IT’S AN EXTRAORDINARY tale and it reads like a Hollywood script instead of a real life story.
It is about the child of a relatively poor but ambitious Barbadian immigrant in New York, who sent her daughter to live in the mother’s birthplace so she could be raised by a grandmother and have a sound start in life. The girl got her feet through the education door there and when she eventually returned to New York five years later, she attended high school and went on to earn a master’s degree from the prestigious Columbia University. She later won a seat in the United States. Congress, the first black woman to sit in the House of Representatives.
The next chapter was her historic bid for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in 1972, a first for a black person. Although unsuccessful, historians insist her campaign paved the way for Hillary Clinton to become the Democratic presidential standard-bearer in next month’s general election, the first for a woman in American history.
By now you would have guessed it’s the Shirley Chisholm story and, if some producers and investors get their way, it would be made into a film.
“We have met with the producers who are trying to raise US$10 million to make the film and if they are a successful, production would begin next year,” said Bill Howard, a gatekeeper of Chisholm’s legacy. “We have a copy of the script and if it becomes a reality, scenes would be shot in Barbados where Chisholm lived and went to school.”
Howard, president of the West Indian American Carnival Association, which sponsors the annual Caribbean carnival, said Chisholm’s experience in Barbados helped to fashion her life.
“She often spoke about her positive experience living with her grandmother and going to school in Barbados, a place where she had peace and quiet,” said Howard, treasurer of Chisholm’s successful 1968 congressional election campaign. He later served as her legislative assistant on Capitol Hill.
That’s why, he said, Barbados would be a part of the film and some of its profits would be earmarked for a scholarship fund at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies.
“Education was very important to Chisholm and there is an understanding that if the project becomes a reality, Barbadians and other West Indians would benefit from it through scholarships at the UWI,” explained Howard.
A biographer supports Howard’s assessment.
For five years, wrote the biographer, Chisholm “resided in a country, where she received her rudimentary education in a one-room schoolhouse. In her autobiography, Unbought And Unbossed, she maintained that her rudimentary education and general experience in Barbados were a seminal aspect of her life”.
The film would focus much attention on Chisholm’s presidential bid and on the early years in Barbados and Brooklyn, according to Bryan Gambogi, producer of Creative Monster Productions.
The movie would be the latest accolade showered on Chisholm, whose father was a Guyanese.
Just last year, President Barack Obama bestowed America’s highest civilian honour, the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Chisholm posthumously, for her distinguished public service. The United States Postal Service has also issued a postage stamp featuring the fearless woman with Bajan roots. Before that, New York State named an office building after her in downtown Brooklyn.
Howard is working with others to ensure that Chisholm was recognised for her major contribution to the growth and prominence of women’s sports in the country through the use of Federal Title Nine scholarship funds.
“Women’s sports have opened the door for millions of young women to get an education and Title Nine, which Chisholm championed in Congres, is largely responsible,” Howard said. “Today, women’s sports are a multibillion dollar business today and Chisholm had a big hand in that. ESPN, the cable sports channel, should recognise Chisholm’s contribution.”
Tony Best is the NATION’s North American Correspondent. Email: [email protected]
