24th Day of Women's History Month: Shirley Chisholm

When I was in college, one English professor asked us to write a "compare and contrast" paper.  I chose to compare and contrast Shirley Chisholm and Phyllis Schlafly.  They were born in the same year (1924), both of them were women, and they attended all-girls schools--this is about all they had in common, aside from the fact that they both became known on the national political stage.
Contrasts?  They both ran for state legislative offices; however, Chisholm won, and Schlafly lost.  Chisholm, who is quoted as saying, "Of my two "handicaps" being female put more obstacles in my path than being black," decided to use her power to work to empower women; Schlafly has always basically said, "I have mine; screw the rest of you women."
But enough about Phyllis Schlafly--she's had an impact on women, but it hasn't been good.
[At this point, I went to the basement to see if I could find the English paper--I couldn't.  But I did find another paper I wrote about Shirley Chisholm, and what follows are some excerpts.] 
Shirley Chisholm attended Brooklyn College.  Upon entering, Chisholm discovered a new world, and it was here that she got involved in politics.  She decided to become a teacher because "...there was no other road open to a young black woman.  Law, medicine, even nursing were too expensive, and few schools would admit black men, much less a woman."   In 1946, Chisholm graduated, cum laude.  But, even with honors, she was unable to find a job.  She finally found one in a day care center.  In addition to her job, she became active in the Democratic "club" of her district.  New York's political "clubs" were organized according to State Assembly districts.  The white minority in Chisholm's district had control of the Democratic club.  The whites who had the power thought they could control Chisholm by electing her to the board of directors.  When they found she wouldn't conform, they voted her out.  In 1960, Chisholm helped form the Unity Democratic Club, which proceeded to strip away the power of the white "machine".  By 1962, this was the official Democratic organization in Chisholm's district.
In 1964, Shirley Chisholm decided to run for the State Assembly.  She said, "For my part, I was not interested in listening to any reasons why I shouldn't run.  By then I had spent about ten years in ward politics and had done everything else but run for office....I was the best-qualified nominee, and I was not going to be denied because of my sex."
In 1968, Chisholm ran for the United States House of Representatives, and won:  she was the first black woman to be elected to Congress.
It was in 1972, when Chisholm became the first woman to run for the Democratic presidential nomination, that she got the attention of the nation.  This was what she had set out to do.  She remarks on her campaign:  "We were out to make a mark, but we could not hope to win; we didn't have what it takes, and we knew it from the start.  I would not recommend that any woman, or black or Hispano-American, ever do again exactly what I did."
Shirley Chisholm may not have won, but during the primary season, she received 430,703 votes, which was 2.7 percent of the total of nearly 16 million cast and represented seventh place among the Democratic contenders.
Shirley Chisholm retired from Congress in 1982, but by then she'd made her mark on history.  More importantly, she paved the way--made it "easier" for Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama, when they decided to run for president.