POTW: Early Shirley

In exactly two months, on November 30th, it will be the 100th birthday of Brooklyn's own Shirley Chisholm, who was the first Black woman elected to the United States Congress, representing Bedford-Stuyvesant. Chisholm was also the first Black candidate for a major-party nomination for President of the United States, as well as the first woman to run for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. But this photo shows Chisholm right on the cusp of those dazzling milestones, in 1963, the year before she ran for the state legislature and won in 1964.

The 39-year-old Chisholm looks surprisingly young in this image, in part because she is without her now-iconic eyeglasses. But by this point she had already accomplished much for the Brooklyn community through her work, volunteering, and activism. For these reasons she was honored as Key Woman of the Year by Key Women of America, a community organizaton founded by Bertha Nelms Harris in 1954. Initially the organization assisted in securing foster and adoptive homes for homeless children in New York City, then later became involved in many other community projects and expanded internationally. Starting locally and expanding to wider and wider influence, the organization's trajectory is similar to that of Chisholm herself.

Interested in seeing more photos from CBH’s collections? Visit our online image gallery, which includes a selection of our images, or the digital collections portal of Brooklyn Public Library. We welcome appointments to research our entire collection of images, archives, maps, and special collections. Our reference staff is available to help with your research! You can reach us at cbhreference@bklynlibrary.org.