EP 11 Shirley Chisholm : Coming Through I Women And Resistance 🌍

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.

Takeaways

*Shirley Chisholm was a pioneer for women and minorities in politics.
*Her candidacy for president in 1972 was groundbreaking.
*Chisholm emphasised the importance of being a catalyst for change.
*She believed in the power of the people to demand their rights.
*Chisholm critiqued the American political system for its failures.
*She advocated for education as a means to progress.
*Chisholm's legacy includes her role in founding the Congressional Black Caucus.
*She faced significant opposition as a Black woman in politics.
*Chisholm's famous quote about bringing a folding chair highlights empowerment.
*Her life story serves as an inspiration for future leaders.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Women and Resistance
00:48 Shirley Chisholm: A Trailblazer in Politics
01:54 Chisholm's Historic Presidential Announcement
15:03 The Legacy of Shirley Chisholm
15:48 Catalyst for Change: Chisholm's Vision
16:34 Early Life and Education of Shirley Chisholm
22:48 Entering Politics: Chisholm's Journey
23:23 Making Your Own Seat at the Table
26:19 Trust and Integrity in Politics
30:48 Political Betrayals and Alliances
32:36 The Flaws in Representative Democracy
33:28 Historical Context of Political Structures
35:18 The Need for Political Change
37:59 Education and Opportunity for All
41:00 Diversity in Political Representation
42:31 Personal Struggles and Relationships
49:47 Leveraging Political Power
50:44 Legacy and Contributions to Society
55:16 Engaging with the Political System
57:16 The Importance of Humanity in Politics

Welcome  to Women and Resistance, a powerful podcast where we honour the courage, resilience, and revolutionary spirit of women across the globe. Hosted by Aya Fubara Eneli Esq and Adesoji Iginla...

You're listening to Women and Resistance with Aya Fubara Eneli Esq and Adesoji Iginla—where we honour the voices of women who have shaped history through courage and defiance...Now, back to the conversation.

That’s it for this episode of Women and Resistance. Thank you for joining us in amplifying the voices of women who challenge injustice and change the course of history. Be sure to subscribe, share, and continue the conversation. Together We Honour the past, act in the present, and shape the future. Until next time, stay inspired and stay in resistance!

Transcript

Adesoji Iginla (00:01.324)
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 shaped our reality. And hopefully we can learn and pick a lesson or two about how to shape our future. That said, I am your host, Adesuji Ginla. With me as usual is my sister, former another mother.

I have Fibera and Aliasquare, or Usister.

Adesoji Iginla (00:37.494)
Yes, today we are looking at the life of the incredible and unbossed Shirley Chisholm. What else is there to say but to ask me surely?

What makes her unique?

Welcome.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:04.061)
Good evening.

Adesoji Iginla (01:05.752)
Good evening.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:08.103)
Thank you for this opportunity. I thought about what I want to share with the people today. given the times that we live in.

Adesoji Iginla (01:10.755)
Hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (01:24.302)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:28.88)
It struck me.

that remarks that I made.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:38.257)
when I announced my candidacy for the President of the United States of America in January of 1972.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:55.557)
are as appropriate today as they were.

53 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 poignant and as relevant today. And I think that they might even be more striking.

Adesoji Iginla (02:34.574)
point.

Adesoji Iginla (02:43.469)
Mmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (02:50.193)
Let me begin.

Aya Fubara Eneli (02:54.867)
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 of 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 presence 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 200th 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.

Aya Fubara Eneli (05:10.021)
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 $1 million a day. This despite President Nixon's promise four years ago to end this nightmare.

Adesoji Iginla (06:35.992)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (06:37.701)
Our unique economic system has made America the wealthiest nation in history. 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 10 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? Let me return to my remarks from 53 years ago. Perhaps even more fundamental is our loss of the feeling of community. Shock at the continuing injustices and inequities in the land that we love, our suspicions of pervasive constitutional.

Adesoji Iginla (07:36.716)
Very much true, very much true.

Adesoji Iginla (07:46.851)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (07:56.859)
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 playing 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.

