to follow public opinion, but to have the vision of what is necessary and the courage to make it possible, not by force, violence, or intimidation, but by persuasion, example, and law. We must turn away from the control of the prosaic, the privileged, and the old line tired politicians, to open our society to the energies and abilities of countless new kinds of groups of Americans, women, blacks, browns, Indians, Asians, and youth so that they can develop their own full potential and thereby participate equally and enthusiastically in building a strong and just society. Rich in its diversity and noble in its quality of life. I stand before you today to repudiate the ridiculous notion that the American people will not vote for a qualified, qualified candidate simply because he is not white or because she's not a male. I do not believe that in 1972 the great majority of Americans will continue to harbor such narrow and petty prejudices. I am convinced that the American people are in a mood to discard the politics and the political personalities of the past. I believe that they will show in 1972 and thereafter that they intend to make independent judgments on the merits of a particular candidate based on that candidate's intelligence, character, physical ability, competence, integrity, and honesty. It is, it is, I feel, the duty of responsibility of the leaders of this country to encourage and maximize, not to dismiss or minimize such judgment. Americans all over are demanding a new sensibility, a new philosophy of government from Washington. Instead of sending spies to snoop on participants at Earth Day, I would welcome the efforts of concerned citizens of all ages to stop the abuse of our environment. Instead of watching a football game on television while young people beg for the attention of their president concerning our actions abroad, I would encourage them to speak out, organize for peaceful change, and vote in November. Instead of blocking efforts to control the huge amounts of money given political candidates by the rich and the powerful, I would provide certain limits on such amounts and encourage all the people of this nation to contribute small sums to the candidates of their choice. Instead of calculating the political costs of this or that policy and of weighing favors of this or that group, depending on whether that group voted for me in 19th, I would remind all Americans at this hour of the words of Abraham Lincoln, a house divided against itself, cannot. We Americans, we Americans are all fellow countrymen one day confronting the judgment of history in our country. We are all God's children, and the will of each of us is as precious as the will of the most powerful general or corporate millionaire. Our will, our will can create a new America in 1972. And when I returned to Brooklyn, I expected to be in my proper grade, but when they tested me, I did great on all the subjects, except I knew nothing about US history. And so they knocked me all the way back to a grade where I was two and three years older than most of the kids in that grade. And um I was very bored, and that created a lot of issues. I I had got into a lot of trouble. And soon they realized what the issue was, and um they addressed it by giving me extra lessons, particularly in US history, which I quickly caught up on, and then they were able to um put me in the correct grade. Yes. My father was Charles Christopher St. Hill, and my mother was Ruby Seal St. Hill. I graduated from Girls' High School in 1942, and I um excelled academically, and so I received scholarships to Vassar School and to Alberlin College, but they were both out of state, and we were too poor to be able to afford some of the other expenses related to me attending any of those schools. So instead I attended Brooklyn College because that was something that was more affordable because I could stay at home. Yes. And so I ended up attending Brooklyn College, which was such an eye-opener for me in terms of what I was exposed to, including meeting Professor Warsoff, who told me that I would excel in politics, although I went on to study um sociology and went into early education. Could go on, but I will stop and let you ask any questions that you would like to offer me at this time.

SPEAKER_01 19:14

You are listening to Women and Resistance with Aya Fubera Eneli Esquire, an Addis or G. Igilla, where we honor the voices of women who have shaped history through courage and defiance. If you're finding this story inspiring, take a moment to subscribe, share, and support this platform. Together, we amplify the voices that deserve to be heard. Now, back to the conversation. Okay. Um fast forward your coming into politics. You give us a quote and um I want to get your exact words. One second. The quote goes like this. He says, I want to understand what was the thinking behind such a quote. You said if they don't give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair. In light of this speech you read earlier, what was the thinking behind that quote?

