Via Wikipedia
She was partially raised in Barbados.
At age five, she went to the island to live with her grandmother. Grandma instilled in her a deep self-love: “Granny gave me strength, dignity, and love. I learned from an early age that I was somebody."
She didn’t intend to go into politics.
Chisholm’s first career was in education. But she saw how necessary it was for her district to have real support - so she ran for New York State Assembly, won, and started her political rise.
She walked the talk.
Her time in congress was about uplifting women and people of color - and she proved it by hiring an all-woman staff, half of whom were Black women.
She built bridges across difference.
Known for her uncompromising attitude - she was “Unbought and Unbossed” after all - she nevertheless visited openly racist George Wallace, a fellow congressperson, in the hospital. Later, that relationship helped her pass a crucial minimum wage bill.
The opposition to her presidential campaign was fierce.
While campaigning for president in 1972, she faced opposition from all sides: the men in the Congressional Black Caucus, racist men AND women in both parties, war hawks upset with her anti-Vietnam stance, and voters concerned about “electability.”
But her run was about sending a message. “I want history to remember me... as a [B]lack woman who… dared to be herself… as a catalyst for change in America.”