page_title: Shirley Chisholm
section_title: Early terms
hierarchical_section_title: Shirley Chisholm / Congress / Early terms
caption_attribution_description: English: Founding members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Standing L-R: Parren Mitchell, Charles Rangel, Bill Clay, Ron Dellums, George W. Collins, Louis Stokes, Ralph Metcalfe, John Conyers, and Walter Fauntroy. Seated L-R: Robert N.C. Nix, Sr., Charles Diggs, Shirley Chisholm, and Augustus F. Hawkins.
context_page_description: Shirley Anita Chisholm was an American politician, educator, and author. In 1968, she became the first black woman elected to the United States Congress, representing New York's 12th congressional district for seven terms from 1969 to 1983. In the 1972 United States presidential election, she became the first black candidate for a major party's nomination for President of the United States, and the first woman to run for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.
  In 2015, Chisholm was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
context_section_description: Chisholm was assigned to the House Agriculture Committee. Given her urban district, she felt the placement was irrelevant to her constituents. When Chisholm confided to Rebbe Menachem M. Schneerson that she was upset and insulted by her assignment, Schneerson suggested that she use the surplus food to help the poor and hungry. Chisholm subsequently met Robert Dole, and worked to expand the food stamp program. She later played a critical role in the creation of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program. Chisholm would credit Schneerson for the fact that so many "poor babies [now] have milk and poor children have food". Chisholm was then also placed on the Veterans' Affairs Committee. Soon after, she voted for Hale Boggs as House Majority Leader over John Conyers. As a reward for her support, Boggs assigned her to the much-prized Education and Labor Committee, which was her preferred committee. She was the third highest-ranking member of this committee when she retired from Congress.
  Chisholm only hired women for her office; half of them were black. Chisholm said that she had faced much more discrimination during her New York legislative career because she was a woman than because of her race.
  Chisholm joined the Congressional Black Caucus in 1971 as one of its founding members. In the same year, she was also a founding member of the National Women's Political Caucus.
  In May 1971 she, along with fellow New York Congresswoman Bella Abzug, introduced a bill to provide $10 billion in federal funds for child care services by 1975. A less expensive version introduced by Senator Walter Mondale eventually passed the House and Senate as the Comprehensive Child Development Bill, but was vetoed by President Richard Nixon in December 1971, who said it was too expensive and would undermine the institution of the family.
caption: Chisholm (seated, second from right) with fellow founding members of the Congressional Black Caucus in 1971
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