Shirley Chisholm arriving at Bethel AME Church in Mobile, Alabama, for a speaking engagement during her presidential campaign.

She is speaking with Gary Cooper, and Fred Gray is walking behind them. Chisholm, a Democrat from New York, was the first African American woman to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives (1969 to 1983), and she was both the first woman and the first African American to seek the nomination as the...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Schaffner, John P.
Format: Electronic
Published: Alabama Department of Archives and History
Subjects:
Online Access:http://cdm17217.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/amg/id/103780
Description
Summary:She is speaking with Gary Cooper, and Fred Gray is walking behind them. Chisholm, a Democrat from New York, was the first African American woman to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives (1969 to 1983), and she was both the first woman and the first African American to seek the nomination as the presidential candidate of a major political party. Cooper, brother of Prichard mayor A. J. Cooper, was a decorated Marine combat veteran, a member of the Alabama House of Representatives (1973 to 1979), and the U.S. Ambassador to Jamaica (1994 to 1997). Gray, a prominent civil rights attorney, was one of the first two African Americans elected to the Alabama House since Reconstruction, a seat he held for over 40 years (1971 to 2015).