Matt Ortega

Senator Barack Obama’s (D-Illinois) victory in the Iowa Caucus last Thursday increased the frequency with which media figures referenced previous attempts by African-American candidates.

So when the talking heads bring up past African-American presidential candidacies, why do you only hear about Reverend Jesse Jackson and Reverend Al Sharpton?

This is not to take anything away from the candidacies of Reverends Jackson and Sharpton. Rev. Jackson, a huge figure of the civil rights era through today, mounted two strong candidacies for the Democratic nomination in 1984 and 1988 despite being written off as a “fringe candidate.” Jackson received 485 delegates in 1984 and nearly tripled that figure in 1988, with 1,218 delegates and receiving over 6.8 million primary votes. Sharpton, who pondered a second run for the nomination this year, also ran for the nomination just four years ago.

Yet, it is incredibly troubling, although not surprising, that you do not hear much about any of the female African-American presidential candidates. Most notably, the 1972 presidential campaign of Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm (D-Brooklyn, N.Y.), who ran with the best campaign slogan ever: “Unbought and Unbossed.” Chisholm was the first African-American to seek the nomination of either of the two major parties. For more on Rep. Chisholm’s 1972 presidential candidacy, check out the PBS documentary by Shola Lynch, Chisholm ‘72 from 2005.

Chisholm for President images available here and here.