SPEAKER_00 20:23

People who have in any way been shunned or been told that they are not welcome in a room can um understand where I will be coming from with that quote. Essentially, from my earliest days in politics, I noticed in in Brooklyn, you know, when I got into the New York Assembly, and certainly when I got into Congress, the establishment had no problems using women to do the menial jobs. You know, for instance, we would run the raffles, run the set up the meetings, do all the work, but we were not to speak. We were not to wield any power. We were not to raise any issues, we were to stay in the background. And so the point that I'm making is you cannot wait for someone to see your value. You cannot wait for someone to give you permission to speak about what your issues are. You cannot wait for someone to decide that it's finally time to address your concerns. You, if there, if if there is a room or a table where issues are being discussed that concern you, you make your way into that room. And if you need to bring your own chair, because all the chairs are taken, bring your own chair. And you know what? This is not a novel idea to me. If you study your history, although I she had a different concept about a folding chair, there is an African queen, Queen Njinga. Who, when she went to meet with the Portuguese, they were trying to humiliate her. They were sitting, and she, I guess maybe they wanted her to kneel or something. And she actually had one of her quote-unquote subjects basically served as a chair for her. So I guess a human folding chair. But the idea being, I'm going to assert my own agency. And that's basically what I was saying. The idea of waiting for someone to give you permission is um does not make sense to me. And it has never worked for a people who want to truly be liberated. You do not wait for the people who are oppressing you to finally decide that they are tired of oppressing you. You decide that you are ready for your liberation and you take it. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 22:54

So, in furtherance of that, uh, you know, turning up and making a seat for yourself, you also said um the liberals in the house, now this is talking about the Congress, strongly resemble liberals I have known through the last two decades in the civil rights conflict. When it comes time to show on which sides they will be counted, they excuse themselves.

SPEAKER_00 23:20

Ask that question again.

SPEAKER_01 23:21

The liberals in the house strongly resemble liberals I have known through the last two decades. These were your words in the civil rights conflict. When it comes time to show on which side they will be counted, they excuse themselves. So are you suggesting that liberals cannot be trusted?

SPEAKER_00 23:41

I am suggesting that when it comes to how politics is played in the United States of America, and perhaps in other places, but I speak of the United States of America, that this thing we call democracy in this country cannot be trusted, that votes are traded, alliances are made based on the notion of power and not on what's in the best interest of the people. The people and their actual needs are less of a consideration, and it's more about how do I consolidate power? And so the people are manipulated, they are lied to, they are backroom deals, there's misinformation, disinformation, promises made and broken with alacrity, that there's no integrity, and this is not unique to liberals, it is not unique to so-called conservatives. In fact, I would argue that those labels mean nothing. They mean nothing. Because on certain issues, you really cannot tell the difference in terms of the ideologies. It's about a power struggle. And so one would really need to ask what do these labels mean when people are using them? Because in my experience, people make promises and alliances that they have no intention of keeping, or sometimes they may think they're going to keep them and become trading chips? Yes. And something else becomes more expedient. You know, one of my very dear friends, Ron Dellens, when I announced my candidacy for president, he was the very first member of the Congressional Black Caucus, which I co-founded. I was one of the founding members of the Congressional Black Caucus who came right out and supported me. Most of the members of the Congressional Black Caucus did not have the gut. They simply could not conceive of or believe that a black person and a black woman at that, I had two strikes against me, but I really believe that me being a woman was a bigger strike against me than even being black. But the idea that I had the audacity to run for president. And there were many who were, quite frankly, embarrassed that I would run. You know, they just felt like I had no chance. And how, how dare I? And of course, even within Congress, when I first got in, it was this idea of little lady, you know, wait your turns, play your role until it's your turn, this notion of seniority as opposed to ideas and merit. So, so you may know that initially, my first term, they wanted to put me on this. In fact, they put me on this agricultural committee. And I said, I'm a representative of Brooklyn. What do I have to do with cows and hay and wheat? And I need to be on a committee that is dealing with issues that impact my community. And everybody said, just be quiet, just play along. Just you, you know, this is your first term. This is how it is. You don't challenge, you don't challenge the speaker. And the speaker was from my own party. Why would you not want to put me in a place where I can be effective for the people I was elected to represent? And put someone who is elected to represent the people who need agriculture to put that them on that committee. And of course, I challenged them. That's why I said, you know, unbought and unbossed. And I and they did change my committee. But at any rate, Ron Dellens was one of the first ones to come out and support me. And he put a lot of his political capital on the line for me. I know he was under extreme pressure. And he told me to my face he was with me till the end. And don't you know, in Miami at that national convention, we were this close. Humphries had released his delegates and it looked like I might be getting the delegates. And all of a sudden, I find out that another black political leader who had assured me we had made a deal. I was gonna do something, and if I did that, then he in turn would give me his delegates. I did my part, at the end he did not follow through. And what he said he would do, and Ron Dellums, who had told me I'm with you to the end. At the last minute I'm looking for him. None of my team could find him. And then they said, Turn on the TV. And he was on TV saying, We cannot be about dreamers and, you know, following wishful thinking. We are pledging all of our delegates to, and they pledged it to this white man, McGovern. And McGovern went on to not only betray all the black delegate votes he got, even for the white women who I had worked side by side with to advance issues for women who did not come out to support me in the numbers that they could have. Does that sound familiar, Kamala Harris? Kamala Harris. They threw in their their support with him and he sold them out. Now, I did forgive Ron because I understood that he was under tremendous p pressure. I understood that. That doesn't mean it didn't hurt. So when you talk about liberals and, you know, progressives, this political game and the way it's played in the United States is not in service of the people. It's not in service of the people. You you you have to look deep and far, search high and far and deep and wide for politicians who are really going to put the interest of people above their personal goals. Because the thing that they will always threaten you with is do you want this to be the end of your political career?

