Shirley Chisholm

Shirley Chisholm

Chisholm, Shirley, 1924-2005.

In 1969, Father Paul Gopaul organized the first Black Studies course at Saint John’s University. This course was televised to six different universities. In this class, Fr. Gopaul interviewed prominent people in politics, including Shirley Chisholm. In 1971, a mock political convention was conducted as a January term project at CSB/SJU. Seven Students conducted it with 125 participants. Senator George McGovern won the presidential nomination and Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm was chosen as his running mate. On November 2, 1972, Shirley Chisholm came to the College of Saint Benedict and gave a lecture, “Progress Through Understanding.” She was the keynote speaker for the Delta Epsilon Sigma (DES) honors convocation. Chisholm used her visit to urge women to use their full capabilities to help our country. As Chisholm stated, “Women have a special contribution to make; to help bring order out of the chaos in this country today. We need people with more guts, more courage, more compassion and more concern for their less fortunate fellow man-not just espousing the correct rhetoric that is acceptable nowadays, but doing it.”

Shirley Chisholm became the first Black woman elected to the US Congress in November 1968. Before becoming a New York Congressional Representative, she was the New York State Assemblywoman in Albany and a worker in Brooklyn’s Democratic clubhouses. Chisholm was also the first Black woman to run for the US presidency, when she sought her party’s nomination in 1968.

College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University

College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University Archives

1972

In copyright