Birth Name: Shirley Anita St. Hill
Date of Birth: November 30, 1924
Place of Birth: New York City, New York, United States
Date of Death: January 1, 2005
Place of Death: Ormond Beach, Florida, United States
Ethnicity:
*Afro-Guyanese (father)
*Afro-Barbadian (mother)
Shirley Chisholm was an American politician, educator, and author. She was a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York, from January 3, 1969 to January 3, 1983, and Secretary of the House Democratic Caucus, from January 3, 1977 to January 3, 1981. She was the first African-American woman elected to the U.S. Congress.
Shirley was a candidate for the Democratic Party’s nomination for President of the United States in 1972. That year, Shirley and Patsy Mink were the second and third women to run for a major American party’s presidential nomination (Margaret Chase Smith, who ran for the Republican nomination in 1964, was the first).
Shirley was the first woman to win a major party’s presidential nominating contest and/or primary, winning three in 1972 (although, because of the specific delegate-allocation rules, the victories were somewhat of a technicality). No other woman has won such a contest for a major party, except and until Hillary Clinton in 2008 and 2016.
Shirley was the daughter of Ruby (Seale) and Charles Christopher St. Hill. Her father was born in British Guiana (now Guyana), and lived in Barbados before coming to the U.S. Her mother was born in Christ Church, Barbados.
Source: Shirley Chisholm on the 1930 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org