from the National Visionary Leadership Project:
Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm was the first African American woman elected to the United States Congress, where she served as the representative for the 12th district of New York from 1969 until 1982. In 1972, she was the first black woman to run for the presidency of the United States under a major party.
Raised and educated in Barbados and the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn, New York, Chisholm trained as a teacher at Brooklyn College. She learned the arts of organizing and fundraising, joining the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
She developed a keen interest in politics. After a successful teaching career, Chisholm was elected to the New York State Assembly in 1964, and then in 1968 successfully ran for the U.S. Congress.
