SMNTY Classics: Fighting Shirley Chisholm

Shirley Chisholm didn't want to be known solely as the first African-American woman in U.S. Congress and to run for the Democratic nomination for president. This President's Day, let's look back at life and legacy of this Brooklyn educator ahead of her time in this classic episode.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Annie and you're listening to Stuff Mo
I've Never told you. One of my favorite things about
working on this show has been learning the histories of

(00:26):
badass women i'd often unfortunately never heard of, and it
is a shame because their stories and contributions are so inspiring.
Back when I was a video producer for this show,
I my favorite series we had, as I've mentioned before,
was something called History. Um, it's just I'm a big

(00:48):
history fan and I love learning more about these badass women.
And one of my favorite historical figures I've learned about
through working on this show is Surely Chisholm. So, in
honor of President's Day, we agend here in the United States.
Here's a classic episode delving into the life and legacy
of Shirley Chisholm. Welcome to Stuff Mom Never Told You.

(01:11):
From how Stuff Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to
the podcast. I'm Kristen and I'm Caroline. And Caroline, you
know those times when we are researching for Stuff Mom
Never Told You and we learn about a woman that

(01:34):
excites us and inspires us so much a it's give
me goose bumps right now, and we can't wait to
talk about it in the podcast studio, but also we
just want to tell everyone about her, like uh, Polly Murray,
Shirley Chisholm. I mean, in such a political time as this,

(02:01):
reading about Shirley Chisholm was such a breath of fresh
air but also a little bit of a disappointment that
she's not still around for me to hug. Yeah, call
up on the telephone, say thanks, Shirley. Yeah, write a

(02:23):
number of thank you letters to just for just for everything,
because y'all, Shirley was a badass and you need to
know who she is, and you need to tell everybody
you know about who she was. Yeah. Unfortunately for all
of us, she was a woman ahead of her time.
I mean fortunately because we have such a great story

(02:46):
to tell about her, but unfortunately because well, being so
ahead of her time, she was sort of kept out
of the positions that she would have done so much
great work in. And so, of course, Shirley Chisholm was
the first African American woman in Congress and the first
black woman to run for a major party's nomination for president,

(03:09):
among many many other firsts. But something that's really kind
of beautiful and poetic about her is that. In an
interview in her later years, she would say, when I die,
I want to be remembered as a woman who lived
in the twentieth century and who dared to be a
catalyst for change. I don't want to be remembered as

(03:31):
the first black woman who went to Congress, and I
don't even want to be remembered as the first woman
who happened to be black who ran for the presidency.
I want to be remembered as a woman who fought
for change in the twentieth century. And so this episode
is sort of a love letter too, surely to not
only educate you our listeners, and to educate ourselves, and

(03:53):
to provide this sort of inspirational figure for women in
politics and in this country in general, but really to
honor her memory and to tell you her story. And
part of us honoring her is really diving into her complexity,
her passion, and her brilliance that history just has not

(04:17):
given her enough credit for. We need to know more
about Shirley than the things, the individual things that she accomplished.
We need to know how and why she did that.
Um And also, I mean, surely it's just fabulous for
her gift of gab. Yeah. Um, some of her quotes

(04:40):
like I don't know, I mean, we literally could deliver
this entire podcast in just surely chisolen quotes because she
was such an amazing figure for women in general. She
was a staunch feminist. In addition to being proud of
her blackness, she was also proud of her woman nous. Um.

(05:03):
And she said at one point, the emotional, sexual, and
psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says it's
a girl. How ahead of her time is that? You know?
Who quote Shirley Chisholm quite a lot when he's talking
about his own feminism is President Barack Obama, that's right,

(05:24):
who also posthumously awarded her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom,
and which says so much about the respect and admiration
that he has for her. Um, which just makes me
makes me already missed him being in office. Um, but
let's go back to Brooklyn in nineteen twenty four. Surely.

(05:51):
Anita st Hill was born on November twenty of that
year in Brooklyn to Charles sat Hill, who was a
factory worker from Guiana, and Ruby Seal sat Hill, who
was a seamstress from Barbados, and surely it was the
oldest of four daughters. Yeah, so she was around a
lot of amazing women's no surprise that she grew up

(06:14):
like all pro lady power um. But from the age
of three to ten she actually lived on her grandparents
farm in Barbados in order to get a British education.
Her parents remained back in Brooklyn. They were working to
make a living in the bed Stye neighborhood during the Depression,
and they basically figured like, here you can go live
a happy, wonderful life with your grandparents, getting an education

(06:37):
while we work here. And so once she came back
to Brooklyn, she aces public school and ends up getting
accepted to Oberlin and Vassar. She opts to go to
Brooklyn College on scholarship, and here we see one of
the first instances. And I love to talk about mentors
and teachers and things like that on the podcast to

(06:59):
show how kids get inspired to do things. Obviously, she
was not a kid at the point that she was
at college, but her political science professor, Lewis wars Off
encouraged her to consider a career in politics because of
her quote quick mind and debating skills. But even at
the time, Shirley's talking to Professor Lewis and she says,

