Viola Davis to star in Amazon project

Oscar-winning actress Viola Davis is gearing up to play groundbreaking politician Shirley Chisholm in a film for Amazon Studios.

Davis has signed on to star in and produce the project about Chisholm, who was the first black woman ever elected to the US Congress and the first woman to seek the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. She sought the presidential nomination in 1972. Chisholm died in 2005 at age 80.

Maggie Betts will direct Davis in The Fighting Shirley Chisholm off of a screenplay from Silicon Valley writer Adam Countee.