Shirley Chisholm

Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm was the first African-American woman elected to Congress, and the first major-party Black candidate to run for  the Democratic presidential nomination.  Born in Brooklyn, Chisholm received her Bachelors degree from Brooklyn College and her Masters from Columbia.  She was elected to the New York State Legislature in 1964.  Once Chisholm won her place in Congress, she joined the Congressional Black Caucus as one of its founding members. Her extraordinary work as a Congressional leader earned her various awards and accolades, including induction into the National Women's Hall of Fame.  Upon her retirement in 1982, the two-time autobiographer returned to her work as an educator for a few years until retiring to Florida where she died in 2005.