Honoring Women: Shirley Chisholm

Updated: Mar 3, 2021 / 06:02 PM CST

CHICAGO (NewsNation Now) — March is Women’s History Month, a time to celebrate the contributions and achievements of women over the course of American history. Throughout the month, NewsNation Early Edition, we are highlighting different women from history. Today we highlight: Shirley Chisholm.

Shirley Chisholm was a teacher, an author and a politician.

She was the first Black woman elected to Congress in 1968, and she ran for President of the United States in 1972, becoming the first woman to run for the office with the Democratic Party.

She was a founding member of the National Women’s Political Caucus and co-founder of the National Congress of Black Women.

Shirley Chisholm died in 2005, she was 80 years old.

A headshot of African American educator and U.S. Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, 1973. Chisholm was the first black woman elected to the U.S. Congress and the first woman to run for president in 1971. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON – FEBRUARY 15: A U.S. Capitol Police Honor guard participates in a memorial service for former U.S. Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm February 15, 2005 in Washington, DC. Chisholm, who was the first black Congresswoman, died last month. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
Washington DC Congressional Democratic Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton points to a photograph of herself, Martin Luther King, Jr,’s wife, Coretta Scott King, and Shirley Chisholm, the first African American Congresswoman, from the 1963 March on Washington for civil rights and racial equality during an interview with AFP in her office on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on August 22, 2013. Holmes Norton, who was active on the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee for the march, will participate in a full week of activities ahead of the 50th anniversary of the march and Martin Luther King, Jr’s historic “I have a dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)