RIP Shirley Chisholm

Shirley Chisholm passed at the age of 80. Growing up in a predominantly black neighborhood and attending a predominantly black public school system, Congresswoman Chisholm was one of the black leaders I was taught to respect and admire as a hero.

I was the first American citizen to be elected to Congress in spite of the double drawbacks of being female and having skin darkened by melanin. When you put it that way, it sounds like a foolish reason for fame. In a just and free society it would be foolish. That I am a national figure because I was the first person in 192 years to be at once a congressman, black and a woman proves, I think, that our society is not yet either just or free.