雪莉·安妮塔·圣希尔·奇肖姆（Shirley Anita St.Hill Chisholm）是一位政治人物，比她的时代早了几十年。作为一名女性和有色人种，她有一长串值得称赞的第一，包括：

• 第一位当选为国会议员的非裔美国妇女（1968年）
• 第一位寻求美国总统主要政党提名的非裔美国女性（1972年）
• 第一位在民主党全国代表大会上被提名为总统的女性
• 第一位作为总统候选人参加投票的非洲裔美国人

“未受约束和未受约束”

在代表纽约第12选区在国会任职仅三年后，Chisholm决定用一句让她当选为国会议员的口号来竞选：“不受教育，不受约束。”

Chisholm最初在纽约布鲁克林的Bedford Stuyvesant区从事儿童保育和幼儿教育方面的职业。转而从政，她在纽约州议会工作了四年，成为第一位当选国会议员的黑人女性。

奇肖姆只是说不

在早期，她不是一个玩政治游戏的人。正如她的总统竞选手册所说：

When given an assignment to sit on the House Agriculture Committee Congresswoman Chisholm rebelled. There is very little agriculture in Brooklyn...She now sits on the House Education and Labor Committee, an assignment that allows her to combine her interests and experience with the critical needs of her constituents.

“美国人民候选人”

1972年1月27日，在纽约布鲁克林的康科德浸信会教堂宣布竞选总统时，奇肖姆说：

I stand before you today as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency of the United States of America. I am not the candidate of Black America, although I am Black and proud. I am not the candidate of the women's movement of this country, although I am a woman, and I am equally proud of that. I am not the candidate of any political bosses or fat cats or special interests. I stand here now without endorsements from many big name politicians or celebrities or any other kind of prop. I do not intend to offer to you the tired and glib cliches, which for too long have been an accepted part of our political life. I am the candidate of the people of America. And my presence before you now symbolizes a new era in American political history.

雪莉·奇肖姆（Shirley Chisholm）在1972年的总统竞选中，将一位黑人女性置于政治聚光灯的中心位置，而这一聚光灯此前只为白人男性所保留。如果有人认为她可能会降低自己的言辞，以适应现有的总统候选人旧男孩俱乐部，那么她证明他们错了。

正如她在声明中承诺的那样，“陈词滥调”在她的竞选中没有一席之地。

说实话

正如Chisholm的竞选按钮所揭示的那样，她从不退缩，不让自己的态度强调自己的信息：

• Chis女士。为总统。
• Chisholm-准备好了吗
• 沿着奇肖姆小径走到宾夕法尼亚大道1600号
• 奇肖姆——全民总统

“独立、有创造力的个性”

约翰·尼科尔斯（John Nichols）为《国家报》撰文，解释了为什么该党建制——包括最著名的自由主义者——拒绝了她的候选人资格：

Chisholm's run was dismissed from the start as a vanity campaign that would do nothing more than siphon votes off from better-known anti-war candidates such as South Dakota Senator George McGovern and New York City Mayor John Lindsay. They were not ready for a candidate who promised to "reshape our society," and they accorded her few opportunities to prove herself in a campaign where all of the other contenders were white men. "There is little place in the political scheme of things for an independent, creative personality, for a fighter," Chisholm observed. "Anyone who takes that role must pay a price."

新选民取代了老选民

2005年2月，电影制作人肖拉·林奇（Shola Lynch）在公共广播公司（PBS）播出了2004年的纪录片《奇肖姆72》（Chisholm'72），影片以奇肖姆的总统竞选为主题。

在一次采访中讨论了奇肖姆的生活和遗产

2005年1月，林奇注意到了这场运动的细节：

She ran in the majority of the primaries and went all the way to the Democratic National Convention with delegate votes. She entered the race because there was no strong Democratic front runner....there were about 13 people running for the nomination....1972 was the first election impacted by the voting age change from 21 to 18. There were going to be millions of new voters. Mrs. C wanted to attract these young folks as well as anyone who felt left out of politics. She wanted to bring these people into the process with her candidacy. She played ball until the end because she knew her delegate votes could have been the difference between the two candidates in a closely contested nomination battle. It did not exactly turn out that way but it was a sound, and clever, political strategy.

