➰ Black History is Infinity On Presidents’ Day, the nation honors those who held the office. It is also worth remembering the woman who made the office imaginable for others. In 1972, Shirley Chisholm did more than run for President of the United States. She expanded the boundaries of who could credibly seek it. Long before Barack Obama assembled a multiracial coalition, before Jesse Jackson tested it nationally, before Kamala Harris stood on a general election ticket, Chisholm entered twelve primaries with limited funding and little institutional backing, insisting the presidency was not reserved for a single profile. Born in Brooklyn in 1924 to immigrant parents from Guyana and Barbados, Chisholm built her career in education and community advocacy before turning to politics. In 1968, running as “Unbought and Unbossed,” she became the first Black woman elected to Congress. When leadership sidelined her with a committee assignment that ignored her district’s needs, she challenged it — and won. Her 1972 campaign secured 152 delegate votes at the Democratic National Convention. The number was not symbolic. It proved that a Black woman could organize a national coalition at the highest level of American politics. Chisholm went on to help expand food assistance programs, advance wage protections, and co-found institutions that continue shaping political power today. When President Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015, it marked not just a moment in history, but the architecture of leadership she built for others to stand on. Shirley Chisholm did not wait her turn. She changed what the turn looked like. 📍 Follow along as we continue honoring the builders, the breakthroughs, and what comes next.