Aya Fubara Eneli (10:19.707)
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, 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

Aya Fubara Eneli (12:20.595)
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 cost of this or that policy and of weighing favors of this or that group,

Aya Fubara Eneli (14:27.787)
depending on whether that group voted for me in 1968. I would remind all Americans at this hour of the words of Abraham Lincoln.

A house divided against itself cannot stand.

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.

One where there's freedom from violence and war at home and abroad. Where there's freedom from poverty and discrimination. Where there exists at least a feeling that we're making progress and assurance for everyone. Medical care, employment and decent housing. Where we are more decisively cleaning up our streets, our water and our air. Where we work together, black and white, to rebuild our neighborhoods.

and to make our cities quiet, attractive, and efficient, and fundamentally where we live in the confidence that every man and every woman in America has at long last the opportunity to become all that he or she was created of being such as he or she has ability.

Aya Fubara Eneli (16:17.731)
In conclusion, all of you who share this vision, from New York to California, from Wisconsin to Florida, our brothers and sisters on the road to national unity and a new America, those of you

Those of you who were locked outside of the Convention Hall of 1968. Those of you who can now vote for the first time. Those of you who agree with me that the institutions of this country belong to all of the people who inhabit it. Those of you who have been neglected, left out, ignored, forgotten, or shunned aside for whatever reason.

Give me your help at this hour. Join me in an effort to reshape our society and regain control of our destiny as we go down the Chisholm Trail for 1972.

Adesoji Iginla (17:29.7)
Two.

Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (17:40.219)
My goal was always to be a catalyst for change.

My goal was not to be the first black woman.

in Congress or the first.

Aya Fubara Eneli (17:59.08)
black person to run for president.

of one of the two major political parties because before me there was Carlotta Bass, but it was not one of the major political parties. We always want to remember our history and the lineage from which we come.

My goal was always to be a catalyst for change.

to live in such a way.

That it.

Adesoji Iginla (18:33.998)
freeze the others.

Aya Fubara Eneli (18:34.277)
made it possible for others to think of what they could do. I wanted people to see me as a change agent in the 20th century in which I lived.

Adesoji Iginla (18:45.219)
Thanks

Aya Fubara Eneli (18:52.482)
calling.

for peace in Palestine.

Aya Fubara Eneli (19:03.047)
way back then.

I was calling for the two party state, for two party of two state solution back then. I was calling for us to re-examine the role the United States was playing back then.

Adesoji Iginla (19:11.406)
version.

Aya Fubara Eneli (19:22.653)
was saying, I was advocating back in the 60s that for every police officer before they could become commissioned as a police officer, they must take courses on civil rights.

Aya Fubara Eneli (19:44.753)
They must understand the laws.

Aya Fubara Eneli (19:51.826)
because I wanted to ensure that they were sensitized. They understood the history in this country. And of course that did not pass.

Aya Fubara Eneli (20:06.203)
Let me start from the very beginning because this might be instructive to those of you who are raising children at this time.

I was born Shirley Ann St. Hill, and I was born on November 30th, 1924 in Brooklyn, New York.

Aya Fubara Eneli (20:31.825)
My father was from Guyana and my mother was from Barbados. And there came a time in the Caribbean where things became really tough financially, economically and...

Many people from the Caribbean were coming towards the United States in search of greener pastures. And my parents met in Brooklyn, New York and ultimately got married.

and they had three children in quick succession. And my father was an assistant to a baker. And those were very meagre means on which to raise a family. And my mother, she sold clothes and made a little money here and there, but she primarily stayed home with us. And my parents decided to send us home.

Adesoji Iginla (21:25.036)
Raise the funding.

Aya Fubara Eneli (21:39.899)
to my grandmother, my mother's mother in Barbados.

They felt the countryside would be good for us, but it would also give my parents an opportunity to really be able to work and save. What our parents, our Caribbean parents were very clear on was that they must provide a college education for all their children because education was a passport to our future as Malcolm X would say years later, and they must buy a home.

