1/22/19
Kamala Harris is among the few black women to run for president. Here is the amazing story of the first.
Breaking Newstags: African American history, presidential history, womens history, election 2020, Kamala Harris, black womens history
The sitting Republican president was unpopular and divisive. The country was a pressure cooker of partisan rage. Big names in the Democratic Party were mulling whether to jump into the presidential race: past candidates; high-powered senators; known personalities.
But then in January 1972, a political outsider announced a surprise run for the White House — upsetting the party’s power brokers and making history.
Forty-seven years ago this week, Rep. Shirley Chisholm (D-N.Y.) announced she was seeking the Democratic 1972 nomination, becoming the first woman and first African American to run for a major political party’s presidential ticket.
“I am not the candidate of black America, although I am black and proud,” Chisholm said in her announcement as supporters cheered. “I am not the candidate of the women’s movement of this country, although I am a woman, and I’m equally proud of that. I am not the candidate or any political bosses or fat cats or special interests. . . . I am the candidate of the people of America.”
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