Rewind Film Club: Shirley Chisholm ’72
Over the holiday break, I had a lot of downtime during to catch up on some TV and rewatch movies I haven’t seen in a while. One of those films was the documentary, Shirley Chisholm ’72: Unbought and Unbossed. It follows the historic presidential run of Rep. Shirley Chisholm. She was the first black person and woman to start a serious bid for the White House, and was the first black woman elected to Congress. This is possibly the third time I have watch the film, and to see it again in the midst of the 2020 presidential campaign was eye-opening.
Chisholm was a smart, charismatic person. There is no doubt that if she was running in the 2020 cycle, I would like to think that she would have had more support for her campaign. She was saying a lot of things Bernie Sanders is saying now. But she was dealing with a lot of the same issues of race and gender that other 2020 candidates of color are dealing with.
I highly recommend this film if you want to learn more about how much the country has or hasn’t moved forwarded on race and politics.