Adesoji Iginla (22:16.366)
Mmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (22:19.813)
And so my mother and her sister who had three children, no, I believe her sister had four children and my mother had three of us, traveled back to Barbados and stayed with us for six months with my grandmother. And then she returned to the United States, to Brooklyn to continue to work towards

their dream for our family while we stayed with my grandmother and our extended family members. So my grandmother took in seven young children and we had my uncles and some other extended family members who helped it. We had a home and...

Adesoji Iginla (22:55.811)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (23:09.681)
most of the homes, in fact, all the homes, you had a garden in the back, so we grew our own food. there was a one-room school during the week, it was a school. And then on Sundays, it was the church. And the room was partitioned with the chalkboards for the different forms. We didn't call them grades, we called them forms.

Adesoji Iginla (23:21.934)
Yeah.

Adesoji Iginla (23:33.539)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (23:38.674)
And it was there that I learned my diction. And you knew that if you got into trouble at school, when you got home, you got punished at school. And when you got home, you got punished again for getting into trouble at school. We took our studies very seriously and I excelled. And at a very young age, my grandmother told me I had superior leadership qualities.

Adesoji Iginla (23:41.71)
Hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (24:00.29)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (24:07.589)
sometimes got me into trouble but nonetheless I had been told as a child.

I don't believe that when my mother dropped us off, and I can only imagine how difficult it was for her to leave us, but we had each other and we had our cousins. So we had plenty playmates. And in the society in which we lived, everybody looked out for each other. It was a beautiful place to live. And we could go to the water side and swim.

Aya Fubara Eneli (24:47.699)
I don't believe that when my mother dropped us off that she had an idea that it would be seven years before she would return to get us. I was almost four when I went to live with my grandmother and my youngest sister was not quite a year old.

Adesoji Iginla (25:10.434)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (25:14.201)
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 I was very bored and that created a lot of issue. I had got into a lot of trouble and soon they realized what the issue was and they addressed it.

by giving me extra lessons, particularly in US history, which I quickly caught up on. And then they were able to put me in the correct grade, yes.

Adesoji Iginla (26:10.242)
bump you.

Aya Fubara Eneli (26:18.769)
My father was Charles Christopher St. Hill and my mother was Ruby Seal St. Hill.

Aya Fubara Eneli (26:28.787)
I graduated from Girls High School in 1942. And I...

Aya Fubara Eneli (26:40.825)
excelled academically and so I received scholarships to Vassar School and to

Oberlin 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.

Adesoji Iginla (26:56.941)
Hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (27:12.258)
go from home.

Aya Fubara Eneli (27:20.827)
in terms of what I was exposed to, including meeting Professor Warshaw, who told me that I would excel in politics, although I went on to study sociology and went into early education.

Aya Fubara Eneli (27:47.655)
could go on, but I will stop and let you ask any questions that you would like to of me at this time.

Adesoji Iginla (27:55.47)
Okay, so fast forward your coming into politics. You gave us a quote and I want to get your exact words. second. And the quote goes like this. It says, I want you to understand what was the thinking behind such a quote. You said, if they don't give you a seat at the table,

Aya Fubara Eneli (28:01.747)
you

Adesoji Iginla (28:23.938)
Bring a folding chair.

In light of the speech you read earlier, what was the thinking behind that quote?

Aya Fubara Eneli (28:43.483)
people who haven't anyway been shunned or been told that they are not welcome in a room can understand where I will be coming from with that quote. Essentially,

Aya Fubara Eneli (29:05.555)
From my earliest days in politics, I noticed in Brooklyn, 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. 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

Adesoji Iginla (29:37.922)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (29:48.082)
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, there is a room or a table where issues are being discussed that concern you, you make your way into that room.

Adesoji Iginla (29:58.958)
Mm-hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (30:17.519)
And if you need to bring your own cheer, because all the cheers are taken, bring your own cheer. And you know what? This is not a novel idea to me. If you study your history, although she had a different concept about a folding cheer, there is an African queen, Queen Njinga, who when she went to meet with the Portuguese, they were trying to humiliate her.

Adesoji Iginla (30:27.118)
Mm.

