Against that backdrop, Chisholm’s record explains the quote’s moral authority. As the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Congress (1968) and a 1972 presidential contender, she ran under the banner “Unbought and Unbossed,” also the title of her 1970 memoir. Early in Congress she was placed on the Agriculture Committee—a mismatch for her urban district—yet she turned it into anti-hunger wins, working across the aisle as federal food programs expanded, and later helped found the Congressional Black Caucus (1971) and the National Women’s Political Caucus (1971). In other words, she did not await ideal circumstances; she repurposed the room and brought allies with her. From this lived example, the folding chair becomes more than a quip: it is instruction in resourcefulness amid structural constraint, which leads us to the barriers that make such improvisation necessary. [...]
