--- title: Watch: Shirley Chisholm's Legacy description: A short documentary by RetroReport examines Shirley Chisholm's legacy as the first Black woman to run for U.S. President. canonical: https://time.com/7198395/shirley-chisholm-legacy-video/ author: TIME Video article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-11-30T13:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-19T07:48:53.698Z article:section: History og:title: Watch: Shirley Chisholm's Legacy og:description: A short documentary by RetroReport examines Shirley Chisholm's legacy as the first Black woman to run for U.S. President. og:url: https://time.com/7198395/shirley-chisholm-legacy-video/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2ffb8f519b86ff3e/698b245d09208f1faf424bbc/RR443_P0134_1972_LOC_ShirleyChisholmatpodium_2020730435_HiRes_Crop_logo.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1920 og:image:height: 1080 og:image:alt: RR443_P0134_1972_LOC_ShirleyChisholmatpodium_2020730435_HiRes_Crop_logo og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch: Shirley Chisholm's Legacy twitter:description: A short documentary by RetroReport examines Shirley Chisholm's legacy as the first Black woman to run for U.S. President. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2ffb8f519b86ff3e/698b245d09208f1faf424bbc/RR443_P0134_1972_LOC_ShirleyChisholmatpodium_2020730435_HiRes_Crop_logo.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Shirley Chisholm's Legacy Still Looms Large > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-sub-2026q3/newsletters?i=832dae8a-fbcd-4762-9eea-c3195cef479a&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) * TIME Subscriptions: [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-sub-2026q3/subscribe?i=832dae8a-fbcd-4762-9eea-c3195cef479a&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Shirley Chisholm's Legacy [Watch (HLS stream): Shirley Chisholm's Legacy](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/lP9aSiJV.m3u8) (13:15)  _Published 2024-11-25. This short documentary by RetroReport examines Shirley Chisholm's legacy as the first Black woman to run for President and how she has inspired many, even as the reality of a woman president remains unrealized in the U.S._ by [TIME Video](https://time.com/author/time-video/) ## TIME Video Nov 30, 2024 1:00 PM UTC This short documentary by RetroReport examines Shirley Chisholm's legacy as the first Black woman to run for President and how she has inspired many, even as the reality of a woman president remains unrealized in the U.S. by [TIME Video](https://time.com/author/time-video/) ## TIME Video Nov 30, 2024 1:00 PM UTC As the first Black woman in Congress and the [first Black woman to run](https://time.com/4359610/shirley-chisholm-nominee/) for the Democratic Party's Presidential nomination, Shirley Chisholm clearly had no shortage of vision. Even so, the [glass-ceiling-shattering](https://time.com/4551817/50-women-political-history-2/) politician—who was born on Nov. 30, 1924—might not have imagined what would come 100 years after her birth. Her centennial year has seen the first woman of color at the top of a major party ticket, and Chisholm, who died in 2005, has been the subject of a [Netflix series ](https://time.com/6959179/shirley-chisholm-true-story-netflix/)and multiple biographies. The New York City Council has declared Nov. 30 as Shirley Chisholm Day, to be celebrated every year. Even so, her impact has not always been recognized to the same extent as that of other Black leaders. This short documentary by [RetroReport](https://retroreport.org/) examines Chisholm's legacy—and how she has served as an inspiration to many, even as the reality of a woman being elected President remains [unrealized](https://time.com/7173617/kamala-harris-concession-speech-full-transcript/) in the United States. ## Transcript [00:05] Okay. I stand before you [00:11] today as a candidate for [00:14] the Democratic nomination for the presidency of the United States of America. [00:19] Chirle Chisholm did that in 1972, [00:23] and she was a catalyst for change. [00:25] But she was also way out there ahead of her time. [00:28] I am not the candidate of Black America, [00:32] although I am Black and proud. [00:35] For Chisholm, there was no set trail in politics. [00:39] I am not the candidate of the women's movement of this country, [00:42] although I am a woman, [00:44] and I'm equally proud of that. [00:47] To be Black, to be a woman, [00:49] to be both meant that she had to just make her own path. [00:54] There had never been anybody but White males in the White House, [00:58] and Shirley Chisholm made it possible to see and to imagine. [01:04] I stand as so many of us do on her shoulders because she [01:09] understood that you just marched to that podium and you claim that podium is yours. [01:14] And you don't ask anybody permission. [01:23] This was her slogan, [01:26] Unbought and unboss throughout her entire elected life. [01:30] She was the first African American woman elected to Congress, [01:34] and she knew that bringing her perspective and [01:37] her experience to the table would strengthen the country. [01:42] In 1968, Shirley Chisholm, [01:46] a former school teacher, [01:48] daycare director, and democratic state legislator, [01:51] ran for Congress, hoping to become the first Black politician to [01:56] represent her predominantly poor and Black Brooklyn neighborhood, Bedford Stuyvesant. [02:02] My name is Shirley Chisholm on November 5, [02:06] send me to the United States Congress. [02:09] She