In June 1972, Shirley Temple Black took on one of the biggest roles of her life: US delegate to the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment. June 2022 marks 50 years since Black, then 44, joined delegates from around the world in Stockholm to address the growing crisis of global pollution. Most people remember Shirley Temple as a child star—America’s beloved antidote to the Great Depression. But she was so much more. In an exclusive excerpt from Black’s unpublished autobiography—provided to me by her children, Charlie Black and Susan Falaschi—Black reflects on what it was like to become a stateswoman, and how she navigated one of the greatest threats to the planet. I wrote about Black’s revelations and the remarkable contributions she made to diplomacy in the June 2022 issue of Smithsonian. Read the piece online HERE.