°Mrs. J. W. Johnson

Negroes in Politics:
Chisolm, Shirley

DAILY NEWS, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1968

O

9

# Shirley Chisholm Beats Farmer for House Seat

By OWEN FITZGERALD

Brooklyn Democratic Assemblywoman Mrs. Shirley Chisholm became the first Negro woman ever elected to the House of Representatives last night.

Mrs. Chisholm coasted to victory over James Farmer, Republican-Liberal, in the 12th Congressional District in Bedford-Stuyvesant, the big Negro sector in the heart of Brooklyn.

Despite Farmer's national reputation as a civil rights champion based on his role as former chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality, the heavily Democratic district went big for Mrs. Chisholm, something of a party maverick.

In her victory statement, the 43-year-old West Indian-born educator who was named New York State Democratic national committeewoman this summer vowed to work for a guaranteed annual wage in Congress.

"People do not want welfare benefits without working," she told her cheering backers.

Her triumph led a Democratic assault on GOP-held House seats in the city. The Republicans lost two held by retiring congressmen —to Democratic City Councilman Edward I. Koch in Manhattan's 17th CD on the East Side and to Democrat-Conservative Mario Biaggi, the retired police hero, in the 24th CD in the Bronx.

The setbacks left the GOP with but one congressman among New York City's 19th GOP Rep. Seymour Halpern won a fifth term in the 6th CD in Queens to become the GOP's only city representative in the House.

Upstate, the Republicans offset somewhat the two-seat city loss

when Martin McKneally upset Democratic Rep. John Dow in Rockland County's 27th CD. The Democrats will hold a 27-14 seat margin.

James F. Hastings, a GOP state senator, beat Democrat Wilbur White Jr. in the 38th CD in southwestern New York for the seat vacated by Charles E. Goodell, the appointed successor to the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.

Upstate, in the five-county 28th CD, John S. Dyson, Democrat, topped Hamilton Fish Jr. for the seat vacated by retiring Rep. Joseph Resnick, who lost a bid for the Democratic Senate nomination.

## Conservatives Hurt Seymour

The Conservative Party dealt the GOP a punishing blow in the key 17th CD, the Silk Stocking District. Koch benefitted and his opponent Whitney North Seymour suffered as Conservative Richard J. Callahan rolled up a strong vote.

Liberals almost played a similar spoiler role in the 16th CD race on Staten Island and a part of Brooklyn, but Rep. John M. Murphy, the Democratic incumbent, won reelection in the city's closest congressional contest.

Denied Liberal Party backing, Murphy had Republican-Conservative Dr. Frank J. Biondolillo snapping at his heels all night. Murphy got 73,096 votes, Biondolillo, a dentist, 69,209 and Democratic Assemblyman Joseph Kottler, running as a Liberal, 7,854 votes.

Rep. Emanuel Celler, 80-year-old dean of the House, won his 24th term handily in Brooklyn's 10th CD, trouncing Frank L. Martano, Republican-Conservative.

Mrs. Shirley Chisholm
First Negro woman in House

As Humphrey wrote his concession speech, his aides talked in hushed tones. Muriel Humphrey said, "It's too quiet in here. It's like a funeral home. Let's have some loud talk." At 11 the Humphreys faced the TV cameras. Mrs. Humphrey, eyes full of tears, gripped the arm of her daughter Nancy. Humphrey stood at the podium, in control but the exuberant

grin turned gentle. At the cries of "We want Humphrey, we want Humphrey," he stretched out his hands, palms down, and shook his head in a faint "No." His eyes were wet. He finished his prepared words and with utter naturalness took Muriel's hand to leave.

Everybody in the hall—many themselves tearful, holding onto that last moment when he was still their candidate—stopped him with more shouts and clapping. He turned back to the microphones to buck them up. He talked of his hopes for rebuilding the Democratic party, of mowing lawns—

and of being cheerful over what they all had done.

Back upstairs, within five minutes he was bustling to the telephone to congratulate the country's first Negro congresswoman, Shirley Chisholm of New York, saying, "Shirley, I'm sorry I won't be there to work with you."

## First Negro lady in the House

The House of Representatives gets its first Negro woman member in Mrs. Shirley Chisholm (right), a Brooklyn Democrat who beat James Farmer, once head of CORE.

As the 'first black woman
Congressman' herself puts it,
# This Is Fighting
# Shirley Chisholm

By SUSAN BROWNMILLER

THE annual founders'-day luncheon of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority was held this January at the Americana Hotel. The occasion represented a triple honor for the Brooklyn alumnae chapter of Delta, one of three ranking and fiercely competitive Negro sororities in the country. It was Brooklyn's turn to play hostess to the national; the guest speaker was the Honorable Shirley Chisholm, first black Congresswoman in America; and, coup of coups, in secret ceremony before the luncheon the chapter was privileged to initiate into Delta the lady of the hour herself.

