Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Government & Politics Shirley Shisholm Shirley Shisholm Shirley Chisholm, first African American woman to be elected to Congress was born in Brooklyn on November 30, 1924. She is one of the most profound and admired women that challenged society not only as a woman, but a woman of color. She made many contributions to the women's movement and society. Shirley began her interest in politics in the 1940's. She attended political clubs where community members met with the assemblyman and committee to discuss problems with the city. Shirley began to notice the differences in which the way white people and black people were treated. The room was divided by the color of skin. Blacks on one side and whites on the other. At the end of each meeting there was time for questions by the audience though many times people would not ask anything. However, Shirley was not pleased at the way the council was treating the community and questioned the members. She asked why the white neighborhoods had regular trash pick up where as the black neighborhoods did not. Her questions were not popular with the committee, but she continued to stand up for the indifferences found in the segregated communities (Chisholm 30). For the time period that Shirley was growing up in, it is remarkable that she had the courage to stand up for her beliefs. Strong minded and determined she challenged society. She was not able to stay quiet and keep her thoughts to herself; instead she spoke her mind. It seemed the harder society tried to suppress, the stronger she became. Perhaps being a woman of color she felt compelled to voice her opinion (Yuval-Davis 77). She stated that "My goal was to shake things up a little"(Chisholm 161). Not only did she shake things up, she helped to pave a path for generations of women to come. She opened the door of opportunities for the American people. In the late 1950's Shirley worked with child care facilities. She temporarily stepped aside from politics and was more focused on the welfare of children in Brooklyn. She was promoted several times within the child care system. She entered the field as an aide and ending up being a director of several day care facilities. It was her experiences in the day care setting that opened her eyes to the many problems in health care. She began to notice the effects of poverty on women and children in her community (Chisholm 28). It must have difficult to work around families that did not have the means to better their lives. Perhaps observing the inequalities pushed Shirley to become involved with government and promote better health care. Becoming involved in politics was not the initial goal that Shirley was striving for. It was not until she was in college in which she first became interested in the Bedford-Stuyvesant Political League. She was impressed with a man named Hodder, who represented the Bedford- Stuyvesant Political League, and his speeches that supported the black community. He sparked her interest in politics and from then on Shirley was in and out of the political spotlight (Metcalf 118). Even though many people doubted the abilities of Shirley she had a tremendous amount of political support from her husband Conrad. He was not jealous over the amount of attention that Shirley received nor did he interfere with her interest in politics (Chisholm 46). It is important for a person to be given support by their spouse, especially when a person is in the media. Maintaining a close relationship with your spouse enables a person to feel strong and sustained. Being that Shirley was popular and did receive attention it is difficult to believe that he did not become jealous over the vast amounts of attention. However, the attention did not seem to bother Conrad. Shirley stated that he would actually get out of the way for photographers, so that they could get a good shot of her (Chisholm 46). In 1968 Shirley was elected into the United States Congress. Admired by many American people, she proudly sat in Congress. She publicly opposed the Vietnam War, supported abortion and Equal Rights Amendment (Gitenstein 257). Her election to Congress was a success. She had fought a long battle for all women. With her strength and determination she achieved her goal. She even went so far as to run for President, but unfortunately was not elected. It would have been interesting to have experienced such a powerful woman in the presidency. She might have had the opportunity to further her contributions to the women's movement and to healthcare if elected. One of Shirley's accomplishments was her involvement in the legislation. She supported bills that funded Negroes and Puerto Rican to go to college. She felt that many of the schools were discriminating against minorities. Also they were not given the same opportunities as white children. A program named SEEK which stands for Search for Education, Elevation and Knowledge was one of the bills supported by Shirley to help minorities expand their education beyond high school (Metcalf 121). This bill was one of many bills that she supported while in Congress. A controversial topic that Shirley was involved with was the abortion issue. Many people opposed the idea to legalize abortion, especially religious institutions. However she made a difficult decision to be an advocate for family planning and the right to choose abortion. She addressed the subcommittee on Health of the Senate Labor about her beliefs on abortion and her reasons why it should be legal (Metcalf 139). She was concerned with the welfare of women having illegal abortions or burdened with having an unwanted child. So many women were turned away from medical clinics and went to illegal measures to abort the child (Chisholm 120). Even though the illegal abortion procedures were unhealthy and unclean, women were risking their lives to get rid of their unwanted pregnancies. It must have been difficult for Shirley to stand before not only the Senate but also in front of America and speak about controversial topics such as promoting education for minorities and legalizing abortion. Being that she was a woman and black, she risked her reputation and status as she spoke about her beliefs in which she thought would better our society. She has definitely proved herself to be a leader in not only her community but also for the American people. Her ideas have inspired many to stand up for better treatment and equality. Bibliography: Works Cited Chisholm, Shirley. The Good Fight. New York: Harper and Row, 1973. Chisholm, Shirley. Unbought and Unbossed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1970. Gitenstein, Judy. Herstory. Ed. Ruth Ashby and Deborah Gore Ohrn. New York: Viking, 1995. Metcalf, George R. Up From Within. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1971. Yuval-Davis. Who's Afraid of Feminism? Ed. Ann Oakley and Juliet Mitchell. New York: The New Press, 1997. Word Count: 1086
Copyright © 1998-2008 College Term Papers, INC All Rights Reserved. DMCA Notifications and Requests