There is a mesmerizing scene in the new movie Shirley that only Regina King could pull off. The film, directed by Oscar-winning screenwriter John Ridley, tells the story of Shirley Chisholm, who, in 1968, became the first Black woman elected to Congress—and four years later, launched a historic bid for the Democratic Party nomination for president.
Chisholm’s run for that nomination, which made her both the first Black candidate and the first woman to do so, occupies an important, if prescient, place in the history of American politics, coming four decades before Barack Obama would be elected the nation’s first Black president and five decades before Hillary Clinton’s nomination. Chisholm has been canonized as an unrelenting champion of the people—one who galvanized women, communities of color, and younger voters against a…
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Harper's Bazaar (Digital) - 1 Issue, April 2024