雪莉·奇肖姆最终输掉了总统竞选。但到1972年在佛罗里达州迈阿密海滩举行的民主党全国代表大会结束时，已有151.95票支持她。她引起了人们对她自己和她竞选所追求的理想的关注。她把被剥夺权利者的声音带到了最前线。在很多方面，她都赢了。

1972年，国会女议员雪莉·奇肖姆（Shirley Chisholm）竞选白宫时，几乎每一次都遇到障碍。不仅民主党的政治机构反对她，而且没有足够的资金来资助一场管理良好、有效的竞选活动。

如果她能再做一遍

女权主义者学者兼作家乔·弗里曼（Jo Freeman）积极参与试图让奇肖姆参加伊利诺伊州初选，并在1972年7月成为民主党全国代表大会的候补成员。在一篇关于竞选的文章中，弗里曼揭示了奇肖姆的钱是多么的少，以及新的立法将如何使她的竞选在今天变得不可能：

After it was over Chisholm said that if she had to do it over again, she would, but not the same way. Her campaign was under-organized, under-financed and unprepared....she raised and spent only $300,000 between July 1971 when she first floated the idea of running, and July of 1972, when the last vote was counted at the Democratic Convention. That did not include the [money] raised and spent on her behalf...by other local campaigns. By the next Presidential election Congress had passed the campaign finance acts, which required careful record keeping, certification and reporting, among other things. This effectively ended grass roots Presidential campaigns like those in 1972.

“这一切都值得吗？”

在1973年1月出版的《女士》杂志上，格洛丽亚·施泰纳姆（Gloria Steinem）反思了奇肖姆的候选资格，问道“这一切都值得吗？”她评论道：

Perhaps the best indicator of her campaign's impact is the effect it had on individual lives. All over the country, there are people who will never be quite the same....If you listen to personal testimony from very diverse sources, it seems that the Chisholm candidacy was not in vain. In fact, the truth is that the American political scene may never quite be the same again.

现实主义与理想主义

Steinem接着介绍了各行各业的女性和男性的观点，包括来自佛罗里达州劳德代尔堡的美国中年白人中产阶级家庭主妇Mary Young Peacock的评论：

Most politicians seem to spend their time playing to so many different points of view....that they don't come out with anything realistic or sincere. The important thing about Chisholm's candidacy was that you believed whatever she said....it combined realism and idealism at the same time....Shirley Chisholm has worked out in the world, not just gone from law school straight into politics. She's practical.

“美国政治的面貌和未来”

实际上，即使在1972年民主党全国代表大会在佛罗里达州迈阿密海滩举行之前，雪莉·奇肖姆（Shirley Chisholm）也承认她无法在1972年6月4日的演讲中获胜：

I am a candidate for the Presidency of the United States. I make that statement proudly, in the full knowledge that, as a Black person and as a female person, I do not have a chance of actually gaining that office in this election year. I make that statement seriously, knowing that my candidacy itself can change the face and future of American politics - that it will be important to the needs and hopes of every one of you - even though, in the conventional sense, I will not win.

“必须有人先做”

那她为什么这么做？在1973年出版的《正义的斗争》一书中，Chisholm回答了这个重要的问题：

I ran for the Presidency, despite hopeless odds, to demonstrate the sheer will and refusal to accept the status quo. The next time a woman runs, or a Black, or a Jew or anyone from a group that the country is 'not ready' to elect to its highest office, I believe that he or she will be taken seriously from the start....I ran because somebody had to do it first.

奇肖姆在1972年参选，开创了一条35年后希拉里·克林顿和巴拉克·奥巴马（一名白人女性和一名黑人男性）将追随的道路。2020年，卡马拉·哈里斯将当选为第一位担任副总统的黑人女性。

这些民主党提名候选人花更少的时间讨论性别和种族问题，花更多的时间宣传他们对新美国的愿景，这一事实预示着奇肖姆努力的持久遗产。

资料来源：

《雪莉·奇肖姆1972年小册子》，4pliment.org。

“雪莉·奇肖姆1972年的公告”，4President.org。

弗里曼，乔。《雪莉·奇肖姆1972年的总统竞选》，《JoFreeman.com》2005年2月。

尼科尔斯，约翰。“雪莉·奇肖姆的遗产”，《在线节拍》，TheNation.com，2005年1月3日。

“记住雪莉·奇肖姆：对肖拉·林奇的采访”，《华盛顿邮报》2005年1月3日。

斯泰纳姆，格洛里亚。《女士杂志》1973年1月在PBS.org上转载了“可能是……”的那张票