Shirley Chisholm Honored With Prospect Park Monument

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK — U.S. Rep. Shirley Chisholm, the nation's first black congresswoman, will be honored with a statue in Prospect Park, officials announced Friday.

The monument is slated to appear at the Prospect Park entrance on Ocean and Parkside avenues by the end of 2020, the Mayor's Office announced on the 50th anniversary of Chisholm's election to the House of Representatives.

“Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm’s legacy of leadership and activism has paved the way for thousands of women to seek public office,” said First Lady Chirlane McCray.

“She is exactly the kind of New York woman whose contributions should be honored with representation in our public spaces.”

Chisholm, who made history when she was elected to New York’s 12th Congressional District in 1968, famously promised constituents she would serve them "unbound and unbossed."

She is best known for expanding access to food stamps, helping to pass Title IX, which prohibits gender discrimination in schools, and becoming the first black major-party candidate to run for President of the United States in the 1972.

This will be the first monument commissioned by She Built NYC, an initiative that hopes to rectify a lack of New York City monuments to its historic women: out of 150 statues, only five depict women.

An advisory panel chose Chisholm from a list of almost 2,000 nominees and will select an artist to design her monument in 2019, the Mayor's office said. The monument will be installed by the end of 2020.

A headshot of African American educator and U.S. Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, 1973. Chisholm was the first black woman elected to the U.S. Congress and the first woman to run for president in 1971. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)