Shirley Chisholm: Champion of Black Feminist Power Politics

University of Kentucky historian Curwood (Stormy Weather) delivers a comprehensive and admiring biography of U.S. congresswoman Shirley Chisholm (1924–2005). Born into a family of Barbadian immigrants in Brooklyn, N.Y., Chisholm was “opinionated, self-assured, and confident” as a young child. After graduating from Brooklyn College, she launched a career in early education, and later claimed that the discrimination she faced while interviewing for a teaching job at an affluent private school in a predominantly white neighborhood helped sparked her interest in political organizing. She became the first African American congresswoman in 1968 and the first to run for president in 1972. Despite receiving numerous credible death threats during the Democratic primary, Chisholm had no Secret Service protection and struggled to be taken seriously by party officials. Curwood also spotlights Chisholm’s coalition building with antiwar, Native American, and LGBTQ activists; her controversial visit to see her primary opponent, segregationist George Wallace, in the hospital after he was shot; her advocacy for “raising and expanding minimum wage protections,” passing the Equal Rights Amendment, and boycotting South Africa’s apartheid government; and the backlash sparked by her support for Ed Koch and other white politicians over Black candidates. Accessible and enlightening, this is a well-rounded portrait of a pioneering politician. (Jan.)