With Shirley Chisholm's 1972 presidential campaign slogan, "Unbought and Unbossed," as inspiration, we examine politics and material practices of Black feminist cartographies/ "demonic grounds," research methodologies of refusal, auto/biographical interruptions, Blackgirlhood literacies & YAL, anti-colonial pedagogies, "rhetorical impatience," & more!
It was already something for Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to Congress, to consider running for president of the United States in 1972. But Chisholm took it a step further with her campaign slogan: Unbought and Unbossed!
By 1971, major Black news outlets like Jet magazine were pressing for a Black president. It was six years after the Voting Rights Act of 1965, itself decades in the making with deeply embattled Civil Rights activism for Black voters in the South. When news outlets started polling Black readers and local politicians in the early 1970s, only one woman’s name came up: the first Black woman Representative, Shirley Chisholm of New York. Chisholm, however, never waited for anybody’s endorsement or poll to authorize herself.
Chisholm, a former teacher in Brooklyn, New York, was already called “Fighting Shirley Chisholm” as soon as she got to Capitol Hill in 1969. In a move no one had seen before, she outrightly rejected her assignment to the powerless Agriculture Committee and forced Democrats in Congress to appoint her to the Veterans’ Affairs Committee to serve Brooklyn better. She went on to help form the Congressional Black Caucus and work on the House Education and Labor Committee.
With only 44K in funding, a small team of volunteers, and college students as campaign managers, Chisholm announced her bid for president and promised to build a “union of the disenfranchised” in 1972. Despite national calls for a Black candidate, Chisholm irked many when she didn’t ask for blessings from white Democratic leaders, white women’s groups, prominent Black politicians, members of the CBC, or Brooklyn leaders. Even though the Democratic Party had restructured its delegate selection process to increase the numbers of young voters, women, and BIPOC, they certainly didn’t mean for a Black woman to run for president (Note: Go back and look at Fannie Lou Hamer's Testimony at the Democratic National Convention in 1964).
Chisholm was often accused of being self-serving or just a symbol to which she had one thing to say: “I am for real.” When white male democrats asked her to stand aside and not siphon votes away from them, she suggested they ask other white men to back down instead. Acquiescence was never on her agenda, since she was already planning to demand concessions from whomever won the Democratic nomination for president if she didn’t get it: 1) naming a Black vice-presidential candidate; 2) securing diverse Cabinet and agency appointments; 3) choosing a woman to lead the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW); 4) picking a Native American as Secretary of the Interior. While campaigning, Chisholm walked the picket line with striking sugarcane workers in Miami speaking fluent Spanish; she outlined an antipoverty platform; she openly denounced the Vietnam War; she backed abortion rights and national health insurance; she embraced LGBTQIA activists and gay rights; she called for the legalization of marijuana; she advocated federal disaster relief for struggling cities and open housing policies to desegregate America; and last, but certainly not least, she criticized Black and white folx alike who had something negative to say about her. The loudest and strongest Black advocacy group backing her was the Black Panther Party.
In the end, Chisholm didn't win the Democratic bid for President; the bloc of Black delegates under the BC didn't even back her and neither did the most prominent white women activists. Senator George McGovern of South Dakota secured the party’s nomination, a name few even remember today outside of Chisholm's campaign. And despite all the accusations that Chisholm would divide voters and lose the Democratic hold on the election, the faith in McGovern was ill-begotten: he lost to Richard Nixon in a landslide. And two years after that, Nixon resigned to avoid impeachment (Note: Go back and listen to Barbara Jordan’s speech about Nixon’s impeachment and then watch her lead the 1976 DNC to put Democrats back in office). As per usual, it was nuthin but a hot mess, with folx still not knowing well enough to listen to a Black woman!
In the meantime, Chisholm retained her seat in the House for New York’s Twelfth Congressional District, promised to be a “catalyst for change,” and joined anti-apartheid movements. She became the first Black woman to sit on the Rules Committee which sets the terms of debate for every bill that reached the House Floor and, in general, just kept her foot on people’s necks. And especially important for us as educators, she and Percy Sutton were the designers of S.E.E.K., the program that ushered in the first large influx of Brown and Black students at the City University of New York (CUNY) who would go on to catalyze the largest experiment in open admissions that the American university has ever witnessed.
