Shirley Chisholm May Have Paved The Way For Him, But Barack Obama Will Never Live Up To Her Vision-- Or Even Try

On January 25, 1972 I was living in Afghanistan and it was months later that I heard that a Member of Congress from my hometown had declared for the presidency. It was just the kind of idealistic, inspiring race that always attracts me. Shirley Chisholm was the first African-American woman ever elected to Congress. Before leaving the U.S. I had worked in her Brooklyn district at my father's clothing store and I thought of her as my Representative, rather than my own conservative Democratic carbuncle, Emanuel Celler (the most senior and powerful Democrat in the House, defeated that year in a primary because of his opposition to equal rights for women). Chisholm, the daughter of West Indian immigrants, had been elected to Congress in 1968 and on that January day at the Concord Baptist Church in Brooklyn, she became the first woman to run for president as a Democrat and the first African-American to run on either major party. She survived three attempted assassinations during the campaign. Maybe this is why:

I stand before you today as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency of the United States of America.

I am not the candidate of black America, although I am black and proud.”

I am not the candidate of the women’s movement of this country, although I am a woman, and I am equally proud of that.”

I am not the candidate of any political bosses or fat cats or special interests.”

I stand here now without endorsements from many big name politicians or celebrities or any other kind of prop. I do not intend to offer to you the tired and glib clichés, which for too long have been an accepted part of our political life. I am the candidate of the people of America. And my presence before you now symbolizes a new era in American political history.

...Americans all over are demanding a new sensibility, a new philosophy of government from Washington. Instead of sending spies to snoop on participants on Earth Day, I would welcome the efforts of concerned citizens of all ages to stop the abuse of our environment. Instead of watching a football game on television, while young people beg for the attention of their President, concerning our actions abroad, I would encourage them to speak out, organize for peaceful change, and vote in November. Instead of blocking efforts to control huge amounts of money given political candidates by the rich and the powerful, I would provide certain limits on such amounts and encourage all people of this nation to contribute small sums to the candidates of their choice. Instead of calculating political cost of this or that policy, and of weighing in favors of this or that group, depending on whether that group voted for me in 1968, I would remind all Americans at this hour of the words of Abraham Lincoln, ‘A house divided, cannot stand.

“We Americans are all fellow countrymen. One day confronting the judgment of history in our country. We are all God’s children and a bit of each of us is as precious as the will of the most powerful general or corporate millionaire. Our will can create a new America in 1972, one where there is freedom from violence and war, at home and abroad, where there is freedom from poverty and discrimination, where there exists at least a feeling, that we are making progress and assuring for everyone medical care, employment, and decent housing. Where we more decisively clean up our streets, our water, and our air. Where we work together, black and white, to rebuild our neighborhoods and to make our cities quiet, attractive, and efficient and fundamentally where we live in the confidence that every man and every woman in America has at long last the opportunity to become all that he was created of being, such as his ability.

She never had a chance. So why did she bother? No one who knew her needed to ask but she answered that herself, for those who didn't: "...Whether or not the black people are politically sophisticated enough to be aware of the fact that my candidacy is not to be regarded as a candidacy where I can win the presidency at this moment, but a candidacy that is paving the way for people of other ethnic groups, including blacks, to run and perhaps win the office."

She inspired a young Barbara Lee, who ran for Congress herself a quarter century later and was the only Member of that august body to have voted against Bush's authorization of the use of force against Afghanistan-- and has continuously inspired progressives across the country with her integrity and dedication to represent working families instead of the ruling elite. Barbara Lee has as much of a chance to be elected president as Shirley Chisholm did. Instead Chisholm's prediction that she was paving the way for a minority president was made true three years ago when the American public, by a large margin, elected Barack Obama. Yesterday Obama announced the beginning of his reelection campaign. If Shirley Chisholm was alive today, she could dust off the old speech, update it and run against him saying many of the same things she said about Richard Nixon.