The Power of Representation: Patsy Takemoto Mink, Shirley Chisholm, and Kamala Harris

This mini-lesson is designed to be adaptable. You can use the activities in sequence or choose a selection best suited to your classroom. It includes:

• 3 activities 
• Student-facing slides 
• Recommended videos for exploring this topic

Introduce Patsy Takemoto Mink and Shirley Chisholm using the Google Slides provided with this mini-lesson and information from the introduction. 

Then, view two short videos: 

• Before Obama And Maxine Waters There Was Shirley Chisholm (03:48) from The Root
• Patsy Mink: Ahead of the Majority (2:25), trailer to a 2008 documentary film from ITVS and the Center for Asian American Media

As students view the two videos, ask them to sketch an identity chart for each woman, capturing key elements of their personal and social identities and experiences. Students can also add quotes from the videos to their charts. (See step 2 of the Identity Charts teaching strategy for more suggestions.)  

Then, discuss as a class: 

• What motivated and prepared Patsy Takemoto Mink and Shirley Chisholm for civic and political engagement? 
• Patsy Mink once said, “We have to build things that we want to see accomplished, in life and in our country, based on our own personal experiences . . . to make sure that others . . . do not have to suffer the same discrimination.” How do you think the personal stories of Mink and Chisholm connect to their choices and commitments as political leaders? ¹

• 1Quoted in Gender on the Ballot Team, 5 Things to Know about Rep. Patsy Mink, the First Woman of Color in Congress, Gender on the Ballot website, December 6, 2019.

Note: Depending on your students background knowledge about Vice President Kamala Harris, you may want to play the ABC video Kamala Harris: Everything you need to know about the new vice president (01:30) for your students before completing this activity.

Read the following two quotes with your students. (Note: You can use the student-facing slides for this mini-lesson to project the quotes for your students.)

Vice President Kamala Harris said in her acceptance speech after being elected vice president:

[W]hile I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last. Because every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities. And to the children of our country, regardless of your gender, our country has sent you a clear message: dream with ambition, lead with conviction, and see yourselves in a way that others may not, simply because they’ve never seen it before. ¹

Ashton Mayo-Beavers, a freshman at Mercer University in Georgia, said after Kamala Harris was elected vice president of the United States:

There already are so many great local leaders that are women of color, and that’s amazing. But the fact is, we will have a woman vice president who is a person of color that’s going to open the doors for so many people to envision themselves as our nation’s future. ²

Discuss with your students:

• According to these two quotes, why is Kamala Harris’s election significant?
• How do you think patterns from the past can shape how we imagine what is possible in the future?
• How do you think Kamala Harris’s choice to run first for president and then for vice president helped to promote a vision for the future that breaks with the past? What choices did other people make that helped her to get where she is today?

• 1“Transcript of Vice President-elect Harris' victory speech” (speech by Kamala Harris November 7, 2020, Wilmington, Delaware), the Associated Press.
• 2 Ashton Mayo-Beavers in Caroline Bauman and Gabrielle Birkner, ‘This is something I can do now’: What Kamala Harris’ ascension means for girls of color, Chalkbeat, January 19, 2021.

Shirley Chisholm famously said, “If they won’t give you a seat at the table, bring in a folding chair.” 

Share Chisholm’s statement with your students. Then, ask them to reflect on one or more of the following questions in their journals. 

• What did Chisholm mean by “a seat at the table”? How does learning the stories of Shirley Chisholm and Patsy Takemoto Mink help you think about why it is important for more people—including women and people of color—to claim a seat at the table? 
• Why do you think it took almost 50 years after Mink and Chisholm sought to be nominated as presidential candidates for a woman to become vice president of the United States?

Patsy Takemoto Mink and Shirley Chisholm made history, yet their stories are not always represented in history books, school curriculum, and in popular culture. Mink, in particular, has often been overlooked as a forerunner of Harris. Are Mink and Chisholm included in your textbook, if your class uses one? Why might it be important for their stories to be learned and shared?