(07:23):
you know, I'm not so sure because I've got this
double handicap. That was her quote. I've got this double
handicap of being both black and a woman. But of
course that double handicap doesn't stop her from being active
in college. She joins the debate team, and when a
social club on campus denies black students entry, she starts

(07:44):
her room. It's called Apothia, and Apathia actually stood for
in pursuit of the highest in all? Can we start
an Apathia club? Can we can we get a chapter? Yeah?
I don't know how you do that, but but I
think we'll just start with a framed portrait of Shirley
Chisholm and a bottle of water. That's right. Um, So

(08:07):
from there. In nine six, Shirley graduates kum Laudie with
a sociology degree, and she begins working as a nursery
school teacher. A few years later, in nineteen nine, she
marries Conrad Q. Chisholm, who's a private investigator. Uh and
in ninety two she gets her master's in Early Childhood Education,

(08:30):
from Columbia while working as a teacher and ends up
becoming the director of two daycare centers and early childhood education.
Ends up becoming her entry point into politics. Yeah, basically
because a couple of years later, in nineteen sixty, she
becomes a consultant to the New York City Division of Daycare.

(08:51):
So there you see her straddling that line of public
life and also still being in the education world. And
so around this same time time, Shirley has joined a
local Democratic club that had been working really hard to
root out the white leaders of the Bedstine neighborhood, who
they said were ignoring black residents who were the majority

(09:12):
in that neighborhood. And they made a wonderful decision that
ended up being terrible for them. But in order to
shut her up, like god, this woman with her confidence
and smarts and brilliance, to shut her up, they put
her on the board of directors and she's like, yeah, okay,

(09:34):
that's gonna shut me up. She surely, so, of course
she doesn't. They end up removing her from the post
because she was so vocal and so active in the community.
They were like, oh, we did the exact wrong thing.
They couldn't handle the Chisholm. You can't handle the Chisholm
and uh. In nineteen sixty two, the group actually got

(09:55):
a black man elected to the State Assembly, Thomas R. Jones.
But in four Jones actually decides, Hey, I'm going to
run for a judge ship. So the community was like, hey,
you know that surely woman we like her. So she
ends up replacing Jones, making her the second ever African

(10:15):
American woman elected to the New York State Legislature. Now
keep in mind, if you've listened to our previous podcast
episode on arch conservative anti feminist Phyllis schlaf Lee, nineteen
sixty four is the year her star starts to rise

(10:36):
because she helped yet racist, anti civil rights un activist
Barry Goldwater as the Republican nominee for president. Yeah, running
against Lyndon B. Johnson, who beat Goldwater in the election.
So she's elected to the New York State Legislature, and

(11:01):
she has two bills she is especially proud of, one
of which established a program to help disadvantage high schoolers
go to college, and one that changed the practice of
revoking tenure for teachers who got pregnant. So you can
already see from the get go at the state level,
Surely is out to work for the people. Yeah. I
I the fact that so early in her career she's

(11:25):
managing to accomplish things like this, that this is what
she's pushing for, and this will remain the type of
thing that she pushes forth throughout her political career. I mean,
it just warms my cold dead heart, basically. Yeah. And
I mean, and the thing is she's good at it.
She's very good at what she's doing. So in Night, Surely,

(11:45):
who is not one to just let history pass her by,
she says, you know what, I want to run for Congress. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
And it's sort of a perfect storm of things that
convince her to run because there had been this court
ordered redistricting that had carved out a brand new Brooklyn
district from her bed Stye neighborhood, and the Democrats very

(12:10):
specifically wanted to send an African American from this new district,
the twelfth District, to the House of Representatives. And so
she launches her primary campaign, which she said was strenuous,
and she used the slogan unbought and unbossed, and she
set herself apart from her three competitors with a super personal,

(12:33):
up close and personal campaigning style. She even said you
have to let them feel you. She really got out
there among the people. And in addition to getting out
there among the people, she also wrote around in an
open truck with a loudspeaker. I love this. Yeah, she
um would ride around this truck announcing ladies and gentlemen.

(12:54):
This is fighting Shirley Chisholm coming through and people loved it.
And I would still like to note that unbought and
unbossed would remain her campaign slogan. Yeah, what I really
want after watching her documentary on Amazon, which is called
Shirley No, which is called Chisholm seventy two, unboughten un bossed,

(13:15):
I really want to get my hands on one of
her campaign posters because it's got a picture of her
with unbought and unbossed and it's really cool, you know
that classic style. Well, so when we get to the
general election, she's a Democrat and she's up against Republican
opponent James Farmer, who's a solid opponent. I mean, he

(13:41):
was a big figure in the civil rights movement. He
was the co founder of the Congress for racial equality.
He was an organizer as part of the Freedom Writers,
and they even had similar views on education, housing, employment,
the Vietnam War. So like, how do you pick? How
how does she set herself apart? Well, I mean she
did it handily because Shirley ended up winning six of

(14:05):
the vote. Uh, and with that the distinction of being
the first black woman elected to Congress. And in this case,
gender was on her side. This would really be the
only case that gender would be on her side. But
what happened was James Farmer, this well respected African American man,

