‘Shirley,’ which explores the story of Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to Congress and the first Black person to run for president, debuts on Netflix today.
The John Ridley written and directed movie has a star-studded cast including Regina King in the starring role as Chisholm.
Regina King and her sister, who are the film’s producers, fought for 15 years to bring the story to the screen.
“This is a legendary person,” says King. “If we don’t …protect that legacy and honor that legacy, then we didn’t do our job,”
Who Was Shirley Chisholm?
In 1972, more than 35 years before Barack Obama, Chisholm became the first African American and the first woman to pursue a major party nomination for president.
Her political beginnings date back to 1968 when she became the first African-American woman elected to Congress. Chisholm represented the Bedford-Stuyvesant Brooklyn neighborhood. She was first elected in 1968 and served seven terms ending in 1983.
Throughout her career, she was known for taking a resolute stand against economic, social, and political injustices, as well as being a strong supporter of civil rights and women’s rights.
Despite her groundbreaking candidacy, she faced obstacles and prejudice from various quarters, including within her party.
Her path was hindered as she was denied participation in televised primary debates. However, undeterred by this exclusion, she took legal action to challenge the decision. Eventually, she triumphed, securing the right to deliver just one speech.
She made a significant impact during the presidential campaign, entering 12 primaries and securing 152 delegates’ votes, which accounted for 10% of the total.
In her memoir, ‘The Good Fight’, Chisholm wrote that she pursued her groundbreaking campaign because “someone had to do it first.”
The Critics
The movie focuses mostly on Chisholm’s run for president, hopping along the sequential headlines in Chisholm’s presidential run. Instead of giving the audience a broader understanding of who Chisholm is, the movie delivers moments of racism and sexism she dealt with but little on how these actions impact her or the impact her legendary campaign may have had on others.
If it’s just history you want, the movie delivers about as well as Chisholm’s Wikipedia listing, some reviewers say. However, if you want a deeper dig into Chisholm, they say the movie falls short.