"Soror" Chisholm cut an imposing figure on the dais. Small, dark, ramrod-straight, she was outfitted in a blue-and-gilt brocade suit with matching turban. Her black-rimmed eyeglasses were firmly planted above her wide nose. Her bearing gave her the look of a visiting queen rather than Delta's newest initiate. When it was her turn to speak, Mrs. Chisholm arose with her prepared text.

She has a quality that is rare in any woman—the ability to speak forcefully before an audience. On this particular afternoon, the former schoolteacher began by enunciating each syllable with biting clarity, her West Indian accent rising and falling in controlled cadence, her strongly sibilant "s" forming a pleasant rhythmic counterpoint to the clipped words. Midway through her effort (an inspirational plea for higher horizons), Mrs. Chisholm smiled broadly. As she put aside her notes, her voice lost some of its didactic school-marm flavor and took on an earthier cadence of the streets:

"You have no idea what those people in Washington with their hands on the power have been plotting and planning for us. Let me tell you. Do not be complacent. The Man says he knows we ain't never gonna come together." The audience rumbled its understanding of her warning. Surveying the ballroom from left to right, Mrs. Chisholm went on. "Oh, everyone is being so kind to me. They have such good advice. They tell me, Shirley, you're just a freshman and

you have to keep quiet as a freshman —.” She paused for effect as some of the women giggled.

"I listen sweetly to them and then I say, 'Gentlemen, thank you for your advice. I understand what you're saying. But when I get up there on the floor of Congress, I'm sure you'll understand that I am speaking with the pent-up emotions of the community.'" She grinned. "One thing the people in Washington and New York are afraid of in Shirley Chisholm is HER MOUTH." The audience roared.

A FEW days later, Representative Chisholm returned to Washington and began her fight to change her assignment from a House Agriculture subcommittee on Forestry and Rural Villages to something more relevant to her Bedford-Stuyvesant community. (Mrs. Chisholm had hoped for Education and Labor.) She approached Speaker John McCormack, who told her, she reports, to accept the assignment and "be a good soldier." She brooded about that for a while, she says, and then decided, "That's why the country is the way it is." Mrs. Chisholm then placed an amendment before the House Democratic caucus to remove her name from the Agriculture Committee, aware that she was taking an unprecedented step—bucking the powerful Wilbur Mills of Arkansas, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and the man who parcels out committee assignments to his fellow Democrats. According to Mrs. Chisholm, Mills tried to call her bluff in caucus. "Will the gentlewoman from Brooklyn withdraw her amendment?" he intoned. Mrs. Chisholm says she was particularly tickled by "gentlewoman," but otherwise remained unmoved. Mrs. Chisholm was removed from Agriculture and later assigned to Veterans' Affairs. The Chisholm balk remains the most vivid sign of life in the 91st Congress.

Shirley Chisholm is true grit. Her cometlike rise from clubhouse worker to Representative in the United States Congress was no accident of the political heavens. It was accomplished by the wiles of a steely politician with a belief in her own abilities which at times approaches

SUSAN BROWNMILLER is a magazine writer specializing in politics.

## CHISHOLMISMS

Some of these politicians think I'm half-crazy.

Women don't get hung up, making deals the way men do.

The black man must step forward, but that doesn't mean that black women have to step back.

White liberals have a lot of hang-ups.

Supermilitant blacks: Wooly-heads, spear-carriers.

Apparently all they know here in Washington about Brooklyn is that a tree grew there.

Speaker John McCormack told me to "be a good soldier." I decided no, that's why the country is the way it is.

The party leaders do not like me.

I am the people's politician. If the day should ever come when the people can't save me, I'll know I'm finished.

I have a way of talking that does something to people.

Just wait, there may be some fireworks.

32

Sex Bigger Handicap Than Race, Says Shirley

Question: Assuming that in our present society it's tough to be both black and to be a woman, which is the greater handicap?

Answer: To be a woman.

That's the word from Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman ever elected to Congress.

Writing in the August issue of McCall's magazine, she tells why she feels sex is a greater handicap than race for the average black woman.

"If I said that being black is a greater handicap ... probably no one would question me ... because 'we all know' there is prejudice against black people in America. That there is prejudice against women is an idea that still strikes nearly all men—and, I am afraid, most women—as bizarre."

It will take years, said Mrs. Chisholm, for whites to "including those who think of themselves as liberals—to discover and eliminate the racist attitudes they all actually have. But how much harder will it be to ilminate the prejudice against women? I am sure it will be a longer struggle."

Part of the problem, as she sees it, is that American women are "much more brainwashed and content with their roles as second-class citizens than blacks ever were."

And what have women to offer the nation if they achieve first-class status?