Adesoji Iginla (30:34.03)
You

Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (30:44.999)
They were sitting and she, guess maybe they wanted her to kneel or something. And she actually had one of her quote unquote subjects basically serve 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.

Adesoji Iginla (30:56.404)
Nail. I said, chair.

Aya Fubara Eneli (31:15.66)
is

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.

Adesoji Iginla (31:40.526)
So in furtherance of that turning up and making a seat for yourself, you also said 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.

Aya Fubara Eneli (32:12.275)
Ask that question again.

Adesoji Iginla (32:15.64)
The liberals in the house strongly resemble liberals I have known through the last two decades. These were your words in the civil rights conflicts. When it comes time to show on which side they will be counted, they excuse themselves.

Aya Fubara Eneli (32:17.188)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (32:23.578)
Mm-hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (32:35.266)
So are you suggesting that liberals cannot be trusted?

Aya Fubara Eneli (32:41.209)
I am suggesting that...

Aya Fubara Eneli (32:47.313)
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.

Adesoji Iginla (33:21.656)
people.

Aya Fubara Eneli (33:33.584)
And so the people are manipulated, they are lied to, they are backroom deals, there's misinformation, disinformation, promises made and broken with alacrity, there's no integrity.

Adesoji Iginla (33:42.296)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (33:52.71)
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.

Adesoji Iginla (33:59.938)
Congrats.

Adesoji Iginla (34:06.798)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (34:07.537)
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, 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...

Adesoji Iginla (34:50.146)
become trading chips.

Aya Fubara Eneli (34:51.283)
Yes, and something else becomes more expedient. know, one of my very dear friends, Ron Dellons.

Aya Fubara Eneli (35:04.431)
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 guts.

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,

Adesoji Iginla (35:26.232)
Hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (35:49.326)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (35:53.716)
quite frankly, embarrassed that I would run. They just felt like I had no chance and how dare I? Of course, even within Congress when I first got in, was this idea of little lady, wait your turn, play your role until it's your turn. This notion of seniority as opposed to ideas and merit.

Adesoji Iginla (36:01.166)
Thanks us here.

Aya Fubara Eneli (36:19.187)
So you may know that initially my first term they wanted to put me on this, the fact they put me on this agricultural committee. 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? I put someone who is elected to represent the people who need agriculture, put that, put them on that committee.

Adesoji Iginla (37:02.222)
Mmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (37:11.099)
And of course, I challenge them. That's why I said, you know.

on bought and on bossed. And they did change my committee. But at any rate, Ron Dellons 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.

Adesoji Iginla (37:19.928)
Mm-hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (37:44.859)
And don't you know, in Miami at that national convention, we were this close.

Humphreys 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 up deal. I was going to 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 on 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.

Aya Fubara Eneli (39:08.611)
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.

Adesoji Iginla (39:23.348)
very much so.

Aya Fubara Eneli (39:28.505)
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 pressure I understood that that doesn't mean it did hurt so when you talk about liberals and you know progressive

Adesoji Iginla (39:54.99)
Progressives.

Aya Fubara Eneli (39:58.91)
this political game and the way it's played in the United States.

Adesoji Iginla (40:03.692)
is not in service of the people.

Aya Fubara Eneli (40:06.077)
It's not in service of the people. You.

Aya Fubara Eneli (40:14.545)
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?

Adesoji Iginla (40:42.894)
So I'll just pose one more question and again it's your quote you said 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.

Aya Fubara Eneli (41:11.71)
yeah. Absolutely. You know,

When the constitution was drafted, implemented, was not designed for the people as we exist today. It was designed for a small group. It was designed for the ruling class of white, wealthy, land-owning men. And so now to have expanded,

Adesoji Iginla (41:22.254)
drafted.

as you fight.

Adesoji Iginla (41:41.486)
Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli (41:46.76)
the populace, and now you have women, and now you have the poor, and the laborers, and 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 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.

Adesoji Iginla (42:22.424)
their new realities.

Aya Fubara Eneli (42:23.687)
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.

Adesoji Iginla (42:40.142)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (42:50.289)
white working classes surrounding the cities and kind of like in the 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 seams 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.

