Black History Month: Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm's 1972 Presidential Run

Note: This is the ninth installment of WCBS 880's Black History Month series.

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork)-- Forty-four years ago, there was a pioneering and quite serious campaign for the nation's highest office.

Long before Hillary Clinton, there was Shirley Chisholm.

The year was 1972 and Representative Chisholm of Brooklyn, the first black woman elected to the United States congress, was running.

"She always said, 'If I waited for someone to give me a turn, I would still be waiting,'" award-winning filmmaker Shola Lynch told WCBS 880's Jane Tillman Irving.

Lynch conducted extensive interviews with Chisholm, and released her documentary "Chisholm '72: Unbought And Unbossed" in 2004, not long before Chisholm died.

"She understood what power was," Lynch said.

Chisholm won only 151 delegates. George McGovern was the democratic nominee, and Richard Nixon was reelected in a landslide.