"[They] can bring empathy, tolerance, insight, patience and persistence to government — the qualities we naturally have or have to develop because of our suppression by men," she said.

"The women of a nation mold its morals, its religion and its politics by the lives they live," she said. "At present our country needs women's idealism and determination, perhaps more in politics than in any where else."

SHIRLEY CHISHOLM

NOTHING BUT PRAISE FOR

Harry
Mark
Petrakis

and his autobiography about growing up in the
Greek sector of Chicago during the Depression

STELMARK
A FAMILY RECOLLECTION

"A clear and unaffected style . . . admirable simplicity . . . really attractive, unobtrusively sophisticated craftsmanship."

— PETER SOURIAN, *The New York Times Book Review*

"Simply and beautifully told." — Book Week

"A warm, touching and admirably courageous book."

— WILLIAM STEVENS

"Colorful and beautiful . . . one of the best story-tellers writing today."

— Chicago Daily News

"A good and true work . . . Harry Mark Petrakis is good news in American literature."

— ISAAC BASHEVIS SINGER

"A beautiful story . . . entertaining, interesting and touching . . . a perfectly marvelous book."

— JESSE HILL FORD

At bookstores / $4.95

McKAY

Lonesome Traveler
by Weldon Hill

author of *Onionhead*

On the 700-mile journey to see his
mother in a New Mexico sanitarium, 14-
year-old Clem meets some warm and
wonderful friends, and some dangerous
ones.
$6.95

McKAY

HUNTER
IN THE
SHADOWS
by Jennie Melville

"Fascinating." — Saturday Review.
"Very clever and highly original..."

— BARBARA BANNON,

Publishers' Weekly.

MCKAY-WASHBURN SUSPENSE

Criminals
At Large
By ALLEN J. HUBIN

Many critics beside myself
have called Ellery Queen's
Mystery Magazine the best of
its kind today. Perhaps only
those who remember Black
Mask (which played a vital
role in the formative years of
that inherently American mani-
festation, the hardboiled detec-
tive story) will challenge the
assertion that E.Q.M.M. is the
best in history. The Queen
magazine began—if tentative in
spirit, decidedly solid in con-
tent—in the fall of 1941, with
seven reprinted stories by the
likes of Hammett, Allingham,
Stribling and Woolrich. The
quarterly became bimonthly,
then monthly, increased in size;
and, over the years, became
the repository of the finest
short stories in the genre.

Since 1946, the cream from
E.Q.M.M. has been skimmed
into an annual hardcover an-
thology. The 25th of these is
ELLERY QUEEN'S GRAND
SLAM (World, $6.95). All 25
stories are from 1969 issues. I
picked 15 of them for the
Honor Roll in "Best Detective
Stories of the Year." Among
these is one Mystery Writers
of America scroll winner, plus
the Edgar-winning "Goodbye,
Pops," by Joe Gores. Pure de-
tection, inverted plot, the
man, spydom (Jacob Hay's
"That Was the Day That Was"
is a gem), humor, procedural
and more—all here.

THE XYY MAN (McKay
Washburn, $4.95) by Kenneth
Royce is a British intrigue
novel fresh in conception and
lively in execution. Spider
Scott, cat burglar, is emerging
from a stretch in stir. Along
comes Fairfax, head of Intel-
ligence, with an unorthodox
proposal involving the Chinese
Embassy and just suited to
Spider's talents. Scott is tempt-
ed, challenged and seduced,
even though he realizes the job
is nigh onto suicidal—and he
doesn't know the half of it.

For the past 13 years Edgar
Smith has occupied Death Row
in the New Jersey State Prison,
repeatedly staying his sentence
of execution for murder with
his self-taught ingenuity (a
running legal battle he de-
scribed in "Brief Against
Death"). Now he has written
A REASONABLE DOUBT
(Coward-McCann, $6.95), a
long novel done in semidocu-
mentary style, essentially a
brief against the type of Amer-
ican jurisprudence that says so

C.P. SNOW
LAST
THINGS

The final novel in the famous *Strangers and Brothers* sequence — a literary event in contemporary fiction. “To read and re-read the *Strangers and Brothers* series is a provocative experience in reflecting upon the recent past and the imminent future. C.P. Snow’s large achievement commands respect and, we think, thanks from those who care about thoughtful, ripened writing.”
$7.95

—EDMUND FULLER

*The Wall Street Journal*

FRANK
TUOHY
FINGERS IN
THE DOOR
and other stories

"Frank Tuohy writes with Chekhovian simplicity of events and sensations that are, like his title, palpable, recognizable, and a painful part of everyone's experience. He does not strike attitudes or harp on popular themes: these stories deal with violence, but it is the violence we do to our friends and to ourselves." $5.95

SHIRLEY HAZZARD

*The New York Times*

Book Review

JOHN HALL
WHEELOCK
BY DAYLIGHT
AND IN DREAM
New and Collected
Poems, 1904-1970

The definitive work by the man Allen Tate has called "one of the best poets in English." Says *The Kirkus Reviews* of this impressive new collection: "His is a poetry of life and death...speaking now with life-or-death urgency and again in tones of rap-turous acceptance."

