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NATIONAL
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Remembering Shirley Chisholm
by Laura Murphy
Washington Afro
The late Shirley Chisholm taught me a lot about being a woman. At the tender age of 22, I had the opportunity to work as one of her legislative assistants from 1977 to 1979 while she was a Member of the United States House of Representatives.
During her 14 years in Congress, Shirley Chisholm gave dozens of women the opportunity to hold professional positions on Capitol Hill when most of her male colleagues in Congress would only give secretarial or clerk positions to women like me.
People would stare at her when she walked down the hall, because invariably a large entourage of professional staff women like me followed her wherever she went.
The women who passed through her office called themselves the Chis-ettes. And we referred to our boss fondly as “Miss C.” We loved her because she embraced us and encouraged us and she dared to tell men and all Americans that women were in the halls of power and were here to stay. But if you read her obituaries that have been printed in major newspapers around the country you get the impression that she was an “in your face” firebrand feminist.
However, those of us who knew her well also knew that she had class and manners. While she could raise her voice with passion and conviction she did so in a way that never undermined her appealing femininity.
It enraged me that during his lifetime comedian Red Foxx would call “Miss C” ugly. Yes, she had a broad nose. Yes, she wore oversized glasses topped off by a toothy grin. Yes, she wore a wig that gave her big hair. No, she did not have the shape of Pamela Anderson or Brittany Spears. Notwithstanding the American standard of blond, blue-eyed so-called good looks, when you were in the presence of this woman, you felt something else – beauty.
She had a personality that just sparkled and the wits and brains to match. She was charismatic. She always did her homework before she spoke and rarely spoke in anger. She respected her listeners even if they were the most racist sexist men on the planet. And what really surprised me as I followed her around was that she was quite flirtatious.
She could whisper things in men’s ears that would put them at such ease that she could find out what made every one of her colleagues tick. She laughed at their jokes, even the ribald ones.
She touched their arms when she spoke, but never doing so in a way that was sexually suggestive. She moved with grace when she walked and, she was one of the best dancers I’ve ever seen. She was a femme fatale, but not a hussy.
Shirley Chisholm was a very smart, endearing, classy, outspoken and determined lady who taught me two pivotal life lessons: 1) I could be a “feminine feminist” in a man’s world and still earn the power I needed to get the job done and, 2) Beauty comes in many forms and when we limit our concept of beauty to appearance we are really missing the boat.
Thank you Shirley Chisholm. You will always be beautiful to me.
Lura W. Murphy has spent 28 years in government and advocacy positions. For the last 13 years she has been director of the Washington Legislative Office of the American Civil Liberties Union.
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