Shirley Chisholm

It was January 24, 1972, in Brooklyn, New York.

That day, a forty-seven-year-old woman announced that she wanted to become president of the United States.

She was Black. She was a woman.

Yet she said she was "not the candidate of black America," even though she was black and proud. She wanted to be the candidate of the people.

Her name was Shirley Chisholm.

She was born Shirley Anita St. Hill on November 30, 1924, in Brooklyn. She was the eldest of four daughters. Her father, a factory worker, came from Guyana. Her mother, a seamstress, came from Barbados.

At about four, she was sent to live in Barbados with her grandmother. She stayed until she was about ten, on the family farm, in a British school.

Back in Brooklyn, she kept studying. In 1942, two colleges, Vassar and Oberlin, accepted her. But her family could not afford it. She chose Brooklyn College, which was free.

She became a nursery school teacher. Sometimes she was refused work because of her colour. She persevered. She went on to direct an early childhood centre, then to advise New York City on its day care.

In 1964, she was elected to the New York State Assembly. There, she fought for unemployment insurance for domestic workers, among other things.

In 1968, she ran for Congress. Her slogan fit in three words: Unbought and Unbossed.

She won with 67 percent of the vote. She became the first Black woman elected to the United States Congress.

That year, she said:

In Washington, she was assigned to the Agriculture Committee. She protested, and she was reassigned to the Veterans' Affairs Committee. There were, she said, a lot more veterans in her district than trees.

During her time on the Agriculture Committee, she helped expand food stamps. She played a critical role in creating a nutrition program for women, infants and children.

In 1971, she was among the founding members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Then came 1972, and her presidential campaign. She was short of money. She had to go to court to take part in a televised debate. She still won 152 delegate votes.

In May 1972, George Wallace, her ideological opposite, was shot. Shirley Chisholm went to see him in the hospital.

Her visit stirred controversy.

Later, she pushed a bill to guarantee the minimum wage for domestic workers. Wallace helped her win votes from Southern congressmen. The bill passed the House.

In 1977, she became the first Black woman to sit on the Rules Committee.

After seven terms, she left Congress in January 1983. She wanted, she said, a little life of her own. She taught at Mount Holyoke College.

She hoped to be remembered as a woman who dared to be a catalyst of change.

Shirley Chisholm died on January 1, 2005, in Ormond Beach, Florida. She was eighty.

In 2015, President Barack Obama awarded her, posthumously, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

She had visited her wounded adversary, and that adversary ended up helping her stand up for domestic workers. That gesture echoes Ubuntu without being the same thing: even the other side is made of people.

In Buffalo, at Forest Lawn Cemetery, her vault bears three words.

Unbought and Unbossed. She had never waited for anyone to offer her a chair.