SPEAKER_01 30:05

So I'll just pose one more question. And um again, it's uh your quote. You said um our representative democracy is not working because the Congress that it's supposed to represent the voters does not respond to their needs. I believe the chief reason for this is that it is ruled by a small group of old men.

SPEAKER_00 30:28

Yeah, absolutely. You know, when the constitution was drafted, drafted, implemented, was not not designed for the people as we exist today. It was designed for a small group, or it was designed for the ruling class of white, wealthy, landowning men. And so now to have expanded the populace, and now you have women, and now you have the poor and the laborers and the people of different classes and so on and so forth, and still to have the same structures in place. So the structure never changed, and this the way the structure is set up, even in terms of how many senators each state gets, even in terms of the electoral college, nothing has been updated to identify the new realities. The new realities. And so even the Democratic Party, and I wrote about this in my book, continues to run things the way they did when they had primarily the white working class. But now the white working class has moved out from the cities, the cities are now primarily black and brown. White working class is surrounding the cities, it's kind of like in a stranglehold, and desperately trying to keep the black and brown people out of their suburbs and trying to maintain political power. But you have black and brown cities bursting at the scenes and wanting some power over how their cities are run, but you have people in the suburbs still wanting to control how the cities where they no longer live. We have not made changes. And I addressed this back in 1972. No one was listening. The adequate changes haven't been made, and black people haven't been paying attention. Let me tell you, I would read from my book. It's in the book. Remember how now in Texas they have racially gerrymandered their districts so that Jasmine Crockett no longer lives in the district that she represents. Imagine this. Now, this book of mine was published back in 1970, right? This is from page 165 in my book. Listen to this. The sequel of the story, parenthetically, is that the New York State Legislature redrew congressional district lines in 1970. The boundary of the new district that includes most of my present one, plus the Ocean Hill Brownsville neighborhood that I had not represented, falls one block from my house. It is enough to make me wonder whether someone did not first find out exactly where I bought my house and then drew the new district line. Here is another one. You see all the changes, all the attacks on the U.S. Department of Education? Even the restrictions on that are now being put on loans for professional education, so for loans for medical schools and and and um dentistry and law schools, because these are very expensive schools to go to and it's one form of advancement for black and brown people. Listen to this. Education, no doubt, is the key to long-range progress, although jobs and decent housing are the immediate needs. But the example of the Penn Station Red Caps has to be kept in mind. So when I when I talk about the Penn Station Red Caps, I was talking about men who had been educated earlier, but who were closed out of job opportunities and all they could get jobs as were as porters. So they had college degrees, but all they were doing were carrying and transferring luggage for white people. And they were advocating and talking to me about what we need you to do is to make sure that this is not what happens to our children. We don't just need them to be able to get an education, we need them to have opportunities because we got an education, but they still close doors to us, right? So I go on to write, education alone will not be enough, even a college education. And it is obvious that not all blacks any more than all whites are college material, as we now define college. For the most part, the education provided for black children is a kind designed to keep them in their place. And I go back to talk about before the Civil War, but I talk about how we must open opportunities. And so one of the things that I did when I was an assemblywoman in the state of New York is I sponsored a bill for a program that they have been trying to gut since then. It's called Seek. And some of you who live in New York, you might put this in the um in your comments if you want to. You you might you might know about this. This is a program that was designed to ensure that people who graduated from high school but didn't quite have all the maybe it wasn't a school that prepared them completely for college, or they had some other barriers to college, economic barriers or things of that nature, that this bill was going to provide financial aid, stipend, academic counseling for students who were economically and educationally disadvantaged. It offered remedial and preparatory courses to help students succeed at college level studies. It helped women who were and men who were maybe first-time college students. They had had children in school, you know, in high school or things of that nature. It created pathways to college degrees for first-generation students and many minority students. And that legislation passed in 1966. And the City College of New York, the whole CUNY system, became the first system institution to implement it. And then the private colleges in New York created a similar program called Higher Education Opportunity Program. And then the SUNY program, which is the State University of New York, now created a similar program called the Educational Opportunity Program. And it was my leadership