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Who was the first Black presidential candidate?

Remembering this pioneer of American politics

(Getty Images)

Itā€™s been more than 15 years since Barack Obama was sworn in as the first Black president in American history.

But who was the first Black presidential candidate for a major party?

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The answer to that trivia question is a woman by the name of Shirley Chisholm, a congresswoman from New York.

In 1972, Chisholm not only was the first Black person, male or female, to run for president within a major party, but she became the first woman to run for the Democratic Partyā€™s presidential nomination.

Chisholm ended up earning 152 delegates during the primary election in 1972, well behind the 1,728 delegates Democratic nominee George McGovern ultimately earned.

Chisholmā€™s career in Congress ended in 1983, and she died in 2005 after suffering a series of strokes.

In 2015, Chisholm was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

This story was published in 2019. It has since been updated.


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