(14:27):
was arguing during the campaign that quote, women have been
in the driver's seat in black communities for too long,
and that he was the right candidate because the district
needed quote a man's voice in Washington and called her
not only a little school teacher but also bossy oh yeah,

(14:49):
oh and a bossy female. So that's like total m
r a language, right, um, And Shirley's like, oh, that's
how you want to play huh Okay. So she counters
all of his sexism by highlighting discrimination against women. She
also highlights the power of women's organizations in this country

(15:13):
and also her own unique qualifications as being this really
highly educated educator. Um. And she also points out like, hey, yeah, okay,
black men have been able to go to Washington, but
what have what have you accomplished that I can't. I
can accomplish more. And it helped too that Chisholm was

(15:36):
from the neighborhood. I mean, she knew the people, she
was out in her truck, she lived there, she grew
up there, whereas she portrayed Farmer as an outsider since
he lived in Manhattan. And it also helped that surely
was fluent in Spanish, so she would make direct appeals
to the growing Hispanic population in bed Sty Um. And

(15:59):
it also helped, of course that more than eight percent
of the neighborhood were registered Democrats, so she did have
that on her side. But nonetheless she won. Yeah, she won,
And it's incredible And like, I wish I weren't as
shocked and surprised at that as I was, But through

(16:20):
so much sminty research, I'm like, wait, a woman and
a woman of color beat a man by highlighting sexism
well and also beating a black man too. I broke
my brain. I was like, wait, normally women are slammed
for victimizing themselves if they talk about gender discrimination. And

(16:40):
but that that's how great she was. She even, um,
and this would be a couple of years later, she
would even go out door to door as a census
worker because so many people in her bed Stye neighborhood
were suspicious of census workers. But there she was, as
that neighborhood gal, going out and being able to really

(17:02):
talk to them one on one. Well, that's the thing.
She literally walked her talk and she knew what she
was talking about. Um. But when she ends up in Washington,
she's still super active, still very outspoken, and sticks out
like a sore thumb. She says, it felt like I
was somebody coming out of the moon because being not

(17:26):
only African American, but also a woman and the first
at that to be elected to Congress, and all these
guys knew that unboughton on boss Shirley was coming their way.
So they were immediately wary of what this loudmouth, bossy
female might do. She might challenge the establishment. I mean

(17:48):
she already beat a dude in the general election, that's right, yeah,
And I mean they were right to worry. She said,
I have no intention of just sitting quietly and observing, which,
by the way, is the expectation of any junior UH
congress man or woman who comes in, Like basically, it's
your first time, You're just gonna sit quietly and observed.

(18:08):
She's like, okay, Like hell, I will, I intend to
focus attention on the nation's problems. And so in her
first floor speech in March of nineteen nine, she slams
the Vietnam War. She vows to vote against any defense
appropriation bill until the time comes, she said, when our
values and priorities have been turned right side up again.

(18:31):
And here she is actively championing all of those same
causes that had always been so important to her. She
sponsored increases in federal funding to extend the hours of
daycare facilities, and she sponsored a guaranteed minimum annual income
for families. She was looking out for people like her
and people like the neighbors that she grew up around

(18:54):
in Brooklyn. Yeah. She also launched the Special Supplemental Nutrition
Program for Women, Infants, and Children, which probably sounds a
lot more familiar by its acronym WICK, which provides support
for low income pregnant women. And she also fought for
programs like Headstart and food stamps. She championed a bill

(19:14):
to ensure domestic workers received benefits. She fought for immigrants rights,
and she helped establish the National Commission on Consumer Protection
and Product Safety. Surely is out there working for us. Yeah,
and she was at the forefront of overriding President Ford's veto.

(19:36):
Now this is so impressive. She uh served as the
primary backer of a national school lunch bill. So that
harkens back to our episode on lunch Ladies. Yeah. So
she was at the forefront of realizing, like, yes, nutrition
in schools is important. We have to feed our kids.
A teacher would probably know that. A teacher would probably

(19:57):
know that. Um. And she was the one who led
her colleagues in overwriting Ford's veto on that measure. She
was already taken on the president, no kidding. Yeah, that
little school teacher turns out to be a powerful force.
And another one of her causes that was very close

(20:18):
to her heart and that she argued very strongly for
was the Equal Rights Amendment. And we are going to
talk about her efforts to get that ratified when we
come right back from a quick break. So, the Equal

(20:39):
Rights Amendment was written by Alice Paul and first proposed
back at the Seneca Falls Convention in nine And it's
a very basic proposed amendment stating, quote, equality of rights
under the law shall not be denied or are bridged

(21:00):
by the United States or by any state on account
of sex. So, of course really was all about it. Yeah,
I mean, she knew she had to take this on.
She wanted to support the e r A. But she
also knew that when she got up and spoke about it,
she would be addressing largely a room of white guys.
And one thing that she was so stellar at way

(21:22):
back from her experience as an educator but also coming
up through the political machine, was being able to address
her audience, to meet them where they were at. And
so she talked to these guys and said, listen, we've
already overcome so much in terms of religious and political
prejudice in this country. We you guys have already done

