POSITIVELY BLACK

Junious Ricardo Stanton

See Chisholm ‘72-Unbought & Unbossed

 

A friend of mine E-mailed me the info about a documentary on the unprecedented and historic presidential run by Brooklyn Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm that was being screened last night in Philly as part of a nation wide promotion prior to its PBS debut later this month and its release on DVD on March 1st. I followed the online instructions, received a free screening pass and registered. My wife was scheduled to go to a calligraphy class Monday evening but it was cancelled at the last minute so she went online and got a free pass also. I should have known then something was amiss, I really didn’t think there would be any passes left for an event like this at that late date! We left early anticipating a large crowd for the screening but to our surprise there were only an handful of folks there to see the film. We had the whole theater to ourselves. I watched the film which was made up of recent interviews with Mrs. Chisholm, several of her former congressional colleagues, staff members and contemporaries and archival footage with admiration. The film was very instructional and it gave us a different perspective of a strong willed woman who dared to believe unequivocally a dark skinned black woman could indeed conduct a serious, issue driven grass roots campaign at a time when few if any women were being taken seriously in electoral politics beyond the local level. The director of the film Shola Lynch did a masterful job of allowing the viewer to discern what drove Shirley Chisholm. The film showed the method behind what many thought and derisively said was Chisholm’s madness. Here was a woman who spoke out against he Vietnam War, who demanded the federal government fund Head Start programs and who had the audacity as a mainstream politician from one of the poorest communities in New York to embrace and defend the Black Panther Party For Self Defense in California when they embraced her campaign, organized and worked on her behalf. While the mainstream press and good ol’ boy smoke filled room clique dismissed Chisholm, she was able to mine a motherload of support from some members of the radical feminists community and in doing so she served as a bridge between black women and white women whose issues differed from their Caucasian counterparts.

Shirley Chisholm was a fighter, no doubt about it. When the major media and the front running white Democratic candidates froze her out of a televised debate she went to court and won the right to be included; which did not go over well with the good ol’ boy network. Chisholm was no fool, she knew she could not win the Democratic nomination but she knew by accumulating a significant number of delegates she could force the Democratic big wigs to listen to her concerns about the working poor, children and the war and force them to address those issues in the party platform and agenda. One of the on camera persons who repeatedly spoke about the influence of Shirley Chisholm on her life was current California Congresswoman Barbara Lee. Many remember her as the lone and courageous voice of reason who voted not to give George W Bush the authority to wage war against Afghanistan following 9-11. Just her sharing how she got involved in electoral politics for the first time after hearing a speech by Shirley Chisholm prompted her to sign up as a volunteer in Chisholm’s presidential campaign, revealed how one person can impact the world.. One courageous sistah/warrior begot another courageous sistah/warrior! The film showed how the powers that be put pressure on Chisholm’s supporters, by attempting to disqualify them from the Democratic National convention in Miami, how black men like Willie Brown worked to undermine her grass roots efforts and how even her staunchest supporter in Congress, Ron Dellums, eventually was pressured to betray her. Chisholm was visibly moved as she shared how a man stalked and shadowed her in an attempt to assassinate her. Those were perilous times Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy had been assassinated in 1968 and George Wallace was shot and paralyzed campaigning for president in 1972. Despite all the obstacles, the mean spiritedness and underhandedness she endured, Chisholm remained undeterred and pressed on.

The film’s director Shola Lynch was in attendance for the screening. She stayed to host an Q&A session for those of us in attendance. She shared she showed the film at the Sundance Film Festival and subsequent festivals last year. She said she used the film as part of Rock The Vote as a means to educate young people about the political process and to show there are more than just one or two people who shaped the struggle for freedom in this country. She said she showed the film to Mrs. Chisholm who told her it was a good film. Ms Lynch said reliving the events for the film had been painful for Mrs. Chisholm but she was grateful to Ms Lynch for making the film. All of us should be grateful to Ms Lynch for making this film. She did Mrs. Chisholm, who recently made her transition, justice. Check your local listings for the day and time it will be shown on PBS next week. Also check it out when it comes out in DVD in March.

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