Ep3: Who was Shirley Chisholm? A conversation with historian Marjorie Spruill.

She's History

*Disclaimer, you do not need to watch the Mrs. America limited series to enjoy the history conversation in this podcast. However, the 3rd episode of the series is a good companion piece for this podcast episode. In this episode, Marjorie talks about Shirley Chisholm who became the first black woman to run for the office of President of the United States in the early 1970s. And women like Phyllis Schlafly who organized to stop the Equal Rights Amendment and thus change the course of American politics today. Phyllis Schlafly paved the way for Donald Trump to be president. Marjorie Spruill, historian and author of the book "Divided We Stand" talks about the third episode of “Mrs. America” titled “Shirley” and what it gets right, what it doesn’t, and other stories that the show didn’t have time to include. A recent article in the LA times interviews Davhi Waller, creator of the FX limited series “Mrs. America”. Waller talks about how Marjorie’s book, “Divided We Stand” was relied on heavily by her and the writers of the show. In this episode we talk about Shirley Chisholm, the divisions within the women’s movement, racism in America in the 1970s and how it was impossible for Shirley to be on the presidential ticket, racism within Phyllis Schlafly’s Anti-ERA members, Phyllis’ training workshops, the democratic national convention of 1972, the struggle to make abortion rights a democratic party issue, McGovern opening up the democratic party to minority voices, and more.