'It's About Time': Shirley Chisolm, First Black Congressswoman, Will Get A Statue

Source: The Guardian

Fifty years after she became the first black woman elected to Congress, Shirley Chisholm is finally being put on a pedestal amid a wider re-examination of her achievements and significance.

New York City will erect a statue of Chisholm – also the first black person and the first woman to run for the Democratic presidential nomination – outside Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, officials recently announced.

The city estimates there are 150 statues of male historical figures on city property – but just five of historical women. In Manhattan’s Central Park alone, there are 23 statues – and the only female figure is Alice in Wonderland, a fictional girl.

“That’s pretty illustrative of just how screwed up the situation is,” said deputy mayor Alicia Glen. “Central Park is the most visited park in the United States. If the only woman people see in the most visited park in the United States is a made-up woman, we have a serious problem on our hands.”

On what would have been her 94th birthday, Chisholm became the first winner in a program launched to commission more monuments to women. -MORE...


Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/dec/05/its-about-time-shirley-chisholm-first-black-congresswoman-will-get-a-statue

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Chisolm will be portrayed by Oscar-winning actress Viola Davis in the upcoming Amazon biopic movie, "The Fighting Shirley Chisolm." A move to award her the Congressional Gold Medal has also been started by lawmakers.

“It’s about time,” said Zinga Fraser about the recent appreciation of Chisolm's legacy. Fraser is a professor at Brooklyn College and director of the college's Shirley Chisholm Project on Brooklyn women’s activism.

Shirley Chisholm was born and bred in Brooklyn, New York; her mother was from Barbados. In 1968 she was elected to Congress after serving in the state legislature. In 1972 she initiated her bid for president, the first black person and the first woman to run for the Democratic presidential nomination. Chisolm died in 2005, at age 80. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Chisholm






Shirley Chisolm state park will open in Brooklyn, NY in 2019.