that made that possible. And this is also why you want to have a diversity of experiences and voices at the political level. Because when you have lived a certain experience, you come to problems with a certain viewpoint. Understanding. You come to problems with certain understanding of what possible solutions could be. You actually understand the issues in a way that someone who has never had to deal with that might never even see it, be dismissive of it. And so the reason I ran for office was because, like I said, to be a catalyst for change, to let everybody know whatever background they came from. The United States Constitution says if you are born in this country and you are at least 35 years of age, you are qualified to run for the presidency of this country. Nowhere does it say you must be a white man. And up until then, that seemed to be what we thought. And black people bought into that, and white women bought into that as well. And all people. And what I did was make it a lot easier for the next black person or the next woman. Of course, women are still trying to get into that position as president. And that's one of the when I say that it was worse for me being a woman than being black. I think that what happened with Hillary Clinton, what happened with Kamala Harris definitely bears that out. Of course, um, I went on to get um, I by the way, I graduated from Brooklyn College, cum laudy. I went on to get my um master's degree in early childhood education from Columbia University in 1951. I got married to Conrad Chisholm. We did experience a couple of miscarriages. I'd later on had a hysterectomy. We did not have any children. I was married to Conrad for 28 years, and I have to tell you that I was extremely fortunate to meet a man as patient as Conrad. Conrad was so comfortable letting me be in the spotlight. In fact, many people accused him of being weak because Conrad just allowed me to shine and allowed me to be who I am, and that was pretty uncommon. Of course, Conrad came into my life after I had already been engaged to another man who um truly broke my heart. My mother never approved of him. I grew up in a very strict household, and um I found out after we had been engaged that he actually had a wife already who was in Jamaica and that he was running an illegal immigration ring, you know, forging documents and things of that nature. And um we did, you know, I called off the engagement and shortly after that he was actually caught and deported, and it really um devastated me. I I ended up having to take some time off from work just to heal. So I am, I am, I am human. People often thought I was just tough as nails, which I am as well. My parents had four girls all together. Um my father always told me how special I was. That did create some issues between me and my other sisters. And when my father passed away, although he left the house to my mother and my one of my sisters who was married lived, it was a brownstone, one of my sisters who was married lived on one of the floors, and my other sister who was not married lived with my mother and on the house. My father left his um insurance policy to me and only me. And that created some issues within our family. And no, I did not split the insurance policy with the rest of my family. So when I ran for president for a while, I did not have the support of my family. And they too were very embarrassed that I would run for president. They thought it was patently absurd for me to think so highly of myself as to run for president. And they declined to be interviewed. Um many in my community were quite embarrassed. They felt that I was embarrassing the community, that I was bringing shame to the community because I had no chance at winning. But my point was it wasn't just whether I could win the presidency, it was leveraging power. Because if you could get delegates, you could use that to leverage the platform of whoever was the nominee. You could use it to leverage who would get into different positions. And we saw Klyburn do that with the Biden presidency. Basically, I would throw my support behind you and get Black America to support you, but you've got to put a black woman as vice president as your vice presidential candidate. That's essentially what happened. And Kamala Harris ended up being the one chosen on that ticket. You understand? Yeah. And so often we go for the crumbs and we don't leverage the power that we have. And some just did not understand that. Just because you can't win the presidency doesn't mean you abdicate any power. We must remember the words of Frederick Douglass: power concedes nothing without a demand. We still have not learned that basic lesson and how to wield the power that we do have. Sit around wringing your hands and begging and hoping that your enemy will work with you. Listen, you know during that presidential campaign, you you've heard of Barbara Lee. Barbara Lee today is the mayor of Oakland. Barbara Lee was a mother. Who was not a voter and was not involved in the political system when I met her and we talked and I invited her to join my campaign. She says, I'm not really into all of that. And I said, Sister, she says, I don't I don't really have the no high send and I don't have the money to pay you. But she joined and she was instrumental in setting up the meeting I had with Huey Putin. Get the endorsement of the Black Panther Party during the primaries in California. And Huey was upset with me because he said, I thought you said you were, you know, critical of the Black Panther Party. You said we weren't necessary. He said, I said no. What I said was, I wish that the Black Panther Party wasn't necessary, but I understand why it is. And do you know where we had that meeting? Me and Huey P. Newton?

