Long before the presidential aspirations of Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Carol Moseley Braun, Alan Keyes, Barack Obama, and others, there was Shirley Chisholm.

Shirley St. Hill Chisholm, (1924-2005), was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1968.

She was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1924. Shirley was the first African American woman elected to Congress, and the first black to wage a serious campaign for the 1972 Democratic nomination for president.

Chisholm retired from Congress in 1982.

Listen to Congresswoman Chisholm's historic 2 minute announcement for her candidacy for President of the United States, recorded 36 years ago, in 1972, outside of the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C.

What remarkable parallels can you hear between Chisholm's diplomatic words and so many similar voices of the candidates of today?

Chisholm is truly a black history pioneer in American politics.