Shirley Chisholm

(1924 - 2005)

The first Black woman to serve in Congress, Shirley Chisholm took office as representative of New York City’s twelfth district the same year she delivered her speech “Equal Rights for Women” in the House of Representatives. Upon winning the election she had acknowledged to a Washington Post reporter, “I am an historical person at this point, and I’m very much aware of it.” She represented her district, which covers parts of Brooklyn, Queens, and lower Manhattan, until 1982; during her tenure she became in 1972 the first woman to run in a Democratic presidential primary.