$6.95 hardcover

$2.45 paperback

14

Unbought
And
Unbossed

By Shirley Chisholm.

177 pp. Boston:

Houghton Mifflin Company.

$4.95.

By CHARLAYNE HUNTER

As the first black woman elected to Congress, Shirley Chisholm could have claimed headlines without ever saying a word. But the frail-looking, 100-pound educator from Brooklyn's 12th Congressional District is proud that she has not been silent in the almost two years since she's been in Washington. She has consistently spoken out against the things she believes wrong and stanchly supported the causes she believes to be in the best interest of her urban, mostly poor-black constituents.

In "Unbought and Unbossed," she attempts to synthesize her political philosophy and provide the autobiographical background that will help us understand a "fighting Shirley Chisholm." The result is an interesting profile of what some, including Mrs. Chisholm, herself, have called, "the New Politician."

"Our representative democracy is not working," she writes, "because the Congress that is supposed to represent the voters does not respond to their needs. I believe the chief reason for this is that it is ruled by a small group of old men." This is a passage typical of Shirley Chisholm's nettlest candor, and it sets the stage for her first post-election attack on the Congressional system.

She was accused of having committed political suicide when, upon receiving an assignment to a committee she felt was irrelevant to her constitution, she demanded reassignment. In a desperation move to get off of the Rural Development and Forestry Subcommittee of the Agriculture Committee, she warned House Speaker John McCormack: "If you do not assist me now, I will have to do my own thing." The Speaker was startled for the first time. 'Your own what?' she recalled his asking." Eventually

Miss Hunter is a New York Times reporter.

If you wear them now—and aren't completely satisfied...

If you'd like to wear them—and wonder if you can...

Get

THE FIRST AND ONLY BOOK OF ITS KIND—JUST PUBLISHED!

The Truth About
CONTACT
LENSES

EVERYTHING THE WEARER, OR
POTENTIAL WEARER, SHOULD KNOW

Jeffrey Baker

Beauty...better vision...greater safety in sports. Whatever your reason for wearing contact lenses, the key to success lies in understanding not only how they work, but why they work for some and not for others. For the first time, THE TRUTH ABOUT CONTACT LENSES—complete, up-to-the-minute, unbiased—tells wearers and potential wearers all they should know about:

* The eye, its abnormalities, and how contact lenses can correct them.
* Where to get contact lenses.
* The differences between the scleral and corneal varieties.
* Who can wear contact lenses—and who can't.
* The sports wearer.
* The importance of correct fitting: how it's done and who should do it.
* How much it costs and how long it takes.
* The advantages and disadvantages of eyeglasses vs. contact lenses.
* Detailed instructions on use and care.
* Tips for lens-wearing success—and much, much more.

"This is the only book of its kind and it is well done. It should be in the homes of all those who use contact lenses."

—Library Journal

Illustrations, bibliography, index

$5.95 from your bookseller, or mail this coupon now!

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS T111
390 Murray Hill Parkway
East Rutherford, N. J. 07073

Please send me __copy copies__ of
THE TRUTH ABOUT CONTACT LENSES by
Jeffrey Baker @ $5.95 each.

Name

Address

City

State Zip

Enclose check or money order with this coupon and return to us today. (Please add sales taxes where they apply)

SHIRLEY & CONRAD

By MYRA MACPHERSON

CONRAD CHISHOLM:
Her Right
Hand Man

"IN HER BOOK, "Unbought and Unbossed,"

Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to Congress, writes of her husband:

"Probably few men could have stayed happily married to me for more than 20 years. I don't think Conrad has ever had a moment fo insecurity or jealousy over the fact that I have always been a public figure. Thoughtless people have suggested that my husband would have to be a weak man who enjoys having me dominate him. They are wrong on both counts.

"Conrad is a strong, self-sufficient personality, and I do not dominate him. As a matter of fact, a weak man's feelings of insecurity would long since have wrecked a marriage like ours. Conrad is able to let me have the limelight without a thought; I thrive in it and he doesn't care for it."

Not only does he not care for it, Conrad Chisholm seems to bask in his back-up role.

"I took a leave of absence from my job (an Investigator for the City Bureau of Medical Services) to be with her, Conrad Chisholm said. "We have no children and I prefer to be with her as much as possible. She's had speaking engagements in 30 some states."

