Kamala Harris, Shirley Chisholm, and the Color Purple
Yesterday, Vice President Harris wore purple. Michelle Obama wore purple. Hillary Clinton wore purple. And on the eve of the Inauguration, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden wore purple. With 2020 being the 19th Amendment centennial, many were made aware of the significance of white to the women’s rights movement, so what was going on with purple?
On January 25, 1972, almost fifty years ago exactly, Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to Congress, wore purple when she announced her candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination. One of the reasons this doesn’t immediately come to mind is that most photos we have of this outfit are in black and white. But purple it was indeed.
Harris’s purple coat was created by Black designer Christopher John Rogers. “It was an ode to Shirley Chisholm, but it was also an ode to bipartisanship,” says Symone Sanders, Harris’s senior advisor and chief spokesperson. (x)
For an excellent piece about Chisholm and her career, check out this Teen Vogue piece.
Refinery29 did an article about all the purple.
To watch Shirley Chisholm’s historic announcement, check it out here.