Shirley Chisholm Receives Posthumous Presidential Medal Of Freedom Shirley Chisholm , the first Black woman to run for president and congresswoman, finally has recieved a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom according to Vox reports. While the idea of a black person or woman running for the country’s highest office isn’t exactly novel anymore, it certainly was when Rep. Shirley Chisholm (D-NY) ran for the Democratic ticket in 1972. Chisholm, who died in 2005, received a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom Tuesday along with 16 other notable Americans including indigenous persons advocate Billy Frank Jr., baseball legends Willie Mays and Yogi Berra, and entertainer Barbra Streisand. “Shirley Chisholm’s example transcends her life,” President Barack Obama said Tuesday during the ceremony. “When asked how she’d like to be remembered, she said, ‘I’d like them to say Shirley Chisholm had guts.’ And I’m proud to say it — Shirley Chisholm had guts.” Among a crowded field of Democrats, Chisholm was the first woman of color to run for president for a major party, and the first woman Democrat. But at that point, she was no stranger to firsts. She was the first black woman elected to Congress in 1968 and was a co-founder of the Congressional Black Caucus and later, the Congressional Women’s Caucus. Chisholm, who famously declared herself “unbought and unbossed,” wasn’t exactly warmly received in Congress, where she was decidedly the odd woman out. “I have no intention of just sitting quietly and observing,” she once said. Of course, she certainly did not. Early on, Chisholm openly fought her appointment to the Committee on Agriculture because it would hardly affect her constituents in Brooklyn, New York. Eventually she was appointed to the Veterans’ Affairs Committee. Throughout her tenure, she was known to criticize both Republicans and members of her own party for not addressing the needs of the “have nots.” Well deserved!
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First Black Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm Receives Posthumous Presidential Medal Of Freedom
