by Tameka Fryer Brown
illustrated by Nina Crews
illustrated by Nina Crews
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Miss Kies for present.
00:13Listen to the voice inside yourself that says I can.
00:17Aim high with Shirley.
00:19Service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on this earth.
00:23A woman is the White House Shirley.
00:26You make progress by implementing ideas.
00:30For my mother Ossie who taught me my voice mattered from the start.
00:35TFB
00:36To Marietta
00:38Thank you for just the right words at just the right time.
00:43NC
00:44Not done yet, Shirley Chisholm's fight for change.
00:48By Tameka Fryer-Brown.
00:51Illustrated by Nina Cruz.
00:56Before she was born, Shirley would kick so hard her mother knew she was acting to come
01:08out and fight.
01:11Her mother was right.
01:13Shirley Chisholm was a natural born fighter.
01:16She didn't like to be bossed and she wanted things to be fair.
01:21Little Shirley and her sisters went to live on grandmother's farm in Barbados.
01:26Life was rich with sweet breadfruit cassava and yam sunny people and the bluest Caribbean
01:32sea.
01:33After six years, mother took them back to cold crowded confusing Brooklyn.
01:39It was a struggle.
01:41But Shirley finally learned to love it too.
01:44What Shirley didn't love was the unfair way certain people were treated in America.
01:50Black and brown people.
01:53Women and poor people.
01:55People like her family.
01:57Like Shirley.
01:59All the prejudice made her angry.
02:02She wanted to do something about it.
02:05She didn't know what though.
02:07Not yet.
02:09We demand work or wages.
02:12Shirley and her sisters excelled in school because mother and papa expected it.
02:18Study.
02:19Make something of yourselves.
02:22Papa said.
02:24Shirley took his message to heart.
02:26If school and learning could make her life better they could also be Shirley's destiny.
02:32I'll help lift others by becoming a teacher.
02:35And she did.
02:37But destiny had more in mind.
02:40Shirley got involved in a Brooklyn political club.
02:44The women in the club worked hard to earn money that only the man got to use.
02:50This isn't fair, Shirley said to the club.
02:53We raised it.
02:55We should get to use it too.
02:58Shirley is right.
03:00The women backed her up.
03:02The men had no choice but to share.
03:05She showed speaking out could make a real difference.
03:09She was proud but she wasn't done yet.
03:12For years.
03:14Shirley worked night and day for leaders she thought would help Brooklyn.
03:19After a while, she began to believe the best person to lead might be Shirley.
03:26Shirley entered the race to represent Brooklyn in the New York State Assembly.
03:31When neighbors told her women should not run for office.
03:36She made them all a promise.
03:38Fighting Shirley Chisholm will always fight for you.
03:42Enough of them believed her and she won.
03:45She was Brooklyn's first black assemblywoman.
03:48A great triumph.
03:51But she wasn't done yet.
03:53Assemblywoman Chisholm got straight to work speaking up for the poor and ignored.
03:59The men in the assembly didn't like her style.
04:02Little lady you should be more quiet.
04:05Instead.
04:07She spoke louder and worked even harder.
04:10Eight bills she wrote became laws.
04:13She was keeping her promise, but she wanted to do more.
04:21So she ran for the United States Congress.
04:25The people's choice.
04:27Vote Chisholm for Congress 12th CD.
04:31It was a difficult battle from the start.
04:34In using her voice for change it seemed Shirley had made many enemies.
04:39They mocked her and did everything they could to make sure that she would lose.
04:44Vote here vote acquit.
04:46A little school teacher can't lead us, they said.
04:50What we need is a big strong man.
04:53This made women furious.
04:56Show them with your vote.
04:58Shirley said.
05:00They did, and she won.
05:03The first black woman ever elected to Congress.
05:06She made history.
05:09But she wasn't done yet.
05:11When Representative Chisholm walked the hallowed halls of Congress the thing she felt most
05:16was unwelcome.
05:18No one would sit with her at lunch.
05:21Her colleagues made nasty remarks.
05:24One man even spat when she entered the room.
05:28All to scare her and keep her in her place.
05:31As usual, Shirley didn't back down.
05:35She stayed focused on what she'd come to do.
05:39She hired a staff of all women.
05:42She fiercely demanded rights for all.
05:45She fought for the environment for children for health care.
05:49A righteous rebel who earned respect she made her mark.
05:54But she wasn't done yet.
05:57Shirley championed bold ideas to better the country she loved.
06:01But how could she get more people to listen?
06:04I know.
06:05I'll run for president.
06:08No black person or woman had seriously run for president before.
06:13But Shirley was serious.
06:16She wanted to win to show others they could win too.
06:20Shirley traveled the country sharing her vision of liberty and justice for all.
06:25Let us move beyond hate so America works for the neglected the forgotten for everyone.
06:32Shirley didn't win.
06:34But the path that she paved makes a better nation possible today.
06:38Let the youth be heard.
06:41Be the change.
06:43Shirley Chisholm was a natural born fighter.
06:46She battled for fairness and change.
06:49Her legacy lives.
06:51The fight continues.
06:54We're not done yet.
06:56The end.