Featured Testimonial About Creighton University
Think your best thoughts and do your best deeds.
By Micah Mertes
Shirley — the new biographical film of Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to U.S. Congress and the first to run for President — recently debuted on Netflix.
The film, which has been met with positive reviews, was written and directed by Oscar-winning screenwriter John Ridley (12 Years a Slave) and stars Oscar winner Regina King as Chisholm. Shirley covers Chisholm’s 1972 presidential run. (See the trailer here.)
Shirley is a long overdue telling of Chisholm’s story. A few years before running for President, she was elected to New York’s 12th congressional district, serving for seven terms from 1969 to 1983. Chisholm was both the first woman to run for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination and the first Black candidate to seek a major party’s nomination.
After retiring from Congress, Chisholm hit the lecture circuit. This is how she came to Creighton’s Rigge Lecture Hall in 1985.
At the special event hosted by Creighton’s Committee on Lectures, Films and Concerts, Chisholm told students that the unique heritage of Black Americans is both their burden and their blessing.
“We are still affected in 1985,” she said. “We need to reawaken within our hearts the indomitable spirit of men like Frederick Douglas and Martin Luther King.”
In her speech, Chisholm recounted some of the major points in Black Americans’ fight for freedom. She challenged an audience of about 500 people never to stop speaking out against the inequalities they see in everyday life.
“Stand up and be counted,” she said. “Forget what the world will say. Look only to your God, whoever he may be, and your conscience for approval. Think your best thoughts and do your best deeds.”
Chisholm died in 2005 after suffering a series of strokes. She was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015. This year marks the 100th year since Chisholm’s birth.
