When Kamala Harris entered the 2020 US presidential race, she chose campaign material with sleek font and a red and yellow color scheme that mirrored those of late politician Shirley Chisholm, who entered the story in 1972 after becoming the first black woman to compete for the Democratic Party presidential nomination. Although neither Chisholm nor Harris won the presidency, they are among the many women presidential candidates who “helped put 18 million cracks” in “this tallest, toughest glass ceiling,” as Hillary Clinton said after losing the 2016 election.
As African Americans, Chisholm and Harris belong to a select group of black women who have run for president, surpassing society’s often narrow expectations for women of their race.
“As a woman of color you cannot let the outside world define who you are, because if you do, you won’t do or be anything,” says Shola Lynch, director of the 2004 documentary, “CHISHOLM ’72: Unbought & Unbossed, ”and curator of the Schomburg Center’s film and recording archives.
Harris’ swearing-in ceremony as vice president on Jan.20, 2021, placed her a stone’s throw from the country’s highest post. Her achievement follows in the footsteps of black women who ran for president long before her.
“Black women are coalition builders,” says Glynda Carr, president and CEO of Higher Heights for America, a black women’s political advocacy group. “Often times you will read the story of women, men or women of color who ran for office, and their candidacy may not have been viable, but they create a coalition of leaders, especially women.”
It was black women who bid for the highest office in the country.
Charlene mitchell
Charlene Mitchell, presidential candidate of the Communist Party, c. 1968.
Gene Kappock / NY Daily News / Getty Images
Although it was widely and incorrectly reported that Chisholm was the first black woman to run for president, Charlene Mitchell beat her. Just 38 at the time, Mitchell entered the 1968 presidential race on the Communist Party ticket with his running mate Michael Zagarell, the party’s national youth director. Mitchell’s platform included plans to tackle racial and economic injustice, but it only appeared on the ballot in two states.
Shirley chisholm
A political poster for US presidential candidate Shirley Chisholm, c. 1972.
Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, gifted with pride to Ellen Brooks
With the motto “Unbeaten and Unponsored,” Chisholm ran for President four years after Mitchell. She had already made history when she became the first African-American congressman in 1968, after serving in the New York State Assembly. As president, Chisholm has sought to advocate for low-income people, women and other marginalized groups. She also prioritized issues related to the employment and education sectors, as she had training in education.
“She realized at one point that no one would give her an opportunity unless she did it for herself, and she could do it because she had been employed as a teacher, she had saved up money and had a stable family life, and she was supported by a group of political activists in her political district, ”says Lynch. But, she adds, Chisholm’s success in politics would not have happened without the social changes that the civil rights movement had fostered. Chisholm died in 2005.
READ MORE: Why Shirley Chisholm Ran As President
Margaret wright
After Chisholm’s presidential candidacy, community organizer and civil rights activist Margaret Wright ran on the People’s Party ticket in 1976. A former factory worker and education minister for the Black Panther Party, Wright cared deeply for issues such as educational reform, labor rights and racial equality. She died in 1996.
Masters Isabell
Educator Isabell Masters has started her own political party, called Looking Back, which will run during the presidential campaigns of 1984, 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004. The five presidential campaigns of Masters are the most for all women in the world. history of the United States. She died in 2011.
Lenora Fulani
When she ran for president in 1988, psychologist Lenora Fulani’s name appeared on every state’s ballot – a first for an African-American woman. It has helped her gain more votes for the presidency than any other woman before. Fulani explained that she became independent because she saw the two-party system as hostile to black Americans, saying, “My own involvement in third-party politics was based on wanting to create a way of not being essentially hostage to a two-party system. it was not only hostile to [Black Americans] but hostile to the democratic participation of all the American people. ”
Monica moorehead
Monica Moorehead of the Workers’ World Party speaking at Peace and Solidarity Day in New York City, March 13, 2016.
Erik McGregor / LightRocket / Getty Images
Monica Moorehead, a teacher and candidate for the Workers ‘World Party ticket, ran for president in 1996, 2000 and 2016. The Workers’ World Party identifies itself as a Marxist-Leninist party committed to the struggle for social revolution. Ahead of the 2016 election, Moorhead explained his goal by saying, “As a revolutionary working class party, we are using these elections to present a real alternative to the empty promises Democrats and Republicans make every four years. Moorhead writes on politics and current affairs for the Workers World website.
Joy chavis
Floridian Angel Joy Chavis entered the 2000 presidential race as a Republican, the only African American on this list to do so. “We have to recruit a new breed of Republicans,” Rocker said at the time. “My candidacy will force the Republican Party to look at itself and decide whether it is a ‘big tent’ or not.” She died in 2003.
Carol Moseley Braun
Former presidential candidate Carol Moseley Braun speaks during the second session of the Democratic National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts on July 27, 2004.
Mike Mergen / Bloomberg / Getty Images
The first black woman elected to the United States Senate, a feat she achieved in 1992, Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois ran for president as a Democrat in the 2004 presidential election. She lost the Democratic nomination to John Kerry.
Cynthia mckinney
Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney speaks at the launch of her election campaign in New York City, July 18, 2008.
Mario Tama / Getty Images
Former Georgia congressman Cynthia McKinney ran for president as a Green Party candidate in 2008. She became an assistant professor at North South University.
Peta lindsay
Born in 1984, anti-war activist Peta Lindsay had not yet reached the required age for the post when she ran for president in 2012 on the Party’s ticket for Socialism and Liberation. She cited Chisholm as an inspiration while explaining her decision to run, stressing that they both refused to “be put ‘in our shoes’.”
Kamala harris
U.S. Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA), then Democratic presidential candidate, boards her campaign bus to attend a campaign event at Storm Lake on August 9, 2019 in Sioux City, Iowa.
Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
Kamala Harris announced her decision to run for president on January 21, 2019. After serving as San Francisco District Attorney, California Attorney General, and U.S. Senator, she launched her presidential campaign with high hopes. However, she was forced to drop out of the race at the end of that year because her fundraising goals fell short of what she needed to remain a candidate.
Carr sees parallels between Harris and Chisholm, both born to parents originally from the Caribbean. “These are the daughters of immigrants,” she said. “They belong to historically black Greek literary organizations. Shirley Chisholm was a member of Delta Sigma Theta, and Harris is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha. This shows that belonging to local sororities, local political organizations, and other civic organizations actually helps lay the groundwork for creating leaders like this.
In August 2020, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden selected Harris as his running mate. The couple then defeated outgoing President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence in the November election. With a Jamaican father and a late South Asian mother, Harris became the first woman of any race and the first black or South Asian American to become vice president when she was sworn in on Jan.20, 2021.
Lynch believes that with a record number of women elected today, Chisholm “would be so happy to know that she doesn’t pass a single baton, but there are a million relay races going on and a million witnesses. past.