(21:45):
so much to address like racial discrimination with the Civil
Rights Bill and sixty four. It's time to tackle quote
the most subtle, most pervasive, and most institutionalized form of
prejudice that exists, sex based discrimination. And so what she

(22:05):
does in her speech, and we read a paper that
basically dissected her rhetorical style that she uses like a
classic and classical Greek style of delivering a persuasive speech,
and how effective she was. Of course, spoiler, the e
r A would not be ratified, but she herself was

(22:26):
an effective tool to try to get it ratified. She
spells out the ways that this subtle, pervasive sex based
discrimination harms women and limits their opportunity. She talked about
how uh sex discrimination relegates women to low wage jobs.
It excludes them from not only selective service, but from

(22:49):
receiving the benefits both personal and professional, of serving their country.
Her argument was not only and this was very important.
Her argument was not only that like, hey, those military
jobs pay really well, and women should have access to
well paying jobs, but hey, women love their country too,

(23:12):
and women deserve the opportunity to serve that country in
the best way they can, and that is being a
member of the military. She talked about how women were
still barred from some college campuses, kept out of some
night jobs, and a lot of what she was talking
about revolved around that idea of benevolent sexism. The stuff,

(23:34):
as you will recall from our last episode that Philish
laughly so badly wanted to maintain. Surely Chisholm so badly
wanted to deconstruct it. Women, she basically argued, don't need
these special protections and privileges. What they need is the
e r A to just guarantee a level playing field. Yeah,

(23:55):
because she basically argued, exploitation is exploitation. Sex has nothing
to do with it if we spell out legally like
what you can't do. And for that reason, the amendment,
in her words, was necessary to clarify the countless ambiguities
and inconsistencies in the legal system. And so she explained

(24:19):
that laws regarding women's employment, jury service, and access to
education widely varied from state to state, and so the
e r A, if it were ratified, would have leveled
the playing field across all fifty states and get this
mishmash of gendered laws off the books. Well, and she's

(24:43):
basically saying that guys, guys, guys, guys, men, men, folk friends, colleagues, countrymen, romans, Like, Look,
if all of this stuff is so different state to state,
doesn't that just speak to how irrational some of these
sexist quote unquote protections are. You know, she was saying
that no one would condone exploitation, But what does sex

(25:07):
have to do with it? Working conditions in hours that
are harmful to women are harmful to men. Wages that
are unfair to women are unfair for men. And that's
like such a modern feminist refrain that you know, so
many people make the very real important argument of feminism
doesn't only benefit women or one type of woman. The

(25:30):
things that feminists fight for can benefit all of us,
and that includes like families, people that Philish Laughly was
saying needed to be protected. Meanwhile, Philish Laughly, as you'll
learn about in our previous episode if you haven't listened,
was fanning the flames of panic that women might, for instance,
be drafted to military service. This also you know, being

(25:53):
in a very uh touchy time in terms of the draft.
But back to fighting Shirley Chisholm. Her speech was clearly
effective because the day of it, the House approved the
e r A by a vote of three hundred thirty

(26:13):
four to six. Yeah, but ultimately it was not ratified
by the number of states that needed to ratify it
to make it the law of the land. Right because
Philish Laughlely led the anti feminist crusade that overturned state

(26:33):
ratification of the amendment in two states and then blocked
it from being ratified and three other states, leaving it
short of the necessary number of states needed to make
it a constitutional amendment. But again, let's get back to
fighting Shirley Chisholm. Yeah, So remember at the top of

(26:54):
the podcast when we talked about how she was really
vocal in her bed Sty neighborhood about out the white
politicians who were doing nothing to help the people of
color in the neighborhood, and to shut her up, they
were like, let's just put you on the board of Directors,
and how it was like, oh, well, no, you just
launched her into power, Like, thank you for giving her

(27:15):
a voice in a platform, but you guys are going
against uh, your best interest is trying to shut her up. Well,
when she gets to Congress, her male white colleagues try
to do the same thing, and they try to shut
her up by assigning her to the Committee on Agriculture.
And she's like, what seriously, the Committee on Agriculture. I'm

(27:37):
from Brooklyn, Okay. So she appeals the decision to how
Speaker John McCormick, who just basically pats around the head
and tells her to be a good soldier. Well, because
it traditionally is on the junior congress people to basically
take the assignment they're given. You know, it is the

(27:58):
kind of weight your turn thing. But surely Chisholm does
not want to wait her turn because she knows that
no one is ever going to give it to her. Yeah,
so she takes her complaint directly to the House floor,
and as a result of her being incredibly vocal uh,
she is reassigned to the Veterans Affairs Committee, which again
not her first choice. But according to a fabulous quote,

(28:20):
she says, yeah, but there are a lot more veterans
in my district than trees. So she would work with
what she had. She wouldn't just take what she was given.
But if she saw an opportunity, even if it is
there's something more adjacent like veterans Affairs, she would use
that to work for the people. Um And from nineteen

(28:42):
seventy one to nineteen seventies seven she served on the
Committee on Education and Labor, and also in nineteen seventy
one she became a founding member of the Congressional Black
Caucus and then from seventy seven to eighty one, she
served as Secretary of the Democratic Caucus US and also
in seventies seven, she became the first black woman and