watched what people went through in their daily lives, [02:13] what it was actually like to be doing domestic work, doing factory work. [02:19] She wanted to have government respond to [02:22] the day to day concerns of the people she saw on the streets of Brooklyn. [02:28] Go there. Vote. [02:29] Her opponent, James Farmer was famous as the leader of the Congress of Racial Equality. [02:38] He ran saying that we need to have a strong male voice in Washington. [02:45] James Farmer said to me, [02:48] Shirley, the Congress is not for you. [02:51] We need strong people. [02:53] You're a little school teacher. [02:55] And I said, Uh huh. Wait a minute. [02:59] There are more women voted in my district. [03:01] And, boy, the women white, [03:03] black, Puerto Rican, all the women moved behind me. [03:07] She went out and courted those women to get them out to the ballot box, and she won. [03:18] I gather, then that you don't plan to be quiet in Congress. Absolutely not. [03:25] For 44 years of my life, [03:27] I have been forced to remain silent because of my skin color. [03:32] I am going to be a freshman that's seen and heard. [03:35] How do you feel being the first Black woman, [03:38] you know, in the House of Representatives? [03:40] I have mixed feelings, [03:41] as far as I'm concerned. [03:43] Actually, it's overdue. [03:45] Chisholm called her first months on Capitol Hill some of the most difficult of her life. [03:51] She often felt unwelcome, [03:54] even among members of her own party, [03:56] which still included powerful segregationists from the South. [04:00] Some even refused to sit with her at lunch. [04:04] You know, I sat at the Georgian delegation table, and I did not know this. [04:07] He said, Well, you know, here in this body, [04:09] we all have our special tables. [04:11] I said, Look, there are three empty tables right here. [04:13] They belong to E Delegation. [04:15] I'm eating my lunch. I'm enjoying it. [04:16] After today, I will not sit at this table, [04:18] now that I know it belongs to Georgia. [04:20] But if you cannot sit now and have your lunch with me at this table, [04:23] I would suggest you take one of the empty tables, and if, [04:25] indeed, anybody from N Delegation asks you to rise from those tables, [04:29] I will be the first to support you and help you. You understand? [04:34] Chishm was on the vanguard of major political realignment in American politics. [04:41] As one of only 13 Black representatives, [04:45] she co founded the Congressional Black Caucus. [04:48] We're motivated out of a deeper concern about what's [04:51] happening to over 25 million black people in this country. [04:55] She was also part of the growing women's movement. [05:00] Supporting the Equal Rights Amendment, [05:03] reproductive freedom, and larger roles for women in the workplace and in politics. [05:09] These are leaders of the National Women's Political Caucus. [05:15] We had the radical idea that women were half the population [05:19] and we could be half the political representation. [05:25] This is me. This is Bella Absuk. This is Shirley. [05:30] I happen to believe that women need to assume a much more important role. [05:35] Women are a little bit more sensitized to the problems that concern families, [05:42] education, social welfare measures. [05:45] Chisholm wanted government to serve people's essential needs. [05:50] You know, I do what my conscience tells me to do. [05:52] And was effective at building support in [05:55] Congress for programs that benefited her constituents. [05:59] Shirley was always representing what she experienced in her own life. [06:05] For instance, she clearly understood the importance of childcare, [06:10] access of women to elected positions, [06:15] her vision of what could be was in advance of the people around her. [06:22] Those of you who have been neglected, [06:29] left out, ignored, forgotten or shunned aside. [06:34] Join me as we go down the Chisholm Trail for 1970. [06:39] Mm hm. [06:40] A new hat, rather a bonnet, [06:43] was tossed into the Democratic presidential race today, [06:46] that of misses Shirley Chisholm, [06:48] the first Black woman to serve in Congress. [06:51] I felt that the time had come when a Black person or [06:56] a female person could and should be president of these United States of America, [07:02] not only white males. [07:04] And I decided somebody had to get it started. [07:13] I'm a shaker of the system. [07:16] The Democratic Party must place primary stress on party of life, the community. [07:22] I even just want black boys and [07:24] Black girls to just remember that anybody can run for president. [07:32] She really wanted everybody to understand that they could find [07:37] a home in her campaign and to bring new people to the table in politics. [07:43] There must be a new coalition of Americans Black, [07:46] brown, white, red and yellow, rich and poor. [07:51] I mess Shirley Chisholm when I invited her to come to my college campus in Oakland, [07:57] California, Mills College. It was amazing. [08:00] She talked about poverty, spoke fluent Spanish. [08:04] She was a pro abortion rights candidate and woman. [08:08] And she said, Are you registered to vote? I said, No. [08:12] She said, You have got to register to vote. [08:14] And you need to help me in my campaign. I said, Okay. [08:18] This is the group [08:25] of us who ran as delegates pledged to support Shirley Chisholm. [08:32] And here are all of our names. [08:35] Throughout the primaries, Chisholm struggled for media