Chisholm, 54, is a jolly, serene, pipe-
smoking man who speaks in the lilting
West Indian voice of his native Jamaica.
He seems unthreatened, undaunted and un-
perturbed that anyone would consider his
role so self-effacing as to be weak.

"Of course there are certain sacrifices
you have to make, but they are nothing
new to me. My wife was in the State As-
sembly for four years; before that she was
always at meetings and working. I make
these sacrifices graciously. I'm happy to
help."

As for himself playing a more active
political role, Chisholm says, "I can't ac-
complish as much as she. First, I haven't
got her aggressiveness and talents. My lif
is devoted to her. I give her all the assist
ance necessary to carry on this very im-
portant role. She's made great strides, and
it's catching on now. More women have an
interest in politics."

He sees himself as a reassuring force for
his 46-year-old wife, who is a thin "bundle
of nerves. With the tension she has to go
through, the brickbats from outside, when
she comes home she has to have a shoulder
to cry on. I give her the moral support she
so dearly needs," even though he feels she
was born with an abundance of self-con-
fidence.

Chisholm helps out in his wife's Bedford-
Stuyvesant district office; acts as a clipping
service, cutting out stories of interest for
her, sometimes discusses speeches with her,
tries to get her to slow her frenetic pace,
but seldom gets into discussions of issues.
"She does her thing and I do my thing."

One of those things is to make sure she
doesn't travel alone, which she sometimes
wants to do. "I tell her she must not for her
safety." The Chisholm entourage is "very
security conscious" and she has guards who
protect her when she speaks. "In this coun-
try, when one is too outspoken..." Chisholm
doesn't finish the sentence.

The Chisholms met and married after
what Mrs. Chisholm described in her book
as an all-out campaign by Conrad. She had
been disillusioned and was skeptical of all
men because of a former beau, another
Jamaican, who never mentioned he just hap-
pened to have a wife and children back home.

When Conrad first came to the United
States he started as a cook, then got into
the field he "loves," investigative work. "I
did negligence claims for insurance com-
panies. That's not dangerous. Investigating
having to do with matrimony, that's danger-
ous." He plans to go back into the investi-
gating field soon.

Chisholm is aware that some of the young,
militant blacks feel that women should be
in supportive roles to bolster the black man,
to counteract the matriarchal image. "It's
time they should be built up, but let's look
at it this way, if a woman is dominant and
strong, why should she take a back role?
My wife's most aggressive," Chisholm says,
using the word as a compliment. "My wife
has said America is in deep trouble now.
If we're to get an even keel, America needs
its best brains-whether it be man or wom-
an, black or white."

Chisholm plays tennis often, swims and reads. On weekends, when his wife is home, her time is often spent in the district office helping people. Chisholm does most of the cooking.

He laughed as he said that McCall's
Magazine had asked him for his recipe for
red peas and rice; another speciality is cur-
ried goat.

Chisholm learned his helpful and disciplined role early in life, as one of 13 children. "My mother had so many of us she whipped us to make sure we'd put everything in its place. That's just discipline back home.

"And I have grown up in politics all my
life. My father was a councilman there. He
did everything for the community. I played
the same role I'm playing now. When father
would go out and speak, I was kind of his
secretary."

Chisholm hasn't studied Women's Lib
"carefully enough to make a statement
about it. But you know, I'm from a coun-
try which is inclined to give a woman her
role, whatever it is."

He seems supremely content as he ends
with, "we all have different roles. If you
know your role and play it to the hilt —
you'll be far better eff.

The grass roots are greener on the Chisholm trail

By BETH FALLON

"I'm for her because I think she's honest, because I like what she stands for on Vietnam, and racially, and political-wise. And because me and my friends, we don't believe in the man anymore, just because he's a man. We don't stand back and say this is the man's duty, his place."

Shirley Jonas, running as a delegate for Shirley Chisholm in the June 20 New York Democratic primary, was explaining why she backs the first black woman to launch a notable bid for the presidency of the United States.

In many ways, Mrs. Jonas mirrors the Chisholm campaign's grass roots support and strengths. She is a woman, she is black, she feels she's been left out of political life, she says she's "tired of being lied to."

But Shirley Jonas also reflects one of the major weaknesses of the Chisholm candidacy—she has never worked in a political campaign before.

This is the first major campaign for many Chisholm backers, and it shows. On a whirlwind visit to New York two weeks ago to introduce her delegate slate, chosen at open caucuses or meetings throughout the city, Congresswoman Chisholm was hampered at times by the disorganization of her enthusiastic, but inexperienced staff.

After a press conference at the Commodore and a visit to a Feminist Party meeting, she was scheduled to appear in Herald Square. A young woman approached, waving a paper.

"Ludwig, I got the permit, it's all right. I got the sound permit."

Ludwig Gelobter, the interim campaign coordinator in Manhattan, sighed. "It doesn't matter. The bullhorns didn't arrive."

