To obtain a high-resolution image of the stamp for media use only, email richard.j.maher@usps.gov
LOS ANGELES, CA — The U.S. Postal Service and the City of Los Angeles paid tribute today to pioneering Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm with an unveiling of the limited-edition 37th Black Heritage Forever Stamp honoring her during a special ceremony on the steps of City Hall, during the City of Los Angeles’ African American Heritage Month Celebration.
“Shirley Chisholm was a courageous and pioneering woman whose legacy lives on with the issuance of this special stamp,” said Los Angeles Postmaster Al Santos. “We are proud to honor this great American who shattered barriers of race and gender.”
Joining Santos to unveil the stamp were actors Louis Gossett, Jr. and Angela Bassett, as well as U.S. Judge Consuelo Marshall and Retired L.A. County Supervisor Yvonne Burke, all of whom were honored by the City with Achievement Awards during today’s ceremony.
The Shirley Chisholm stamp was designed by art director Ethel Kessler and features a color portrait of Chisholm by artist Robert Shetterly. Painted in acrylic on wood, the portrait is one of a series of paintings by Shetterly titled “Americans Who Tell the Truth.”
Chisholm joins several of the nation’s leading African-American educators, entertainers, civil rights activists, politicians, scholars, athletes, and business pioneers featured in the Black Heritage stamp series. Launched in 1978 with the issuance of the Harriet Tubman stamp, the series includes stamps honoring Sojourner Truth, Paul Robeson, W.E.B. Du Bois, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Roy Wilkins, Thurgood Marshall, Jackie Robinson, Madam C.J. Walker, Ella Fitzgerald, Marian Anderson, Barbara Jordan, Langston Hughes, Mary McLeod Bethune, John Johnson, and Althea Gibson.
The Shirley Chisholm stamp is being issued as a Forever Stamp. Forever stamps are always equal in value to the current First-Class Mail one-ounce rate. The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.
Customers may view the limited-edition Shirley Chisholm Black Heritage Forever Stamp, as well as a preview of many of this year’s other stamps, on Facebook at facebook.com/USPSStamps, on Twitter@USPSstamps or on the website USPSstamps.com
About Shirley Chisholm
Born Shirley Anita St. Hill in Brooklyn, NY, on Nov. 30, 1924, the future politician was the child of Caribbean immigrants. Her mother was a seamstress from Barbados, and her father was a factory worker from Guyana. She spent part of her childhood in Barbados with her maternal grandmother, where she attended strict, traditional, British-style schools.
A talented student, St. Hill graduated from Brooklyn College in 1946 and began work in early childhood education. She advanced quickly from a teacher’s aide to a consultant for New York City’s Division of Day Care. While pursuing a graduate degree at Columbia University, she met and married Conrad Chisholm. All the while, she stayed involved in local politics. In 1964, Chisholm’s political career took off in earnest with her election to the New York State Assembly.
In 1968, Chisholm ran for Congress. She campaigned in her Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn with a sound truck that announced, “Ladies and gentlemen… this is fighting Shirley Chisholm.” A maverick who was not beholden to the traditional Democratic party machinery, Chisholm’s campaign motto was “Unbought and Unbossed.” She won the election and entered Congress in 1969, the first black woman ever to do so. Regarding her historic win, Chisholm later remarked, “That I am a national figure because I was the first person in 192 years to be at once a congressman, black and a woman, proves, I think, that our society is not yet either just or free."
Chisholm scored another historic first in 1972 when she declared her candidacy for the Democratic nomination for President — the first African-American to seek the nomination of a major political party. Despite paltry financial resources, Chisholm’s enthusiastic supporters, who included women, minorities, and young people, got her on the ballot in fourteen states. She received more than 150 delegate votes at the Democratic National Convention before George McGovern won the party’s nomination.
She later wrote of her unsuccessful bid, “The next time a woman runs, or a black, or a Jew or anyone from a group that the country is ‘not ready’ to elect to its highest office, I believe that he or she will be taken seriously from the start… I ran because somebody had to do it first.”
Chisholm served in Congress until 1983. She continued to speak out for the rights of women, people of color, and the poor, fighting for legislation to support daycare centers and provide federal aid for education. She was also a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus and the National Women’s Political Caucus. She was a co-founder of the National Organization of Women (NOW). After retiring from politics, Chisholm taught at Mount Holyoke College, wrote, and lectured. She died on Jan. 1, 2005, having already spoken of her legacy. "I'd like them to say that Shirley Chisholm had guts," she said. "That's how I'd like to be remembered."
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