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Now I now that a black woman getting the presidential nomination in 1972 might verge on ASB, but I'm legitimately interested in what might have needed to happen further up the chain to allow Shirley Chisholm to get the 72 Democratic Nomination. Obviously both Humphrey and McGovern need to either not be nearly as strong, or not be in the running at all. Maybe a stronger Southern Strategy diminishes Dixiecrats and the Wallace campaign is out too? I'm just spitballing here, it'd probably take a lot of divergences for Chisholm to get the nomination. She'd be a dark horse to beat most other dark horses. Even then, would she win the presidency? It's incredibly likely she wouldn't, I mean 72 was famously a landslide for Nixon - 60%/37%, 49 states/1 state (and DC). But more interesting, perhaps, would be the Chisholm candidacy's effects on women and black people in national politics - we might see a black or female president much earlier than we have (or are still waiting to have, in the latter case) IOTL. Interested in what you guys think.
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