SPEAKER_02 45:00

Crystal.

SPEAKER_00 45:02

We met at Diane Carroll's house. Okay. Diane Carroll was also using her considerable platform to advance the liberation of people. Listen, everybody has a role to play. We met at her house. And when the Black Panther Party endorsed me, some people were upset. And of course, Huey P. Newton called me out on the fact that when George Wallace got shot, went and visited him in the hospital, am on bought and embossed. Listen, what I do know is I do know about our common humanity. And what I do know is the fear that gripped me when someone was this close to taking my life and I wasn't ready to go. And when I heard he had been shot five times, as a Christian, whether you agree with me or not, I said, perhaps in this place of vulnerability, he may finally be willing to understand the errors of his ways. I don't know if he will or not. And do you know that two years later, George Wallace, the racist who had caused my people all kinds of harm, joined with me to push a bill that would guarantee domestic workers minimum wage. Now ask me who makes up the vast percentage of domestic workers? Black women. What kind of women? Black women. Thank you. It doesn't mean that I don't have issues with everything else that he's done or what he stood for, but I can work with you on certain things to get the yoke off my people. To give us some breathing room so we can live to fight again. At any rate, Conrad and I did divorce in 1977. If I were to be completely transparent with your viewers, Conrad sacrificed a lot for our marriage. Conrad dedicated his life to my dreams and my aspirations and my goals. In much of the same way women are often asked to give up their goals and aspirations to support their husbands. I we we parted ways amicably. Perhaps he got too good at staying in the shadows. He was my security and somewhat bothered by how close I came to losing my life. And and the pressures of that presidential campaign and the financial pressures and the betrayals and the lack of support, all of that I know played a role. And just the fact that I was so committed to my work, no doubt had a role to play in the demise of our marriage. We got divorced in 1976 and I married Arthur Hardwick in 1977. And Arthur and I had some of the best years of my life until he passed away in 1986. Just a few more things that I would like to share with you. Of course, I retired from Congress in 1983. I became a professor at Mount Holia College teaching sociology and politics. I also served as a visiting professor at Spelman College, and I continued lecturing nationally on women's leadership and civil rights. I was a sought-after speaker. There were years where I would make over$30,000 a year speaking, you know, back then. In 1993, I was nominated by President Bill Clinton to be the ambassador to Jamaica, but due to my health, I um did not um accept that position. I was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1993. In 2015, President Barack Obama awarded me the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously. Um in 2024, the Shirley Chisholm um Chisholm Congressional Gold Medal Act was passed honoring my lifelong contributions to democracy and equality. There are many schools and buildings and parks named after me. There's the Shirley Chisholm State Park in Brooklyn, New York. It's New York's largest state park. There's the Shirley Chisholm campus in Brooklyn, New York, which is a public school complex honoring me. There's the Shirley Chisholm Circle at Brooklyn College. There's the Shirley Chisholm Recreation Center in Broward County in Florida. Um there's also a Shirley Chisholm Trail in New York City. Um I wrote two books, of course, On Bought and On Boss. Also, which was published in 1970. I also published another book called The Good Fight in 1973. There are many other books that have been written about me. Shirley Chisholm, Catalyst for Change, Shirley Chisholm, the first black congress congresswoman. You can look these all up. There are many documentaries, and of course, the movie Shirley, um, directed by John Ridley, that starred um Regina King as well. And um I transitioned in um on on January 1st, 2005. Some other things that I would like to share with you. I co-founded both the National Women's Political Caucus and the Congressional Black Caucus in 1971 before I ran for president. I introduced more than 50 bills in Congress promoting racial and gender equity, women's rights, and educational access. I advocated for women, for people of color, for veterans, people with disabilities. I supported the Equal Rights Amendment and anti-discrimination legislation. Just to put this in context, I served from 1969 to 1983. Some man in Congress right now, I think you guys call him Jim Jordan, has served for 18 years, and he has not sponsored one piece of legislation in 18 years. I played a major role in expanding the food stamp program and establishing the woman, infant, and children nutrition program. You guys know it as WIC. You want to, as your elections are coming up, it is up to you people to pay attention. Not to the glossy flyers or the touchy hands. It is up to you to listen carefully to the people who want your vote. Ask them what they are about. Ask them what issues they see. Ask them what their proposed solutions are. Ask them what problems they see in what currently exists and what they will do differently. Make them address things in a way that makes sense to you. And if they're too busy to talk to you, they don't deserve your vote. Know the issues. Take the time to know who is asking for your vote. And forget these party allegiances, forget the labels. And I have to say this. Stop shortchanging people because you don't think they come in winnable packages. When you heard the speech I gave when I started off with you today, what could you disagree with as a reasonable person? So why would you immediately disregard someone who comes to you with that kind of information in favor of some slick white man because they are throwing money? It is time for the people to take their power back. And the people are you. So start talking politics. Start having these conversations with your friends. We say we don't talk politics. Let's have these uncomfortable conversations. Better we have the uncomfortable conversations and we make good better decisions than we don't and we live the kind of terror we are living today. Something in the news today. As I was preparing to talk to you, yes, even though we are on the other side, we can see all that is going on with you all. And someone said US citizen, a child, was traumatized and a gun held to their head when their agent thought that they were not a citizen. This should not happen to a US citizen. And I suppose that person thought they were saying something profound. What happened what happened to our humanity?

