Trailblazing Women: Shirley Chisholm

In 1969, Shirley Chisholm became the first African American woman to serve in Congress, representing New York’s 12th Congressional District. She was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus in 1971 and the Congressional Women’s Caucus in 1977. Chisholm was also the first woman and the first African American to seek the Democratic Presidential nomination in 1972.

Learn more at Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm: “Unbought and Unbossed”

This post is courtesy the National Archives.

Photograph of the Rules Committee, 95th Congress, ca. 1977. National Archives, Records of the U.S. House of Representatives