(29:04):
the second woman ever to serve on the ultra powerful
Congressional Rules Committee, and was a founding member of the
Congressional Women's Congress. So, like we said at the top
of the podcast, Shirley Chisholm just has so many firsts,
racked up, so many first and I think they're so
important to note, not just by virtue of the fact

(29:25):
that they are first, but to really illustrate how in
it she was that she was at the forefront of
all this stuff, because I feel like the early days
of the Congressional Black Caucus are frequently framed as like,
look at these men doing all of this stuff in
the interest of the black voter. But she was right there,
just right there, at the front. And to me, again,

(29:46):
that just hearkens back to our episode on Polly Murray,
We're like, hey, she was one of the founding members
of Now Okay like now as frequently framed as like
a middle class white woman things. You know, you frequently
hear about Betty friedan you don't hear about Paul Murray
and the other women of color who were there from
the get go, and so Shirley Chisholm has a similar
kind of parallel story in that regard well. And also

(30:08):
when we see her hustle kind of outlined like this,
it makes sense. But oh, yeah, she ran for president. Yeah,
So that timeline that we just gave you, what's missing
in there is that she ran for the Democratic nomination
for the presidential election of nineteen seventy two. And don't

(30:31):
think for a second that she didn't face constant hurdles.
But has that ever stopped her before? No? No, And
she she knew that there would be hurdles ahead of her.
She once said, I ran because most people thought the
country was not ready for a black candidate and not

(30:51):
ready for a woman candidate. Someday, it was time in
nineteen seventy two to make that someday come. Yes, I
love that. Sure he doesn't wait for tomorrow, she makes
tomorrow today. Yes, I would campaign for her today. Um.
And the thing is, like we said at the top
of the podcast, Yeah, she was proudly a woman, she

(31:11):
was proudly African American, but she believed that she could
and should represent everyone, and then everyone should have a
voice in politics, and that she was that candidate. She said,
I'm not the candidate of Black America, although I'm black
and proud. I am not the candidate of the woman's
movement of this country, although I know I'm a woman
and I am equally proud of that. And the thing is,

(31:32):
She's like here, I am ready to be the candidate
of the everyman and the every woman. But she still
had people yelling at her on both sides because she
was really discouraged to find that women didn't want her
to discuss black issues and black people didn't want her
to discuss women's issues. But of course, you know, even

(31:54):
though she was stuck between a rock and a hard
place in that regard, that certainly didn't stop her from
flexing her feminist muscles. One badge of hers or button
that I am certainly going to have to find on
eBay and pay a million dollars for shows her face
in the middle of the venus symbol with the text
to represent all Americans. I mean, surely like Paully Murray

(32:19):
was so committed to intersectionality as well, she she knew
that that was part of her identity and she couldn't
and didn't want to divorce herself from that. UM. And
the thing is, though, the deeper involved she got into
politics and the further her presidential campaign went, the clearer

(32:41):
it became to her that of the double jeopardy status
that she possessed of being both black and female, gender
was what held her back more because even feminists were
split over her candidacy. And this was the most heartbreaking

(33:03):
part of that Shirley Chisholm documentary where you see women
like Bella Abzug and Glorious Steinham start to moonwalk slowly
away from her. Yeah. So, despite the fact that Shirley
Chisholm had a ton of women and a ton of

(33:25):
white second wave feminist women working in her campaign, ultimately
those heavy hitters like Absug couldn't support her. And I
mean that that sums up so much about politics in general. UM. Basically,
you had a lot of people arguing that they needed
someone who could actually win UM. And so despite the

(33:49):
fact that Chisholm had founded the National Women's Political Caucus
with Betty for Dan, with Bella Abzug and with Glorious Steinhem,
both abs Againsteinem through their support behind George McGovern. Uh,
he basically had very similar policies and platforms as Shirley

(34:13):
Chisholm did. And so you had people like Abs Againsteinem
who were like, well, I don't know, I mean, like,
it's great that you're a woman and a woman of
color and you're really educated and outspoken, but like, we
think McGovern stands away better chance of winning, and as
women who are trying to get what we want for
ourselves politically, we need to try to bet on the

(34:33):
winning horse. And as Robert Gottlieb, who worked on her campaign,
talks about in the documentary, it's not an apples to
apples comparison to UH to consider, well, if she were
running in sixteen, everything would be different, Like how this
is inconceivable that it would happen, Because, as Gottlieb says,

(34:56):
having a woman run for president was like having some
body from Mars run for president. I mean, it was
beyond inconceivable at the time. Yeah, And she surely Chisholm,
as you might expect, was so fed up with this
constant refrain. It wasn't just Steynham and Abs like, it

(35:16):
was just about everybody who was reading the news or
watching her campaign. She was so fed up with this
attitude of like you're you're great, We're so glad you're
doing this, but we need somebody who can actually win,
because she was like, look at my history. Well yeah,
because no one was arguing with her politics or against

(35:37):
her politics or against her accomplishments. They were just like,
you are two woman and too black for this to happen. Yeah,
it's it's not realistic because think of the rest of America.
But also like think of how much she'd already overcome
against so many odds. But it seems like oftentimes in