SPEAKER_01 54:50

Let me see. Yeah, instead of not happening to any human.

SPEAKER_00 54:53

So having a US passport makes you more human than any other child, any other human being? And we can't see that today, that's the demarcation. Tomorrow it will be something else. We didn't wake up in 72 or 1980 with Reagan. Or when we went and demolished Iraq. And all the young men whose lives and women whose lives we destroyed, all the money that we have spent on weapons of destruction and not taking care of home. We are making those mistakes again, but the power lies in your hands.

SPEAKER_01 55:32

Thank you. Thank you, thank you. And uh yes. Miss Chisholm, thank you for coming through. As it's usual, we give people the heads up of who we're speaking to next week. That will be the turn of Mary Ellen Pleasant. And yes, you have left us with so much to think about as regards the political system, our own humanity, how he interacts with said political system. That said, I would like to thank you for coming through and also to thank our listeners who will be hearing the audio version of this and also the people who view this live stream. Until next week, it will be the turn of Mary Ellen Pleasant, like I said earlier, or until to then, Miss Chisholm, any final thoughts?

SPEAKER_02 56:26

Spread the word. What are the things they need to do?

SPEAKER_01 56:31

Yes. They need to like, share, and subscribe. And uh yes, each one bring one. This thing is has taken on his life of its own. Today will be episode 36. Yeah, 36 women so far. And we've only just started. So that said, from me, it is good night and God bless until next week when we shall come again with Mary Ellen Pleasant. It is have a lovely evening and good night. That is it for this episode of Women and Resistance. Thank you for joining us in amplifying the voices of women who challenged injustice and changed the course of history. Be sure to subscribe, share, and continue the conversation. Together, remember we honor the past, act in the present, and shape the future. Until next time, stay inspired and stay in resistance.

SPEAKER_00 57:34

I hope you thoroughly enjoyed that reenactment of Shirley Chisholm and what we feel she would say and how she would interpret even the times that we live in. We hope that you will follow Women in Resistance in that podcast, which um takes place every Wednesday on YouTube. But right here at Rethinking Freedom, we hope that you will continue to like what we do here, that you will subscribe, hit that notification bell, that you will leave a comment because it helps with our algorithms. And we want to thank all of you who've already liked and who are already helping to promote what it is that we do here. And we look forward to seeing you next week. Thank you so much for your support.