Shirley Says…
A few words of wisdom from Shirley Chisholm.
Hear Ingrid Griffith as trailblazing politician Shirley Chisholm present an excerpt from her iconic 1983 speech. Ingrid, creator and performer of the one-woman show Shirley Chisholm: Unbossed & Unbowed, has contemporized the speech to make it even more relevant to today’s political climate.
Alma Mater:
Teachers College, Columbia University – Mastor’s Degree in Early Childhood Education
Brooklyn College – Sociology Major
Club Memberships:
Pan-American Social Services
Political Science Society
Harriet Tubman Society
“Black students were not welcome in social clubs at Brooklyn College so, some friends and I formed a sorority-like black women students’ society that I named IPOTHIA: In Pursuit Of The Highest In All”
~Shirley Chisholm
“Service is the rent that you pay for room on this earth.”
“We must reject not only the stereotypes that others hold of us, but also the stereotypes that we hold of ourselves.”
“You don’t make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas.”
“In the end anti-black, anti-female, and all forms of discrimination are equivalent to the same thing: anti-humanism.”
~ Shirley Chisholm
“Women in this country must become revolutionaries. We must refuse to accept the old, the traditional roles and stereotypes…We must replace the old negative thoughts about our femininity with positive thoughts and positive action affirming it, and more.”
“But we must also remember that we will be breaking with tradition, and so we must prepare ourselves educationally, economically and psychologically in order that we will be able to accept and bear with the sanctions that society will immediately impose upon us.”
~ Shirley Chisholm