(36:00):
our society, we love a trailblazer up to a point. Yeah,
and we'll take one trailblazer, but we don't want the
floodgates to open, you know. And it feels like there's
a lot of that going on, where it's like, listen,
you've already made history. You you're the first black woman
to win a seat in Congress. You know, are aren't

(36:23):
going to relax, so relax. But surely Chisholm did the opposite.
And I loved watching footage of her so angry, so
and just so just over it, where she would say,
if you can't support me, or you can't endorse me,
get out of my way. Yeah, because she had voters,

(36:45):
she had reporters, she had all of these people asking
her about like, why are you staying in You're just
taking votes away from mc govern. Because the whole thing
there was like a huge just the same way as
in this election cycle, there were a huge number of
Republicans vying for the nomination. There huge number of Democrats
in the primary race at the time. And so basically

(37:06):
you've got people saying, hey, your politics not that much
different from an Edward Muskie, not that much different from
a George McGovern, You should probably just drop out. Like
you've done a great job. Your politics are on point.
You know, you're very outspoken and educated. Uh but I mean,
white America, I don't know if they can take you.
So let let George McGovern win and get those delegates

(37:30):
so that he can go to the convention and clinch
the nomination. Right, which absolutely echoes UM a lot of
things that Bernie Sanders supporters heard in this past Democratic primary. UM.
And also this is this is rather reminiscent of well
as well. She had to sue in order to participate

(37:50):
in debates because people were that quick to dismiss her.
She you know that they didn't even invite her to debates,
and she became There's footage in this documentary you guys
have to watch it, um from a television interview that
has several of the Democratic contenders, including Chisholm, on and

(38:15):
she becomes visibly fed up when the interviewer asked her
which opponent she would support. And it's not that that
language is like anti Shirley Chisholm specifically, because you hear
that in every race, Like, hey, you know, well everyone
is still asks every Republican politician, which will you really

(38:35):
support Donald Trump? Yeah, well yes and so. But I
think at that point, by the time this interviewer asks
her the question, she's like, seriously, I am still a contender,
Like I'm still in this to win this. And the
thing is, though, I mean, this was a this was
a dangerous time and a dangerous race. George Wallace, the

(38:58):
segregationist Paul Titian was shot five times and paralyzed from
the waist down and that's when he ultimately dropped out
of the race. Uh. Sureley Chisholm herself had several attempts
on her life, and in the documentary where she's interviewed
years and years later, she still can't talk about it.
It's still so painful to her that people hated her

(39:21):
enough to want to take her life. There was one
man who was following her around with a knife, but
luckily her security team kept him from getting too close
to her. But even within the Congressional Black Caucus, which
you would assume would be fully supporting her, Sureley found
herself an outsider because some caucus members had wanted to

(39:43):
rally behind black male candidates from each state who wouldn't
be expected to win, but at the convention, those delegates
would be so scattered that they could then leverage those
collective delegates for those black candidates across those many states.
UH on behalf of platforms that would um help black

(40:10):
the black population, like black voters. So but they couldn't
decide like which ones essentially that they wanted to UH
to put up for the nomination. So Shirley was like, hey, listen,
let's not wait for someday. Let's make it today. I'm
going to run. I'll do it. Yeah. At least she
was consistent, right, like, let's stop waiting around. Um. And

(40:30):
you know, she said, I am looking to no man
walking this earth for approval of what I'm doing, because
basically this journalist had asterlake. Uh. You know, some of
your Congressional Black Caucus colleagues, some of those dudes are
a little sore that you're throwing your hat on the ring.
And that's when she was like, I don't don't care. Um.

(40:53):
And you know, a lot of those Black Caucus members
were resentful. They thought she'd sell out black interests for
women's interest. Um. A lot of them considered her coalition
building as betrayal. You know, she worked with women black
and white, She worked with Hispanic, she worked with white
liberals and welfare recipients. And a lot of her black

(41:14):
colleagues were like, what are you doing. You're leaving You're
leaving your people behind. And in her viewpoint, it's like no,
I'm yeah. She's like I'm five steps ahead of you.
Catch up. Yeah, Like I'm bringing people together because like
I have already said, gentlemen, i am everyone's president. And
at one point, her Congressional Black Caucus colleague, Representative Bill Clay,

(41:37):
questioned her sanity during a press conference. It was getting
to that level of sexism, and as Shirley later said,
black male politicians are no different from white male politicians.
This woman thing is so deep. I've found it in
this campaign if I ever knew it before. Yeah, And
a lot of her male Congressional Black Caucus colleagues ended

(42:00):
up throwing their support just like Steinhum and Abzug, behind
people like George McGovern um. And that was for a
lot of reasons. It went back to the whole belief
of like, we need someone who can actually win. But
as a lot of those men said on camera and
interviews in the documentary, like we need to hitch our
wagon to a star, and if we are going to

(42:23):
rise in the ranks of you know, either our party
or on the national political stage, we need to share
the spotlight with the guy who's gonna win. That operative
word of course being like that guy right who's gonna
win well, and surely did not give up all the
way to the Democratic National Convention. She knew she was

