Shirley Chisholm, born November 30, 1924 in New York City, is the first black woman to be elected to the United States Congress. She was a Democratic member of the New York State Assembly from 1965-1968 and pushed for more black representation on key committees in the Assembly.
She ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1968 representing New York's 12th congressional district, which includes parts of Manhattan. Her campaign slogan was "Unbought and unbossed".
In 1972, she announced that she would run for president, becoming the first black major party candidate to run for that office. She did not win the nomination, but she did manage to obtain a lot of support, even though most of it were protest votes against McGovern.
She retired from Congress in 1983 and then moved to Florida in 1991. She passed away in January 2005.
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