In a campaign where the political innocents far outnumber the savvy professionals, such incidents were commonplace on a recent day spent following the candidate on "the Chisholm trail."

Roslyn Pulitzer, who attended the 20th Congressional District caucus to elect delegates, has not worked in a campaign since Henry Wallace's in 1948.

At the 18th Congressional District meeting, Barndard student Ellen Roberts, 22, was elected a delegate. She told the crowd: "It would really blow your mind if you knew how politically unaware I am." But Chisholm's honesty and her stand for equality, she said, drew her into the campaign.

At the same caucus, Feminist Party leader Flo Kennedy was funny, hip and to the point.

"I'm this middle-aged colored woman," she told the audience, "and I've organized a few things in my time. If I'm a delegate, I'll be your token black and you need that." The mostly white crowd in the 18th CD roared—and elected her.

In addition to women interested in supporting Mrs.

Chisholm's candidacy because they admire her views and her challenge to the male establishment, there is another major source of support: People devoted to the new politics of party reform.

Ludwig Gelobter is part of Chisholm's liberal constituency, a group that includes star names such as Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton, and others.

At the Manhattan caucuses, they greeted each other almost like members of the same family, or club. "Hey, sister, good to see you," and so on.

"Going direct to the people" without benefit of backroom organization seems a religion with them. Chisholm's other major sources of support—the young, the black and many women—don't know how to do anything else.

Merle Goldberg, an active Chisholm worker and daughter of an old-time district leader, explained the philosophy.

"It's always a misconception that staging is needed. I grew up in the feudal kingdom of Brooklyn. As a kid, I was a shill for FDR, putting flags up all over Bensonhurst."

Merle approved the spontaneous nature of the candidate's appearances in Herald Square and Harlem.

"There'll be rallies, and Julie Belafonte and D'ahann Carroll are organizing a benefit at the Palace April 16. But people don't have to be programmed. They're tired of being lied to," she said.

Gloria Steinem calls Chisholm backers a "coalition of the outs." It is also a coalition of women, and that's another problem.

Privately, campaign workers admit nine out of 10 Chisholm volunteers are women. The fact that many are white women has turned off black men, some workers feel.

The candidate herself denies this.

"I have difficulty getting support from black men, but it is because they are men, not so much because white women support me. Black or white, men have deep feelings about a woman attempting what I am," Mrs. Chisholm said.

She frequently refers to the "psychological shock" all men feel that a woman, and a black woman, would "dare" to run for president.

Chisholm backers, pros and amateurs, say they hope for sufficient delegate strength at the Democratic convention to influence the platform on behalf of the people they call "the outs."

A vice-presidential bid is not discounted. Mrs. Chisholm says the only potential Democratic presidential nominee she could not support would be George Wallace.

Whatever the outcome of a candidacy that is not overburdened with funds, the fact that it is a first in history undoubtedly appeals to many of the Brooklyn congresswoman's supporters.

"The gentlemen aren't laughing any more," Rep. Chisholm tells Feminist Party audience, including Ti-Grace Atkinson, for right.

Debate Ellen Roberts thinks "Women should be given a chance politically to show their abilities."

Mrs. Johnson Daily News, Tuesday, April 11, 1972

Chisholm Shirley

On the Air

BOB WILLIAMS

One might have called it Shirley Chisholm Day on the homescreen Sunday.

As the first woman, black or white, to run so seriously and so creditably for the White House, the Brooklyn Congresswoman certainly upset the networks' scheme of things under the FCC's "equal time" provision for major political candidates.

Until Shirley came along, all three commercial networks were going ahead blithely with ersatz "debates" between George Meovern and Hubert Humphrey, the front-running Democratic White House contenders, on "special" editions of such interview shows as Face the Nation on CBS and Issues and Answers on ABC which were supposedly free of FCC "equal time" considerations for other candidates.

A lawsuit by Mrs. Chisholm in a Washington federal appeals court dispelled the happy network illusion. The decision indicated that Mrs. Chisholm, indeed, not to mention another Democratic contender for the White House, Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty, belonged on yesterday's Issues and Answers show, along with Humphrey and McGovern. Mrs. Chisholm, in fact, was given participation in the Los Angeles show through a remote cut-in from a New York studio.

After a couple of homescreen McGovern-Humphrey encounters, the presence of Mrs. Chisholm may have been refreshing. Yorty primarily demonstrated again his intense interest in defense contracts to keep the California aerospace industry thriving. And the ABC program did have to accommodate the presence of Gen. Taylor Hardin as a stand-in for Gov. Wallace, who supported him to the obvious halt.

ABC's moderator, Frank Reynolds, at the end of it all, hoped that the whole thing was "fair and equal," with what he called an unexpected "crowd."

