In a wide-ranging interview on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s “Sunday Extra” this weekend, ”SCP Director Zinga A. Fraser discussed the origins and the global impact of Shirley Chisholm. The interview comes after Vice President Kamala Harris followed in Chisholm’s footsteps to become the first woman of African and South Asian ancestry to win a major party presidential nomination.
Fighting Political Invisibility
During her interview with host Julian Morrow, Dr. Fraser explained that Shirley Chisholm’s political rise began at the grassroots level, rooted in a simple desire to “become part of the process to ensure that there were services for her community.” In the early district-level political meetings she attended, Dr. Fraser describes how Chisholm became “irate” about the dismissive attitude towards women and participants who were racial minorities. Seeing this, she was determined to change a system in which her community was politically invisible.
The Power of Chisholm’s Coalition
Chisholm’s desire to serve her community and change politics eventually led her to seek the presidency. When describing Chisholm’s presidential campaign, Dr. Fraser illuminated the parallels between the importance of the youth vote during the 1972 election, when Chisholm ran for president, and the 2024 election. Newly enfranchised by the 26th Amendment to the US Constitution and galvanized in opposition to the Vietnam War, youth were one of the major inspirations for Chisholm’s presidential campaign and key to the “People’s Coalition” of marginalized voters she hoped would bring about fundamental political chance in America. Although Chisholm was not able to mobilize this coalition to win the nomination herself, she helped to make it a force in future elections. As Dr. Fraser explains:
The reason why that’s important is that’s the same coalition that elects Barack Obama into office. If it wasn’t the youth vote, if it wasn’t for marginalized groups, if it wasn’t for women, he wouldn’t have won the presidency. She was the first person who really talks about creating this coalition of people who had been cast out of mainstream politics.
You can listen to Dr. Fraser’s full interview with Julian Morrow here.