We Need to Know the Shirley Chisholms

When Alabama Gov. and staunch segregationist George Wallace was shot in 1972, he received a hospital visit from an unlikely guest.

She was diminutive. And from Brooklyn. And one of Wallace’s opponents. And she was black.

“He said, ‘What are your people going to say?’” Shirley Chisholm later recalled. “I said, ‘I know what they’re going to say. But I wouldn’t want what happened to you to happen to anyone.’ He cried and cried.”

It was a powerful and symbolic gesture that epitomized much of what Chisholm stood for. Decades later, her story is the kind that we as leaders should know about.

Chisholm was the first black woman elected to Congress and became a major champion for women and minorities during her seven terms in office, even running for president in 1972.

“If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair,” she once said.

Chisholm never shied away from conflict or doing what she perceived was right, despite fierce resistance.

She fought for guaranteed minimum income for families, pushed for day-care hours extensions and was a key proponent of school lunches.

In 1974, when she needed support to extend the minimum wage for domestic workers, she then received help from an unlikely candidate — George Wallace — who pushed Southern members of Congress to support her.

As leaders, we can often speak about Bill Belichick, Bill Gates and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. But to really distinguish ourselves, we need to be better about learning the lesser-known stories and introducing them to our teams.

Let’s go above and beyond and know the Shirley Chisholms, the Marie Curies and the Jim Thorpes.

Let’s commit to elevating the level of discussion within our organizations and inspiring others to do the same.

Let’s be informed, let’s be inspirational and, above all else, let’s be uncommon.

And if there’s no room at the table, let’s remember that we can always bring our own chair.

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