The First Collection of Chisholm’s Writings
In the midst of her groundbreaking twenty-year career in the U.S. House of Representatives, Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm once declared, “Everyone—with the exception of the black woman herself—has been interpreting the black woman.” Edited by SCP director Zinga A. Fraser, Shirley Chisholm in Her Own Words gives readers a rare opportunity to engage with the Congresswoman’s powerful ideas in her own voice.
This book, edited by and with an introduction by Dr. Fraser, is the very first compilation of speeches and writings by Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm. This long-overdue treatment of her work establishes Chisholm as an unparalleled public intellectual and Black feminist both in her time and now.
Dr. Fraser was the historical consultant for the 2024 film SHIRLEY, which —like this book—was released this year to commemorate the centennial of the Congresswoman’s birth and a historically significant election year.
Chisholm’s belief and trust in a coalition of marginalized people to reframe representational politics provided a road map for the efforts of Obama, Clinton—and now Kamala Harris—to become President.
—Zinga A. Fraser, editor of Shirley Chisholm in Her Own Words
Blurbs
“Shirley Chisholm In Her Own Words: Speeches and Writings is a timely, detailed, and inspiring book that helps maintain the intellectual legacy of Shirley Chisholm. The book reveals new dimensions of the congresswoman’s politics, activism, and spirit. As the editor, Zinga Fraser shows an understanding of Chisholm that motivates us to listen closely to her enduring voice in this political moment.”
—Regina King, Academy Award–winning actor and star of Shirley
“There’s no better way to know someone than through their own words. Fraser’s book is an invaluable resource for anyone looking for insight into who Shirley Chisholm was both as a politician and as a person.”
—John Ridley, director and screenwriter of Shirley
This pioneering collection of the writings and speeches of public intellectual, politician, and activist Shirley Chisholm establishes her as one of the most influential and productive Black feminists of the twenty-first century, though she has been too often forgotten in contemporary histories of the women’s liberation movement in the U.S. Her bold call for all women in the U.S. to be ‘revolutionaries’ is one example of her radical vision of a world free of racism, sexism, poverty, class hierarchies, war, colonialism, and capitalism. A must-read, and a reminder of bell hooks’s claim that “feminism is for everybody.”
—Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Founding Director of the Women’s Research and Resource Center and Professor of Comparative Women’s Studies at Spelman College
Release Details
While the University of California Press will officially release Shirley Chisholm in Her Own Words in October, the book is available for preorder now! To preorder, use the QR code below
