**From award-winning author Tonya Bolden comes a biography of the first
Black woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and the first
Black woman to run for president with a major political party: Shirley
Chisholm.
**Before there was Barack Obama, before there was Kamala Harris, there
was Fighting Shirley Chisholm. A daughter of Barbadian immigrants,
Chisholm developed her political chops in Brooklyn in the 1950s and went
on to become the first Black woman elected to the U.S. House of
Representatives. This "pepper pot," as she was known, was not afraid to
speak up for what she thought was right. While fighting for a better
life for her constituents in New York's 12th Congressional District,
Chisholm routinely fought against sexism and racism in her own life and
defied the norms of the time. As the first Black woman in the House and
the first Black woman to seek the presidential nomination from a major
political party, Shirley Chisholm laid the groundwork for those who
would come after her.
Extensively researched and reviewed by experts, this inspiring biography
traces Chisholm's journey from her childhood in a small flat in Brooklyn
where she read books with her sisters to Brooklyn College where she got
her first taste of politics. Readers will cheer Chisholm on to victory
from the campaign trail to the hallowed halls of the U.S. Capitol, where
she fought for fair wages, equal rights, and an end to the Vietnam War.
And while the presidential campaign trail in 1972 did not end in
victory, Shirley Chisholm shows us how you can change a country when you
speak up and speak out.