Adesoji Iginla (43:05.134)
Mmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (43:21.905)
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,

Adesoji Iginla (43:29.774)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (43:50.612)
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.

Adesoji Iginla (43:54.445)
Yeah.

Adesoji Iginla (44:02.018)
Yeah.

Adesoji Iginla (44:11.938)
Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli (44:21.105)
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.

Adesoji Iginla (44:46.712)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (44:48.059)
I live one block outside my congressional district. 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.

Adesoji Iginla (45:09.217)
All tricks.

Aya Fubara Eneli (45:10.963)
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 loans for medical schools and dentistry and law schools.

Adesoji Iginla (45:28.782)
patient.

Aya Fubara Eneli (45:36.2)
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 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.

Adesoji Iginla (46:18.542)
you

Adesoji Iginla (46:22.926)
We know just.

Aya Fubara Eneli (46:35.367)
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 your comments if you want to, 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...

Adesoji Iginla (47:35.656)
the chat.

Aya Fubara Eneli (47:56.164)
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, stipends, 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, 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.

Adesoji Iginla (49:27.126)
in Congress.

Aya Fubara Eneli (49:29.211)
Because when you have lived a certain experience, you come to problems with a certain viewpoint. 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

Adesoji Iginla (49:37.45)
understanding.

Aya Fubara Eneli (49:55.868)
might never even see it to 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're 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.

Adesoji Iginla (50:44.77)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (50:50.141)
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,

I went on to get, by the way, I graduated from Brooklyn College, Cum Laude. I went on to get my master's degree in early childhood education from Columbia University in 1951. I got married to Conrad Chisholm.

In 1949, we did experience a couple of miscarriages. I 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 truly broke my heart. My mother never approved of him. I grew up in a very strict household. And 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, know, forging documents and things of that nature. And we did, you know, I called off the engagement and shortly after that he was actually caught and deported.

Aya Fubara Eneli (53:05.689)
and it really devastated me. I ended up having to take some time off from work just to heal. So I am human. People often thought I was just tough as nails, which I am as well. My parents had four girls altogether. And...

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 in the house.

My father left his 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

Adesoji Iginla (54:10.818)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (54:29.143)
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. Many in my community were quite embarrassed. They felt that I was

Adesoji Iginla (54:39.659)
Hmm

Aya Fubara Eneli (54:53.299)
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

Adesoji Iginla (55:11.799)
Hmm

Aya Fubara Eneli (55:20.901)
was the nominee. You could use it to leverage who would get into different positions. And we saw Clyburn 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 your vice presidential candidate. That's essentially what happened.

Adesoji Iginla (55:22.094)
Yep.

Adesoji Iginla (55:31.458)
Yeah, we've got them.

Aya Fubara Eneli (55:47.164)
and Kamala Harris ended up being the one chosen on that ticket. You understand? And so often we go for the crumbs and we don't leverage the power that we have.

Adesoji Iginla (55:52.93)
Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli (56:02.363)
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.

Adesoji Iginla (56:21.422)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (56:31.035)
sit around wringing your hands and begging and hoping that your enemy will work with you. Listen, you know during that presidential campaign, you've heard of Barbara Lee. Barbara Lee today is the mayor of Oakland. Barbara Lee was a mother who was not a voter.

Adesoji Iginla (56:49.101)
Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli (56:58.989)
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, don't really have to know how I said it. 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.

Adesoji Iginla (57:10.414)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (57:28.403)
to get the endorsement of the Black Panther Party during the primaries in California.

Adesoji Iginla (57:29.857)
Mmm!

Adesoji Iginla (57:33.526)
on the balancing. Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli (57:41.552)
And Huey was upset with me because he said, I thought you said you were critical of the Black Panther Party. You said it weren't necessary. said, said, nope. What I said was, I wish that the Black Panther Party wasn't necessary, but I understand why it is.

Adesoji Iginla (58:00.046)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (58:02.171)
And do you know where we had that meeting? Me and Huey P. Newton.

Adesoji Iginla (58:07.202)
Please do.

