Mrs. Chisholm Goes to Congress The Washington Afro-American, November 5, 1968 Shirley Chisholm stood on the brink of becoming the first Black woman elected to the House of Representatives of the U.S. Congress when this story ran on the eve of her election.
Democratic Assemblywoman Shirley Chisholm in Brooklyn’s 12th District, Democrat William Clay in St. Louis, and Louis Stokes, Democratic brother of Cleveland Mayor Carl B. Stokes, were favored to boost the colored congressional contingent to nine on Nov. 5.
All three faced colored opposition so the record post-Reconstruction period count of nine will stand up.
In some quarters the Rev. William Branch of Alabama who is running in the 5th Congressional District against five Whites--two of them serious candidates--was given a real chance to win.
Adam Clayton Powell of Harlem was expected to be re-elected easily to the seat the House denied him earlier.
The only incumbent who was thought to have a tough race was Rep. Charles Diggs of Detroit who faced a rough battle from Republican Eugene Beauregand.
Robert Nix of Philadelphia, John Conyers of Detroit and William L. Dawson of Chicago were considered shoo-ins. Augustus Hawkins of Los Angeles had opposition worth noting but not likely to be a threat from R. F. Lundy, a Reagan-backed Republican.
Mrs. Chisholm though favored by all the odds went into the final day knowing she had been in a tough fight with former CORE director James Farmer who was backed by the Republican and Liberal parties.
Clay ran against a popular Republican, Curtis Crawford, and Republican Charles Lucas took on the favored Stokes.
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