(42:45):
not going to win the nomination, but she also knew
the potential leveraging power of delegates, so she showed up
with one two delegates, which was more than either Ed
Muskie or Hubert Humphrey, and she was really hoping for
a deadlocked convention in which she could use her delegates

(43:10):
say like, listen, I will break the tie. I'll throw
my delegates to you if you will provide a black
running mate. She also wants to negotiate for a woman
to serve in the cabinet and a Native American to
serve as Secretary of the Interior. Had talk about an
intersectional politician, because there's footage of her again saying we

(43:33):
need a Native American person as the Secretary of the
Interior because these were their lands, This was their land.
Should they not have a representative in government who can
have a say. But unfortunately, George McGovern had put together
enough delegates to where he didn't need Shirley's, so she

(44:00):
didn't really have a chance to break that deadlock and negotiate.
And much later in life she would lament the lack
of true democracy, saying that it's more deals and bargains
than what people assume democracy is. Yeah, so here's this powerful,
driven woman who, as her record clearly shows, wants to

(44:24):
act on behalf of families, wants to help the average
American worker, um, wants to do right by her people
in in her country, and she is getting to this
national stage and realizing, Oh, the track that I've been on,
where I'm trying to help people of all colors and

(44:46):
genders and backgrounds, that's not really what this is about.
It's about it's about that leverage and about making those
deals in back rooms. And it really seemed like that
was distasteful to her. Yeah, because it seems at least
that surely Chisholm was never out for power personal game.

(45:09):
She was out for the people, legitimately out for the people,
hence her campaign tagline of being unbought and unbossed. And
the thing that I was really hardened to learn after
her failed campaign was that she was still highly respected.
She had made an impression on the American public. She

(45:31):
returned to Congress a popular figure. In the nineteen seventy
four Gallop Pole, she was listed as one of the
top ten most admired women in America, ahead of Jackie
Oh and Coretta Scott King. Yeah, she was tied in
sixth place with Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. It was

(45:51):
a popular woman, you know. She she her love for
the people and her desire to do right by them,
I think really attracted her a lot of fans. But
the thing is, at the same time that Philish Laughly
is pushing the right wing evangelical Christian bent to the

(46:12):
Republican Party, Shirley is becoming disillusioned by that hard right turn,
and in nineteen eighty two she announces she will not
seek re election, and one of the reasons was because
of the country's conservative turn with the nineteen eighty election
of Ronald Reagan. And she was also at this point
super fed up with being misunderstood. She said she felt

(46:36):
that her fellow African American politicians did not understand all
of those coalition building efforts that she had started and
maintained over the years, because she was like, listen, guys,
we can't do this by ourselves, nor can white people
do it by themselves. Like if we share politics and
political ideology, we have to work together. And I just
think that every step of the way. She continued to

(46:58):
face these hurdles in her career, and by the time
the country got so conservative, she was like, all right,
I'm out, I gotta I gotta tap out. Yeah, I mean,
but she we can't forget that. She remained in Congress
and was reelected up until she was finally like I
don't want to be reelected again. You know. She was

(47:18):
a very successful state politician, um, and she remained active
even after she stepped down. She helped co found the
National Political Congress of Black Women. She taught at Mount
Holyoke College Ine. She also campaigned for Jesse Jackson's presidential
bids and eighty four and eight, and when Bill Clinton

(47:41):
nominated her as ambassador to Jamaica, she was like thanks,
no thanks, because for health reasons she she didn't want
to take it on, and she ended up in classic move,
She settled in Florida, like you do uh, and from
there she wrote and let heard and until she died

(48:02):
on January one, two five. Yeah, I mean, I am
so grateful for what she did for voters, what she
did for Americans, what she did for women and women
of color, the fact that she was able to so
successfully be on the national stage and be so vocal um.

(48:23):
But it does break my heart. But she felt so
unwelcome finally in politics that she was like I'm done
because surely chose it was obviously not the type of
person to back down. So the fact that politics at
that time were becoming so hostile that she was like,
I'll just go lecture and get out of here. Like

(48:43):
that's that's very telling. Yeah. I mean because if she
were sitting here in the podcast studio today, I would
flip out. Um. And then I have a hunch she
would be a little mystified at how celebratory we are,
because she said in her autobiography quote that I am

(49:04):
a national figure because I was the first person in
one hundred ninety two years to be at once a congressman,
black and a woman. Proves I would think that our
society is not yet either just or free. And that
is the exact reason why she says repeatedly that she

(49:25):
doesn't want to be remembered solely as being the first
African American woman elected to US Congress. I think she
would be so much more excited to hear us talk
about her record of advocating for UH domestic workers, for immigrants,
for women of all colors, UM, for education and children

(49:49):
in this country. Um. You know that's where she found
her power and inspiration. Well, in one final quote of
hers that this makes me think of is sort of
another way that she has phrased the whole thing of
you know, I want to be remembered as someone who
fought for change in the twentieth century. At one point,

(50:10):
she also said, I want to be remembered as a
woman who was herself, you know, I mean she she
never compromised at all who she was. And oh man,
if you could just get only you could like bottle
up Shirley Chisholm's character, you know, and sell it. I'd

(50:30):
take it like a vitamin every day, oh as would I.
And so I have really high hopes for this biopic
that Anika Nanni Rose is supposedly working on. She's set
to produce and star in it, and I will definitely
eat that up if and when it comes to theata's

(50:51):
absolutely um So, listeners, we want to know from you
had you known about Shirley Chisholm. Are you listening to
this episode owed in Brooklyn, possibly in bed sty and
feeling a whole new significance for where you are? I
hope you are, so let us know your thoughts. Mom
Stuff at how stuff works dot com is our email address.

