Black Women and Politics in New York City: The Early Years

Shirley Chisholm, a native of Brooklyn, New York, was the first black woman elected to the U.S. Congress and the first to run for president on a national party ticket.  She was justifiably recognized as a political trailblazer yet her designation as a “first” tends to obscure the efforts of generations of politically active black women who came before her.  As a contributor to this roundtable, I seek to illuminate the efforts of some of Chisholm’s political foremothers in New York City and at the same time contribute to our understanding of black women’s political thought and activism.  I will do this in two ways. 

First, starting in New York City in the 1930s, I will document efforts of women like Layle Lane, Ada Jackson and Maude Richardson to engage formal political structures as candidates for elected office as they battled for racial and gender equality, social, economic and political rights, and fundamental dignity.  Second, I will explicate the vision of politics these women held.  I argue that they were motivated primarily by the desire to secure economic, social, and political resources for the black communities they lived in, and to undo the system of racial inequality everywhere and at all levels.  They joined with national efforts to eradicate the scourge of racial discrimination; and at the local level they demanded access to steady and well-paid employment, affordable housing, neighborhood safety, and responsive political representation.  They strategically engaged with various arms of the state, especially as candidates for elected office, to advance their visions of justice and equality.  Their histories help us understand not only the distinctive concerns and historical forces that shaped their political activism, but also the ways these dynamic women endeavored to transform the American political party system, its laws, and its policies.