Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
January 26, 2005

Chisholm's words still resonate


The first national holiday observance in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was in 1987. On Feb. 12 of that year, Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm spoke to an audience gathered in the Hopkins High School auditorium. Chisholm, who died recently, was there as a featured speaker for the fourth annual West Suburban Black History Month. I covered the event for a local newspaper.

Two things seem significant as I review my notes and recall that night. The first is that west suburban Minneapolis was the first community in the nation to organize a Black History Month celebration; it was put together by the West Suburban Celebration Committee, organized by communities, businesses, churches and other groups. The effort was, over the years of its existence, to feature such keynoters as Georgia Sen. Julian Bond, author Maya Angelou, Pulitzer prize-winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks, University of Minnesota professor Reginald T. Buckner and entertainer Pearl Bailey. It came about when local civic leaders, churches, businesses, individuals and schools decided to improve relations between races.

The second significant thing, is the message that Chisholm brought and its application for today. She was introduced by Golden Valley Mayor Mary Anderson who said, "Shirley Chisholm was the first black congresswoman in the United States ... as well as the first black woman to run for the presidency ... she's been called feisty, articulate and a maverick."

Chisholm took the podium, her slender frame and silver hair providing an initial, and erroneous, impression of frailty. Her powerful voice commanded attention with consummate skill. "We have become quiescent, so terribly quiescent," she said, "We must live together as brothers and sisters or we will die together as fools." She went on to explain that she spoke not of physical death, but of spiritual death -- the death of hope, the death of dreams. She noted that the people in that auditorium were a microcosm of greater America.

"Most of the people in this room had parents or grandparents who uprooted their lives and fled from persecution," she said. "Immigrants came from all countries of the globe. All of us came here in different drives. Very seldom did one drive open their arms to the next. Very few people in this land were born with a silver, or even a brass, spoon in their mouths. Black people also came, but they came to provide back-breaking slave labor.

"I have traveled to 23 states in the past five months," she went on. "And I'm concerned about what I see. We've become plastic and theoretical ... we need individuals who are passionate ... and committed. Black voices are too quiet, white voices are too quiet. I do not believe that our nation can endure another two centuries without putting its house in order and acknowledging that the American dream is not a reality for millions of Americans."

She addressed power and economics. "When you voted for our beloved president," she said, "you thought he'd put a lot of people in their places and you would be left alone. (Our government says) that money spent on job training is wasted but money spent on missiles is well spent ... By feeding on our own insecurities, an economic program has been implemented in this country which has definitely tilted the budget to the rich, the corporations and the military."

Even as a freshman legislator, Chisholm had shown herself personally ready to defend the rights of the disadvantaged. In her first speech to the House of Representatives she castigated the administration for its misplaced priorities. "Mr. Speaker," she began, "on the same day President Nixon announced he had decided the United States will not be safe unless we start to build a defense system against missiles, the Headstart Program in the District of Columbia was cut back for lack of money." Saying she could never understand this kind of value system, she went on to make a vow. She promised to vote "no" on every money bill that came before the House until the nation "starts to use its strength, its tremendous resources, for people and peace, not for profit and war."

How are we doing?

Sue Campbell is a businesswoman and journalist from Minnetonka.


© 2005 Star Tribune