(51:12):
You can also tweet us at mom Stuff podcast or
messages on Facebook. And we've got a couple of messages
to share with you right now. I have a letter
here from Grace in response to our flight attendant episode. Uh.
She said, I was a flight attendant for just under

(51:34):
two years, from early two thousand and four through late
two thousand five. I was happy to hear you speak
about the profession because it is ultra glamorized, but is
not at all what people think it is. Here are
just a few things I have to say about my experience.
Number one, sexual harassment. I'm average looking at best, and
I got inappropriate comments from passengers as well as pilots.

(51:58):
I even had one pilot send me a Panis pick
on an overnight. I told him if he ever contacted
me again, I would get him fired and blacklisted. Sadly,
no idea if I could actually do that. Our airline
didn't have weight limits technically, but they absolutely did not
hire larger people, and we were expected to wear heels

(52:18):
when working, even in airports. Heels are so super practical
for people who were trained in CPR to save your
life doing heavy lifting, et cetera. Number two schedule, you
have to bid for your desired schedule. This means you
work a different schedule every single month and when you
don't have much seniority, you work long trips. You're gone
for four to five days and nights at a time

(52:39):
and never get a regular schedule. It does improve a
time on the job, but most people don't last more
than a year. Number three pay I made under eighteen
thousand my first year, barely more my second, and I
didn't sleep at my home for over two hundred and
fifty days a year. Pay is based on hours in

(52:59):
the lane. Neither pilots or flight attendants are making an
hourly wage until the plane door is closed, and they
stopped getting paid when the door opens. Yeah, while you
are boarding andy planing, we aren't getting paid. This also
means the time we take to to get to the
airport early, which is required to check all of our
safety equipment, et cetera, is time we aren't getting paid.

(53:21):
When on overnights we get a super small stipend to
help with food costs. Number four free flights depending on
your airline. You don't really fly for free. I got
discounted flights and the rates were different depending on what
airline you flew. You were always stand by and they
oversell all flights and I had to dress up on
top of which I didn't make nearly enough money that

(53:41):
I could afford to travel, even at a discount number
five turnover. Because the schedule sucks, the pay sucks, you
are gone all the time, et cetera. Most people don't
last longer than a year. Seems like a lot of
companies do it on purpose because flight attendants makes so
little their first five years on the job that it
keeps labor costs lower for them. And this is just

(54:03):
scratching the surface for me. I know people who stayed
with it, and once on the job about five years,
you have more seniority, which improves the job quite a bit.
I couldn't do it. I was in a relationship and
the travel made it hard. We've been together eleven years now.
He rules and couldn't deal with what felt like a
really abusive job. If you haven't already, please check out
the passenger shaming on Instagram. It's a riot. Love your show,

(54:26):
Thanks for your time, and thanks for your insights. Grace.
I have a letter here from brief subject line trans
pants suits. She writes, your recent show about pants suits
struck a particular chord with me. Finding a suit as
a transgender woman is hard. First, we have to fight
the societal norm that all trans women wear skirts or dresses.

(54:49):
Seven type transgender pants suits into Google. My first three
results are from a site about dealing with transgender victims,
of assault suits for trans men and a lawsuit about
a tra 's girl in a locker room. That's not
helpful at all, Google. Then we have to fight other
trans people saying that we aren't trans enough because we
want to wear a suit. And finally, we have to

(55:10):
find someone who is actually decent at fitting a suit
onto our larger frames. Shout out to my tall and
plus sized lady friends, and that probably involves custom tailoring,
which is just another expense. There's a lot of info
for trans women on how to be hyper feminine, but
very little for those of us who want to express
a different side of our femininity. Our society is starting

(55:31):
to understand that sis gender women can be whatever they
want to be, so hopefully we can start to admit
that a trans woman's favorite color doesn't have to be pink.
And we also offered a helpful ps In response to
our episode on period Tracker apps, she said using natural
family planning was the best decision my wife and I

(55:51):
ever made, enabling us to discover some medical problems that
would have gone unnoticed otherwise but showed up when we
tracked her cycle. I would definitely to give a shout
out to the Creighton Method natural family planning as the
super cheap method nothing more than a piece of paper
and pen required. Well, thank you Brief for all that

(56:11):
insight and love back to you and listeners if you've
got anything to share with us Moms stuff at how
stuff works dot com is our email address and for
links to all of our social media as well as
all of our blogs, videos and podcasts with our sources
so you can learn more about fighting and surely Chisholm.
Head on over to stuff mom Never Told You dot com.

(56:37):
For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit
how stuff works dot com