PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Breaking barriers and smashing glass ceilings, the late Shirley Chisholm serves as a role model for many women in politics, including Philadelphia Councilmember Katherine Gilmore Richardson. This week, Richardson hosted a private screening of a new biopic about the nation’s first Black congresswoman.
Chisholm was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1968 and served New York’s 12th congressional district until 1983. It was no easy feat, as she was met with sexism and racism.
“Shirley Chisholm never took ‘no’ for an answer. She never resonated with the words of ‘I can't.’ She always knew that she could, and that anything was possible,” said Richardson.
Chisholm’s life serves as the basis for the new Netflix biopic “Shirley,” starring Academy Award-winning actress Regina King as the trailblazing lawmaker.
“Having the opportunity to watch the movie was an awesome opportunity to share with the broader Philadelphia community,” said Richardson, who partnered with Netflix to host an official preview screening at the Philadelphia Film Center in Center City on Wednesday.
“For me, I was really excited to see the young girls that came, a lot of mothers have brought their daughters.”
Richardson says she wanted to share Chisolm’s story as she is inspired by Chisholm’s life. At 40 years old, she is the youngest Black woman ever elected to Philadelphia City Council, and she understands what it means to break barriers.
She says some of the themes she saw in the movie mirror some of the experiences she faces as a Black woman in elected office. Chisholm faced an uphill battle her entire political career but it didn’t stop her from being the first Black woman to run for president in 1972.
In 2000, Chisholm was the first woman named as Lipman Chairholder, a seat created to honor the legacy of former New Jersey state Sen. Wynona Lipman, the first Black woman elected to the chamber.
Chisholm’s papers are housed at Rutgers. Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers, says she was a fighter for causes that had no voice in Congress at the time.
“Shirley Chisholm was often treated as the complete other and outsider. I remember there's a video of her talking about a southern member of the House who every time he saw her, made a comment about the fact that she made the same salary as he did,” she said, “and then she finally tells him off.”
Walsh says she is honored to have spent time with Chisholm, and that women are still breaking barriers.
“Whether it's being the first Latina to hold an office, the first Muslim woman in a state legislature,” she said, “while all of these firsts are significant and important, and they are breakthroughs, we want to make sure that there are seconds and thirds and fourths following.”
“Shirley” is streaming now on Netflix.