A More Perfect Party
Juanita Tolliver
The Night Shirley Chisholm and Diahann Carroll Reshaped Politics
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Release Date: 13/02/2025
The Night Shirley Chisholm and Diahann Carroll Reshaped Politics "A beautifully written political-social page turner" (Joy-Ann Reid) about the legendary party hosted by Diahann Carroll for Shirley Chisholm's 1972 presidential campaign, which changed the playing field for Black women in politics.
From MSNBC Political Analyst and Host of Crooked Media's What A Day podcast, a blueprint for how Black women who run for public office can reach new heights based on the coalition model of Shirley Chisolm's larger than life 1972 Hollywood fundraising party hosted by Diahann Carroll.
In 1972, New York Representative Shirley Chisholm broke the ice in American politics when she became the first Black woman to run for president of the United States. Chisholm left behind a coalition-building model personified by a once-in-an-era Hollywood party hosted by legendary actress and singer Diahann Carroll, and attended by the likes of Huey P. Newton, Barbara Lee, Berry Gordy, David Frost, Flip Wilson, Goldie Hawn and others. In A More Perfect Party, MSNBC political analyst Juanita Tolliver presents a path to people-centered politics through the lens of this soiree, with surprising parallels to our current electoral reality.
Chisholm worked the crowd of movie stars, media moguls, music executives and activists gathered at Carroll's opulent Beverly Hills home, forging relationships with laughter as she urged guests to unify behind her campaign. With the feminist movement on the rise and eighteen- to twenty-year-olds voting for the first time in American history, the Democratic Party and the nation were on the cusp of long-overdue change.
Zooming in on one party attendee per chapter, A More Perfect Party brings this whimsical event out of the margins of history to demonstrate that there is an opportunity for all of us to fight for a better nation and return power to the people.