If you thought Kamala Harris or Zohran Mandani were legendary firsts, then you need to immerse yourself in more Black feminist rhetorics and histories. When it comes to being “Unbought and Unbossed,” Chisholm is the blueprint and everything else is the re-mix, at best, and together, we will study how and why. Welcome to the course!
By 1971, major Black news outlets like Jet magazine were pressing for a Black president. It was six years after the Voting Rights Act of 1965, itself decades in the making with deeply embattled Civil Rights activism for Black voters in the South. When news outlets started polling Black readers and local politicians in the early 1970s, only one woman’s name came up: the first Black woman Representative, Shirley Chisholm of New York. Chisholm, however, never waited for anybody’s endorsement or poll to authorize herself.
Chisholm, a former teacher in Brooklyn, New York, was already called “Fighting Shirley Chisholm” as soon as she got to Capitol Hill in 1969. In a move no one had seen before, she outrightly rejected her assignment to the powerless Agriculture Committee and forced Democrats in Congress to appoint her to the Veterans’ Affairs Committee to serve Brooklyn better. She went on to help form the Congressional Black Caucus and work on the House Education and Labor Committee.
With only 44K in funding, a small team of volunteers, and college students as campaign managers, Chisholm announced her bid for president and promised to build a “union of the disenfranchised” in 1972. Despite national calls for a Black candidate, Chisholm irked many when she didn’t ask for blessings from white Democratic leaders, white women’s groups, prominent Black politicians, members of the CBC, or Brooklyn leaders. Even though the Democratic Party had restructured its delegate selection process to increase the numbers of young voters, women, and BIPOC, they certainly didn’t mean for a Black woman to run for president (Note: Go back and look at Fannie Lou Hamer's Testimony at the Democratic National Convention in 1964).
Chisholm was often accused of being self-serving or just a symbol to which she had one thing to say: “I am for real.” When white male democrats asked her to stand aside and not siphon votes away from them, she suggested they ask other white men to back down instead. Acquiescence was never on her agenda, since she was already planning to demand concessions from whomever won the Democratic nomination for president if she didn’t get it: 1) naming a Black vice-presidential candidate; 2) securing diverse Cabinet and agency appointments; 3) choosing a woman to lead the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW); 4) picking a Native American as Secretary of the Interior. While campaigning, Chisholm walked the picket line with striking sugarcane workers in Miami speaking fluent Spanish; she outlined an antipoverty platform; she openly denounced the Vietnam War; she backed abortion rights and national health insurance; she embraced LGBTQIA activists and gay rights; she called for the legalization of marijuana; she advocated federal disaster relief for struggling cities and open housing policies to desegregate America; and last, but certainly not least, she criticized Black and white folx alike who had something negative to say about her. The loudest and strongest Black advocacy group backing her was the Black Panther Party.
In the end, Chisholm didn't win the Democratic bid for President; the bloc of Black delegates under the BC didn't even back her and neither did the most prominent white women activists. Senator George McGovern of South Dakota secured the party’s nomination, a name few even remember today outside of Chisholm's campaign. And despite all the accusations that Chisholm would divide voters and lose the Democratic hold on the election, the faith in McGovern was ill-begotten: he lost to Richard Nixon in a landslide. And two years after that, Nixon resigned to avoid impeachment (Note: Go back and listen to Barbara Jordan’s speech about Nixon’s impeachment and then watch her lead the 1976 DNC to put Democrats back in office). As per usual, it was nuthin but a hot mess, with folx still not knowing well enough to listen to a Black woman!
In the meantime, Chisholm retained her seat in the House for New York’s Twelfth Congressional District, promised to be a “catalyst for change,” and joined anti-apartheid movements. She became the first Black woman to sit on the Rules Committee which sets the terms of debate for every bill that reached the House Floor and, in general, just kept her foot on people’s necks. And especially important for us as educators, she and Percy Sutton were the designers of S.E.E.K., the program that ushered in the first large influx of Brown and Black students at the City University of New York (CUNY) who would go on to catalyze the largest experiment in open admissions that the American university has ever witnessed.
If you thought Kamala Harris or Zohran Mandani were legendary firsts, then you need to immerse yourself in more Black feminist rhetorics and histories. When it comes to being “Unbought and Unbossed,” Chisholm is the blueprint and everything else is the re-mix, at best, and together, we will study how and why. Welcome to the course!
In solidarity,
Carmen Kynard
Carmen Kynard
Check Back for More in August 2026!
|
Site Designed/Maintained by Carmen Kynard
|