Hello there, I'm Chuck Todd and this is the Chuck Todd cast.

Shirley Chisholm said she was unbought and unbossed.

That might explain why Chisholm was the first black woman to campaign for a major party presidential

nomination back in 1972.

A Democrat, she was the first black woman to be elected to Congress back in 1968, which

represented New York's 12th Congressional District for seven terms in the Brooklyn area

and a new book.

Anastasia Kerwood details Chisholm's path to political power as a black woman and how

she used her identity to connect with Brooklyn first and then the rest of the country.

Join now by the author.

Anastasia, the book is Shirley Chisholm champion of black feminist power politics.

Anastasia is also a professor of history in a director of the Commonwealth Institute

for Black Studies at the University of Kentucky.

Anastasia, welcome to the Todd cast.

It's a pleasure to be here.

Thanks for having me.

I want to start sort of a big picture here.

When did you decide you wanted to write a book on Shirley?

2008.

And I'll tell you why.

So in 2008, I went looking for a biography of Shirley Chisholm to teach as a professor.

I was teaching a class on biography and I couldn't find one.

...