Humphrey was so disappointed with the ABC affair that he proposed to McGovern the idea of a cooperative

"buy" of TV time tonight to get into some kind of exclusive "debate" on the screen, on the eve of tomorrow's critical California primary balloting. Humphrey thought it might be an occasion where the two might "go right at it hook and tong," if not hammer and tong, the more familiar cliche. McGovern agreed.

If Shirley Chisholm upset Frank Reynolds and his ABC Humphrey-McGovern "debate," her lawsuit certainly upset the CBS Sunday schedule. The network cancelled its hour-long magazine series, 60 Minutes, in order to make time, inasmuch as nobody around 60 Minutes was agreeable to chopping the show to a half-hour.

At 6 p.m., on CBS, accordingly, the viewer was given a old Walter Cronkite rerun of the futuristic 21st Century series. Then came Shirley, with her court-dictated rightful half-hour, accompanied by journalists Nat Bentoff, Mary Breasted, Joel Dreyfuss and Dick Pollack, all of whom by customary TV standards asked good questions about her candidacy.

At the end of the half-hour, Bentoff took occasion to say that "we would have been delighted to have a reporter from CBS News among us but, alas, no one came."

Shortly afterward, a CBS News spokesman explained that network correspondents "appear only on programs produced by CBS News." The network spokesman emphasized that the half-hour had been "produced by Mrs. Chisholm and her campaign people."

**REP. SHIRLEY CHISHOLM.** In 1972, for the first time in American history a woman won a sizable bloc of votes for nomination to run for the Presidency of the United States as the candidate of a major political party. Despite a lack of funds, Mrs. Chisholm waged an intensive campaign that brought her widespread attention and 151 votes at the Democratic convention.

Today, 48-year-old Shirley Chisholm of Brooklyn, N.Y., is the most influential black woman in the nation.

She is also the woman most trusted by the black community. After prisoners at the ancient District of Columbia Jail rebelled last October and seized 78 hostages, threatening to kill them, they demanded an opportunity to talk with Congresswoman Chisholm. She was among a small group who courageously went inside the walls and persuaded the prisoners to free the hostages. Then she helped the prisoners obtain a hearing for their grievances.

The first black woman ever elected

to Congress, Mrs. Chisholm will be joined in the new House by two more black women elected in 1972. They are Barbara Jordan (D., Tex.) who became the first black woman elected to Congress from the South and Yvonne Brathwaite Burke (D., Calif.) who has been a California state legislator.

Mrs. Chisholm was a specialist in child welfare and education when she entered state politics in 1964. She served four years in the New York State Legislature before she won an upset victory for the U.S. Congress in 1968. She quickly made a reputation as a fighter and as a Congresswoman who does her homework.

Says Mrs. Chisholm: "I am an historical person at this point, and I'm very much aware of it."

Area Black Women Discuss
Views On Feminist Movement

By JANET COOKE

Blade Staff Writer

CONGRESSWOMAN Shirley Chisholm has said that being a woman is as great a handicap as being black, a position which also is held by a relatively new women's group, the National Black Feminist Organization, whose headquarters are in New York City.

Christine A. Walton of Brooklyn, program chairman for the group, said, in a telephone interview, that while a large percentage of black women have not joined, she believes that they are interested. "Idealistically," she said, "all women are interested in feminism."

The organization was formed last year by black women who didn't join the National Organization for Women (NOW) because they saw it as a predominantly white, middle-class organization. But the new group is part of the feminist movement, and at this point, some of its members are also members of NOW. To her, the women's movement is "definitely valid" for black women, for men, and for society.

Some of the concerns of the NBFO are, however, different from those of the predominantly white feminist movement. These areas include helping black women with the hardships that they may encounter in rearing their children, lowering the number of black women who are raped or sexually assaulted, informing these women of their legal rights, and helping black women to obtain jobs which are commensurate with their experience.

As for her opinion of those who say that the black woman should insist upon equality for the black man before she seeks it for herself, Miss Walton said:

"Any woman who believes this is deeming herself. The competition should be equal."

There are those who believe that the black woman should not attach herself to any women's movement. Locally, a nurse, a field representative for a City of Toledo office, a former Urban Renewal employee, a librarian, and a personnel technician, all black, were asked their opinions of the women's movement.

To Mrs. Francis Sydnor, "the black woman who becomes involved in the women's movement is assisting white society in killing off the black man."

Mrs. Sydnor feels that the women's movement is an area in which today's black woman need not become involved. She is one of a number of black women who believe that the struggle for racial equality should take precedence over the fight for women's rights.

Mrs. Sydnor has heard women's movement speakers and feels that the only area in which the black woman will benefit is that of equal pay for equal work. Black women, she said need to become more united before getting into the general women's movement; they need first to be seen working together in order to gain more respect from the community at large.

