Shirley Chisholm predicted this political moment. Now is the time to unite.
OPINION: The trailblazing politician said that if women across all economic and racial lines joined forces with young people, America could elect its first woman president. Kamala Harris has a shot at making the prediction come true.
Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
In 1969, then-freshman Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm predicted this political moment.
During an interview with renowned English journalist David Frost on the orange, purple and maroon set of “The David Frost Show,” he cooly asked Chisholm, “Tell me, do you think there can ever be a woman president of the United States?”
Chisholm didn’t bat an eye as she immediately responded, “Oh, yes. Yes, it’s coming.” She added, “I believe this country will be saved by women and students, and if the women come together in spite of racial differences, class differences, economic differences and back a strong woman, I could see this happening in about 70 to 75 years.”
Frost, bowled over, quipped, “That’s quite a long time, isn’t it,” and Chisholm explained that this timeline allows men to prepare to step aside and “get acclimated for the thing that is to happen in the future because it is going to happen. Nobody will be able to stop it.”
Chisholm’s prediction was markedly more positive and unifying than President Gerald Ford’s much darker forecast in 1989. Ford projected that a sitting president would need to die in order for a woman to ascend. Thankfully, we are experiencing what Chisholm foretold — at least half of it, so far.
President Joe Biden’s decision to leave the 2024 presidential election and effectively “step aside” after urging from Democratic Party leaders, while a difficult decision, created space for Vice President Kamala Harris to step forward and earn the Democratic nomination. Biden’s decision also further steeped his political legacy in supporting and advancing Black leaders. Biden served as vice president to the first Black president, Barack Obama, for two terms. In August 2020, Biden selected then-Senator Kamala Harris to serve as his running mate and the first Black and Southeast Asian woman vice president. In 2022, Biden nominated the first Black woman to the Supreme Court, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. And in 2024, he passed the torch to Vice President Harris as she prepared to become the first Black and Southeast Asian woman to earn the Democratic nomination for president, and potentially become the first woman elected president of the United States.
Biden also satisfied one of Chisholm’s conditions for the nation to elect the first woman president, and now, the unity coalition of women and young people that she outlined must drive this mission forward — and they’re off to a strong start.
Elections
Since the Harris for President campaign launched on July 21, momentum from women and young people has thrust the effort to elect the first woman president into the outer range of the political stratosphere, and Black women have led the charge. Win With Black Women organized 44,000 Black women on the day that Harris announced her campaign and received Biden’s immediate endorsement. Since then, Latina women, Asian women, Native women, white women, Black men, LGBTQ people, veterans and people living with disabilities, have all joined the call to action and a unified coalition is developing in real time. It’s also easy to unite against Republicans who promise this will be the last election that people will need to vote and describe women as DEI hires and childless cat ladies.
Excitement is also captured in surges in voter registration, campaign donations and volunteer signups. Vote.org reported 100,000 new voter registrations within the five days since Harris’ campaign started, and 84% of the new voters were young people under the age of 35 years old. The Harris campaign broke fundraising records as they brought in $200 million in grassroots contributions in one week, and 66% of the donations came from first-time donors. Harris’ team also reported 170,000 new campaign volunteers in the week since the campaign launched, with spikes in battleground states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Florida.
Online, neon green has doused feeds and timelines across social media leaving many Millennials, Gen Xers and Boomers confused. The color is the clearest indicator of support among young people who have doused the internet in Kamala Harris memes and videos of her dancing, laughing and a 2023 clip of her quoting her mother asking, “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?” The trend aligns with the “brat” themes of living a messy, authentic life without fear of judgment from others as declared by British singer Charlie XCX. The digital takeover has generated millions of views, likes, shares, and immeasurable excitement within Democratic politics, and it has created an opening for Harris to pick up additional support among Gen Z voters.
As Vice President Harris looks to continue to expand on her appeal to young people, many are watching how she engages on issues like abortion rights, gun violence prevention, student loan debt, and Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, separately from President Biden. When it comes to Gaza, Harris addressed the nation following her one-on-one meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and attempted to balance her comments between Israel’s right to target Hamas and the devastation and death of Palestinians in Gaza. In response, Uncommitted National Movement leader and DNC delegate Abbas Alaweih noted to Politico, “Vice President Harris, conveyed more sympathy for the plight of civilians in Gaza than President Biden did at any point. … And that is a positive sign.” The anti-war, pro-peace advocates of the Uncommitted movement have been calling for a ceasefire since launching the Listen to Michigan campaign during the presidential primaries, and they expressed that Harris could earn their votes by committing to a lasting ceasefire through an arms embargo to Israel.
With only three months left until the election, the foundational components of the unity coalition that Shirley Chisholm called for must be sustained and expanded. Some of that will be determined by Harris’ policy positions, and her ability to extend her appeal to voters whose demands have not been met yet. It will also be determined by the people’s ability to demonstrate their collective power through action as they push against fascism, racism, sexism, and the narratives of who can lead this nation.
Ultimately, whether or not we realize Chisholm’s monumental prediction is in all of our hands.
Juanita Tolliver is the host of Crooked Media’s “What A Day” Podcast, and an MSNBC political analyst.