Aya Fubara Eneli (58:08.824)
We met at Diane Carroll's house.

Adesoji Iginla (58:13.248)
Okay.

Aya Fubara Eneli (58:14.887)
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.

Aya Fubara Eneli (58:50.637)
am unbought and unbossed. 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.

Aya Fubara Eneli (59:20.091)
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,

Adesoji Iginla (59:39.107)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (59:47.166)
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?

Adesoji Iginla (01:00:12.92)
women.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:00:14.735)
What kind of women?

Adesoji Iginla (01:00:16.482)
black women.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:00:18.173)
Thank you.

It doesn't mean that I don't have issues with everything else that he's done or what he stood for.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:00:31.325)
But I can work with you on certain things to get the yolk off my people, to give us some breathing room so we can live to fight again. At any rate.

Adesoji Iginla (01:00:39.554)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:00:47.357)
Conrad and I did divorce in 1977.

Adesoji Iginla (01:00:51.854)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:00:53.135)
If I were to be completely transparent with your viewers.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:01:08.019)
Conrad sacrificed a lot for our marriage.

Comrade dedicated his life to my dreams and my aspirations and my goals. And much of the same way women are often asked to give up their goals and aspirations to support their husbands.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:01:40.005)
I'm... We parted ways amicably.

Perhaps he got too good at staying in the shadows. He was my security and...

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:02:02.733)
somewhat bothered by how close I came to losing my life. 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

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:02:44.531)
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.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:03:12.211)
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 Holyoke 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 did not 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. In 2024, the Shirley 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.

There's also a Shirley Chisholm Trail in New York City. I wrote two books, of course, on BOT and on BOST, which was published in 1970. I also published another book called The Good Fight in 1973. There many other books that have been written about me.

Adesoji Iginla (01:05:02.2)
must.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:05:16.659)
Shirley Chisholm, Catalyst for Change, Shirley Chisholm, the first black congresswoman. You can look these all up there. Many documentaries and of course the movie Shirley directed by John Ridley that starred Regina King as well. And I transitioned 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.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:06:35.661)
I served from 1969 to 1983.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:06:46.845)
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.

Adesoji Iginla (01:07:04.653)
You

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:07:08.567)
I played a major role in expanding the food stamp program and establishing the Women, 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...

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.

Adesoji Iginla (01:07:39.918)
Cut your hands.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:07:58.702)
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 are too busy to talk to you, they don't deserve your votes.

Adesoji Iginla (01:08:22.176)
Yeah, it's simple.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:08:24.493)
Engage. Know the issues. Take the time to know who is asking for your votes. And forget these party allegiances. Forget the labels. And I have to say this.

Adesoji Iginla (01:08:33.506)
Mm-hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:08:45.263)
Stop shortchanging people because you don't think they come in winnable packages.

When you heard the speech I gave you when I started off with you today, what could you disagree with as a reasonable person?

Adesoji Iginla (01:09:09.516)
Nothing really.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:09:12.145)
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 around?

Adesoji Iginla (01:09:16.984)
this myth.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:09:35.58)
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.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:10:16.643)
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

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:10:36.857)
US citizen, a child was.

traumatized and a gun held to their head when the agent thought that they were not a citizen. This should not happen to a U.S. citizen. And I suppose that person thought they were saying something profound.

Adesoji Iginla (01:11:06.766)
instead of not happening to any human.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:11:06.931)
What happened to our humanity?

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:11:16.177)
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.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:11:43.827)
We didn't wake up in 72 or 1980 with Reagan.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:11:52.943)
or when we went and demolished Iraq?

Adesoji Iginla (01:11:57.102)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:11:57.798)
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.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:12:18.077)
but the power lies in your hands.

Adesoji Iginla (01:12:37.56)
Thank you, thank you, thank you. And yes, Ms. 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 it 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, but until then, Miss Chisholm, any final thoughts?

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:13:44.243)
Spread the word. What are the things they need to do? They need to like.

Adesoji Iginla (01:13:49.121)
Yes?

share and subscribe. And yes, each one brings one. This thing has taken on its life of its own. Today will be episode 36. 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.