In an interview for CBS News’ Sunday Morning program, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton discussed her political career amidst the broader story of women’s political activism in the United States. “Changing the Face of Democracy: Shirley Chisholm at 100,” an exhibition curated by the Shirley Chisholm Project and the Museum of the City of New York, served as the backdrop of that interview.
You can go way back into the 19th century and the early suffragists…I stand on [their] shoulders, and have passed on the baton to the next generation, just as Shirley did. And so, when I see this exhibit about her, I think: She did her part, she really did.
—Frm. Secretary Clinton to CBS Correspondent Erin Moriarty
The Exhibition
The Shirley Chisholm Project on Brooklyn Women’s Activism has been at the forefront of preserving the Congresswoman’s legacy. We are pleased to see others—journalists, political figures, and the general public—engaging in that legacy. The exhibition is one of the many events, programs and art installations that kicked off our centennial celebration of Chisholm. In November, the SCP will culminate our celebration with Shirley Chisholm Day at Brooklyn College. We encourage you to join us then.
“Changing the Face of Democracy: Shirley Chisholm at 100” will be showing at the Museum of the City of New York through July 2025.
The Trail that Chisholm Blazed
As suggested by the title of the exhibition, one of Shirley Chisholm’s main political goals was to galvanize women, racial minorities, youth, peace activists and working class people in their efforts to reshape political power in the United States. In service of that goal, she ran for president in 1972, simultaneously becoming the first person of African descent and the first woman to seek a major party nomination for the presidency. In the process, Chisholm established a practical blueprint for democratic coalition-building adopted by subsequent presidential candidates seeking the Democratic nomination like Jesse Jackson in the 1980’s, Barack Obama in 2008, Hillary Clinton in 2016, Joe Biden in 2020, and now Kamala Harris in 2024.