"UNBOSSED AND UNBOUGHT"

“UNBOUGHT AN UNBOSSED”

            Fifty years ago on January 21, 1969, Shirley Chisholm took the oath of office to become the first African-American woman to be elected to Congress in United States history.    Her campaign theme had been “Unbossed and Unbought,” and it served her well until her retirement from Congress in 1984. Born Shirley Anita St. Hll in New York to parents from Barbados and Guyana (known as British Guiana then), she shared a similar heritage with Rhianna.

            She got a degree from Brooklyn College and began a career as an educator, running two day care centers.  It was here that she discovered the importance of politics in education, and later got elected as a state “assemblyman” in New York – the title did not yet reflect the astonishing idea that women could wield political power.  She decided to run for Congress from the 12^th District of New York (now represented by Carolyn Maloney), and she won handily.  It was a surprising upset in the election, and she held the seat until she retired. 

            She built up a powerful record of supporting and leading progressive causes in the House.  She was a strong supporter of rights for women, for people of darker skin color, and for those who were poor.  After she was elected to Congress, she was assigned to the Agriculture Committee, which she took as a deliberate slap, because her district was obviously urban.  During her complaining about it, a local Brooklyn rabbi suggested that she take the lemons and make lemonade.  He reminded her that the Ag Committee oversaw the surplus food program, a surplus created by the Agriculture Department’s purchase of farm products in order to keep farm prices up (no welfare here, of course!).   Chisholm got his point and used it to deepen and develop the distribution of these surplus foods to poor people in her and in other districts.  Indeed, when Caroline and I became pastors at Oakhurst Presbyterian, we were approached by the Ag Department to be a center for the distribution of surplus food.  We decided to do it, and we were astonished that each week that we did it, over 1,000 people came in to receive the food – cheese, powdered milk, flour, and other items.  Taking a page from Shirley Chisholm’s book, we never had any surplus food left over, causing the AG Department much chagrin.  They eventually ended the program at Oakhurst a few years later because we gave away too much food!   Chisholm would later use her experience on the Ag Committee to deepen and broaden the food stamp program and to create the WIC program.

            On August 10, 1970, she gave a strong speech on the floor of the House in support of the Equal Rights Amendment, which had not yet been adopted by Congress.  Here is some of what she said:  “The time is clearly now to put this House on record for the fullest expression of that equality of opportunity which our founding fathers professed.  They professed it, but they did not assure it to their daughters, as they tried to do for their sons.  The Constitution they wrote was designed to protect the rights of white, male citizens.  As there were no black Founding Fathers, there were no founding mothers – a great pity on both counts.  It is not too late to complete the work they left undone.  Today, here, we should start to do so.”  It would be almost two years before Congress approved the Equal Rights Amendment, and as we all know, we’re still awaiting one more state to approve the ERA, so that it can be ratified and added to the Constitution.

            In January, 1972, Shirley Chisholm announced her candidacy for the Democratic nomination for President, making her the first woman ever to do so and the first African-American to do so.  I remember her announcing her candidacy, and still being in deep captivity to male supremacy, I thought that she was foolish to do this.  We needed to defeat Richard Nixon in his run for re-election, and I felt like Chisholm would only muddy the waters.  We, of course, hear echoes of this in the 2020 presidential announcements.  Chisholm was stung many times by males attacking her in this run, and her retort was simple and sweet:  "I'm looking to no man walking this earth for approval of what I'm doing." 

            As we know, she failed in her bid for the presidency that year, but her candidacy set the stage for many others to follow.  Her record in Congress is pretty stunning:  a leader in the opposition to the Vietnam War, a founder of the Congressional Black Caucus in 1971, a founder of the Congressional Women’s Caucus in 1977, the first black woman to serve on the powerful House Rules Committee.  She retired in 1984 to do her “divided duty,” as Susan B. Anthony had chided Ida Wells for doing almost 100 years before.  She was burned out, and she needed to take care of her husband, who had been badly injured in an auto accident.  She remained active in politics and in teaching, and her mantra for political life would serve us well today:  "If they don't give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair."   In this Women’s History Month, as we seem to hang in the balance on women’s rights, let us give thanks for pioneers like Shirley Chisholm – unbossed and unbought!