Best Shirley Chisholm Quotes
Shirley Chisholm Quotes About Education, Life, Seat at the Table, Folding Chair, Service is the Rent, Voting, Leadership, Speech & Success! Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American member of Congress, was appointed in 1968. She made history by becoming the first major-party Black candidate to run for president of the United States. New York City’s primarily black Brooklyn area was where she was born on November 30, 1924. She started her teaching career in 1946 after graduation from Brooklyn College and later acquired a master’s degree from Columbia University in primary education.
Throughout her time in Congress, Chisholm advocated for black education and job opportunities, becoming one of the first members of the Congressional Black Caucus in 1969. As the Democratic nominee for President of the United States in 1972, Chisholm made history once again, being the first woman and African-American to run for President of the United States from one of the two main political parties.
George McGovern, a South Dakota senator, won the Democratic nominee for president after a vigorous campaign by Shirley Chisholm, who could not get the backing of prominent Black leaders. One of Chisholm’s books, Unbought and Undosed (1970), became her campaign slogan when she ran for president. She also wrote The Good Fight (1973).
The first member of the National Organization for Women (NOW), Chisholm was also a prominent member of the Unity Democratic Club in Brooklyn (NAACP) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In 1993, she was awarded honorary membership in the National Women’s Hall of Fame. On January 1, 2005, she passed away at the age of 85, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom was given to her estate in 2015.
Best Shirley Chisholm Quotes
1. “I have never cared too much what people say. What I am interested in is what they do.”-Shirley Chisholm
2. “When morality comes up against profit, it is seldom that profit loses.”-Shirley Chisholm
3.” The Constitution they wrote was designed to protect the rights of white, male citizens.”-Shirley Chisholm
4. “In the end anti-black, anti-female, and all forms of discrimination are equivalent to the same thing: anti-humanism.”-Shirley Chisholm
5.. “An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.”-Shirley Chisholm
6. “Service is the rent you pay for room on this earth.”-Shirley Chisholm
7. “I ran for the presidency, despite hopeless odds, to demonstrate the sheer will and refusal to accept the status quo.”-Shirley Chisholm
8. “Racism is so universal in this country, so widespread, and deep-seated, that it is invisible because it is so normal.”-Shirley Chisholm
9. “I want history to remember me not just as the first black woman to be elected to Congress, not as the first black woman to have made a bid for the presidency of the United States, but as a black woman who lived in the 20th century and dared to be herself.”-Shirley Chisholm
10. “You don’t make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas.”-Shirley Chisholm
11. “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.”-Shirley Chisholm
12. “Political organizations are formed to keep the powerful in power. Their first rule is ‘don’t rock the boat.'”-Shirley Chisholm
13. “At present, our country needs women’s idealism and determination, perhaps more in politics than anywhere else.”-Shirley Chisholm
14. “I don’t measure America by its achievement but by its potential.”-Shirley Chisholm
15. “All we want is for the trivial difference to make no difference.”-Shirley Chisholm
16. “I am the people’s politician. If the day should ever come when the people can’t save me, I’ll know I’m finished.”-Shirley Chisholm
17. “The next time a woman of whatever color, or a dark-skinned person of whatever sex aspires to be president, the way should be a little smoother because I helped pave it.”-Shirley Chisholm
18. “Defeat should not be the source of discouragement, but a stimulus to keep plotting.”-Shirley Chisholm
19. “Apparently all they know here in Washington about Brooklyn is that a tree grew there.”-Shirley Chisholm
20. “Take away an accident of pigmentation of a thin layer of our outer skin and there is no difference between me and anyone else.”-Shirley Chisholm
21. “Laws will not eliminate prejudice from the hearts of human beings.”-Shirley Chisholm
22. “The one thing you’ve got going: your one vote.”-Shirley Chisholm
23. “America has the laws and the material resources it takes to insure justice for all its people. What it lacks is the heart, the humanity.”-Shirley Chisholm
24. “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring in a folding chair.”-Shirley Chisholm
25. “Anyone who takes that role must pay a price.”-Shirley Chisholm
26. “As things are now, no one can tell who members of Congress are responsible to, except that it does not often appear to be to the people.”-Shirley Chisholm
27. “Health is a human right, not a privilege to be purchased.”-Shirley Chisholm
28. “I’m looking to no man walking this earth for approval of what I’m doing.”-Shirley Chisholm
29. “It is not female egotism to say that the future of mankind may very well be ours to determine. It is a fact.”-Shirley Chisholm
30. “We must reject not only the stereotypes that others hold of us, but also the stereotypes that we hold of ourselves.”-Shirley Chisholm
