Shirley Anita St. Hill ChisholmA Critical Analysis of Her Life and Political ContributionsI. BIOGRAPHY Shirley Anita Chisholm, a distinguished African-American congresswoman, scholar and speaker, was the first black woman elected to the United States House of Representatives. Chisholm was a dynamic public speaker who courageously challenged traditional politics, "Fighting Shirley Chisholm," as she called herself during her first congressional campaign, supported liberal legislation from her seat in the House beginning upon taking office in 1968 and continuing until her retirement in 1982. She ran an unsuccessful campaign for the 1972 Democratic presidential nomination. Chisholm was born Shirley Anita St. Hill on November 30, 1924, in the poor Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. His father, an emigrant from Guyana, worked as an unskilled laborer, and his mother, originally from Barbados, was a seamstress and domestic worker. Extraordinary circumstances separated Chisholm from his parents for much of his early childhood. Struggling to save money for a house and their children's education, the St. Hills sent their four daughters to live on a grandmother's farm in Barbados. From the age of three until the age of eleven, Chisholm received a British elementary education and acquired a West Indian rhythm of speech. Her grandmother, who had an important influence on her early life, instilled in her the values ​​of pride, courage and faith. Her parents brought her back to Brooklyn at age eleven. Graduating with an excellent academic record from a Brooklyn girls' high school, Chisholm won a scholarship to study sociology at Brooklyn College. She quickly became active in political circles, joining the Harriet Tubman Society, serving as an Urban League volunteer, and winning debate awards. Her interest in her community led her to attend town meetings, where, as a student, she wowed elders by confronting civic leaders with questions about the quality of government services in her predominantly black neighborhood. As she began to establish her profile in her community, she also impressed her professors with a powerful speaking style and was encouraged to enter politics. She graduated with honors in sociology in 1946. While working in a preschool she studied for a master's degree in elementary education at Columbia University where she met Conrad Chisholm, whom she married in 1949. Two years later she earned her master's degree in early childhood education. childhood education. Over the next decade Chisholm built a reputation as an authority on early education and child welfare.