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Today's book recommendation for Women's History Month is "Shirley Chisholm: Champion of Black Feminist Power Politics" by Anastasia C. Curwood (2023).

When I stumbled across this book on the "new" shelf at the library, it took my memory back to the excitement of seeing a woman as a serious presidential candidate in 1972, when I was 12 years old. Our generation of girls in the 1970's were being told that we could grow up to be anything, including president, and here was an example right in front of us.

Well, history let us down. Chisholm was battling double prejudice, as a woman who was also black, and she never made it out of the primaries. More than a half-century later, despite two women nominees, we have yet to see a woman president.

Reading this book, I discovered so much more about Chisholm's life beyond her presidential run. Here was her childhood in Barbados, her early work in New York City in childhood education and child-welfare issues, and then her entry into politics in the New York State Assembly.

Serving in the U.S. Congress from 1969-1983, she was instrumental in creating the WIC nutritional assistance program, and seeing that domestic workers received minimum wage protections. She supported land rights for Native Americans, opposed the Vietnam War, and campaigned for the Equal Rights Amendment.

She told us: “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair!”

Link to book:
https://uncpress.org/book/9781469671178/shirley-chisholm/