"When they talk about the women's movement, they are not talking about me. I just happen to be there," she said. "Black women better get their own movement, unite themselves, and get into the political arena, where they can create their own destiny."

Ardella Simpson, a member of the Negro Business and Professional Women's Club, is not active in the women's movement and does not agree with all that it stands for.

"We have gotten in on the coattail of the movement. No phase is geared to the improvement of black women."

Mrs. Simpson is a divorcee with two adult children; she always has worked, and feels that her working has had no

adverse effects on her children. At first, Mrs. Simpson said, she worked for economic, not personal-growth reasons. She, too, considers the achievement of racial equality a more important goal.

"I don't feel that black women can relate to and identify with the movement because we have not achieved equality as a race."

While some black women might enjoy the opportunity of staying at home, Mrs. Simpson maintains that the average black woman knows that she will have to work in order to help provide because of the lack of opportunities for black men. From her own standpoint, Mrs. Simpson said that at this time in her life, she enjoys working and the involvement that it brings.

Jamesetta Dear, also a member of the Negro BPW, said that black women might reap some of the benefits of the feminist movement. Mrs. Dear, who always has worked, said:

"The black woman works because she needs to. Not out of idleness and not for pin money."

Mrs. Dear said that she has a cooperative husband who has allowed her to be an individual, and that although she worked to have things above the mere necessities of life, she has derived satisfaction from helping others. She never has felt guilty about leaving her son at home while she worked, and said that in some ways it was good for him.

Mrs. Dear believes that the black woman in the work force is aware of the women's movement through casual knowledge, and that it has brought forth some "good and vital points which needed to be said. The movement bears out a concern for the majority woman. Black women have been taken in on a tailgate basis."

Turn To Page 6, Column 5

Black Women Discuss Feminists

Continued from First Page

The Toledo women feel that there might be some resentment on the part of the black male toward the woman who participates actively in the movement.

"The black woman must push the black male forward," Mrs. Sydnor said. "He has never had his rightful place in society as far as I am concerned."

The black woman, she said, should not try to supersede the black man and thereby humiliate him. "All the black woman would be doing would be pounding nails in his coffin," she said.

After the black man has attained equality, she added, he should help the black woman

to achieve the type of equality that the white woman has. Mrs. Sydnor feels that the black woman should help her husband and give him a sense of dignity. She looks for and enjoys definite male and female roles and feels that the black man should look at his female counterpart with respect.

Ardello Simpson expressed a slightly different view.

"Some black males feel threatened because all these years they've been deprived. They may see black women in the women's movement as pushing them back once again. We should try to help the black male, but I don't feel that our black male should feel that we should stay behind. For so long, none of us has had an opportunity for self-fulfillment. There's room enough for both of us."

Mrs. Archie Lewis, minority affairs coordinator in Governor Gilligan's office, notes most of the resentment from black men coming from the 45-and-over group. This may be due to the fact those men must undergo a new learning process, while the younger man doesn't have to. The younger man understands the movement, feels that it is necessary, and enjoys the freedom from role-playing.

Mrs. Lewis feels that the black woman has benefited, to a certain extent, from the women's movement. It has given her the right to be respected in the business and professional worlds. But, she said:

"Black women have not had the luxury of being 'just a housewife', they have not had the privilege of making the choice of working or not working. This is the major reason for the conspicuous absence of black women from the women's movement. The serious involvement in the movement comes from the young adult."

Mrs. Lewis said that the black woman must view the women's movement with a selfish eye and utilize it to her advantage.

Another local professional woman, Honore Moton, said that human dignity is the major issue in both the women's and civil-rights movements. She does not disagree with the idea that black women should

be involved in the struggle for racial equality, but said that the fight is not one which should be left entirely to minority group members. A human being "is a terrible thing to waste."

One of those with a slightly more positive attitude toward the women's movement is Toledoan Shirley Mitchell. Mrs. Mitchell feels that the women in the movement are sincere, outgoing, and generous, and are working for a movement which will include all women. "We should be involved, but we aren't."

It is her belief that the movement is not well-publi-

cized within the black community.

The president of the Toledo chapter of NOW, Linda Licata, admitted that the women's movement is composed basically of white, upper middle-class women, and said "we're working to change that, but it takes time." There is, however, no active effort being made in the Toledo area to recruit black members into NOW.

Miss Licata is fearful that overt recruiting efforts would "turn off" members of the black community who may feel that the civil rights movement is more important at this time.

"White people," she said, "have been telling blacks what to do for too long."

"I think NOW is relevant to the black woman. I think that the movement is relevant in the area of employment for every woman."

—Blade Photo by Don Simmons

VICTORIA SYDNOR. "When they talk about the women's movement, they are not talking about you and me."

—Blade Photo by Grover Cummings

SHIRLEY MITCHELL. "We should be involved ..."