coverage. [08:40] Unfortunately, Shirley Chisholm has not got [08:43] the depth and breadth of the coverage she deserves. [08:46] She was not invited to participate in televised debates and [08:51] ultimately brought and won a lawsuit challenging her exclusion. [08:55] Well, the only thing that I've always asked for is equitability, you know, of treatment. [09:00] Her campaign manager had succeeded in getting [09:04] her compensatory time on some New York television station. [09:08] And so he asked me to write her speech. [09:12] It's still the proudest political moment in my life to hear [09:16] her saying words that I had written. Amazing. [09:28] While Chisholm knew she would not get the nomination, [09:32] she wanted to win enough delegates to have bargaining power at the convention [09:37] to push for issues she cared about to be included in the Democratic Party platform. [09:44] I went to Miami as a Shirley Chisholm delegate. [09:48] It was my first convention. [09:49] I get chills just thinking about it. Oh, God. [09:53] I present to you in nomination the Honor Shirley Chisholm. [10:00] To be on the floor and to see how people responded to her, [10:04] it was just amazing. [10:06] Madam Chairman, Mississippi Browdy cast 12 votes for Shirley, Chism. [10:11] New Jersey. Four for Congresswoman Chisholm. [10:15] Pennsylvania votes nine and one half for Chisholm. [10:19] She was nominated, and she got up to 151 votes on the floor of the convention hall. [10:27] That was the most for any woman until 2008. [10:31] In unity, there is strength. [10:34] I also want to make it quite clear that it [10:37] was the delegates here that made history tonight, [10:40] the delegates that made history tonight. [10:44] Ultimately, Chisholm returned to Congress, [10:48] where she served until 1983. [10:50] She was elected secretary of the House Democratic Caucus and [10:55] helped expand food programs for the poor that still exist today. [11:03] She was never taken as seriously as a candidate as she should have been. [11:09] I don't know what made it possible for her to survive and lead and speak. [11:16] It's a miracle, but she did. [11:24] We are the birthplace of Shirley Chisholm. [11:29] Have to cast 298 votes to make [11:33] Kamala Harris the first female president of the United States. [11:38] The Democratic Coalition has changed and [11:42] now is strikingly similar to the coalition that was behind Shirley Chisholm. [11:48] I accept your nomination to be president of the United States of America. [11:56] Although she did not win 50 years after Shirley Chisholm's run, [12:02] Vice President Kamala Harris was the first woman of [12:05] color to gain a major party presidential nomination. [12:11] Kamala Harris was a young girl who saw Shirley Chisholm run for president and said, [12:17] Oh, yeah, Black women run for president. [12:20] Don't ever give up. [12:22] And don't you ever listen. [12:24] When anyone tells you something is impossible because it has never been done before. [12:36] I want history to remember me. [12:39] Not that I was the first Black woman to be elected to the Congress, [12:43] not as the first Black woman to have made a bid for the presidency of the United States, [12:49] but as a Black woman who lived in the 20th century and who dared to be herself. [12:57] I want to be remembered as a catalyst for change in America. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7198395/shirley-chisholm-legacy-video/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7198395/shirley-chisholm-legacy-video/"},"headline":"Shirley Chisholm's Legacy Still Looms Large","datePublished":"2024-11-30T13:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-19T07:48:53.698Z","description":"A short documentary by RetroReport examines Shirley Chisholm's legacy as the first Black woman to run for U.S. President.","url":"https://time.com/7198395/shirley-chisholm-legacy-video/","keywords":["politics","History"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2ffb8f519b86ff3e/698b245d09208f1faf424bbc/RR443_P0134_1972_LOC_ShirleyChisholmatpodium_2020730435_HiRes_Crop_logo.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Video","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-video/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2ffb8f519b86ff3e/698b245d09208f1faf424bbc/RR443_P0134_1972_LOC_ShirleyChisholmatpodium_2020730435_HiRes_Crop_logo.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"RR443_P0134_1972_LOC_ShirleyChisholmatpodium_2020730435_HiRes_Crop_logo","caption":"","creditText":"RetroReport","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/politics/","name":"politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/7198395/shirley-chisholm-legacy-video/","name":"Shirley Chisholm's Legacy Still Looms Large"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Shirley Chisholm's Legacy","description":"This short documentary by RetroReport examines Shirley Chisholm's legacy as the first Black woman to run for President and how she has inspired many, even as the reality of a woman president remains unrealized in the U.S.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/lP9aSiJV/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2024-11-25T19:18:09.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/lP9aSiJV.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/7198395/shirley-chisholm-legacy-video/","duration":"PT13M15S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/7198395/shirley-chisholm-legacy-video/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```