recognizing the queen, shirley chisholm on her birthday

Shirley Chisholm‘s legacy is already etched into history and as we celebrate what would have been her 94th birthday today, the late U.S. Representative is being honored in more ways than one. According to Deadline, Chisholm, who was the first woman and the first Black person to seek a major political party’s nomination for president, will be the subject of a biopic starring the incomparable Academy Award winner Viola Davis. Additionally, the New York Times reports that New York will be honoring her with a statue that will sit at the entrance to Prospect Park in Brooklyn.

No release date has been announced for (working title) The Fighting Shirley Chisholm, which was acquired by Amazon, marking the first project to come out of the recently announced production deal between Davis’ Juvee Productions and the tech giant.

The statue is scheduled to be unveiled in 2020.

Inspiring doesn’t begin to describe Chisholm’s story. The first Black woman elected to Congress (in 1968, from New York’s 12th congressional district), Chisholm encouraged a generation of women to enter politics through her mentorship. Her ambition served as a blueprint for other Black women who entered politics, and although her presidential hopes were ridiculed by the predominantly white and male political establishment, her efforts would go on to embolden a Black community working under the assumption that elections and government were not the paths to freedom.

Adam Countee (Silicon Valley, Community, Mindy Project) was so enamored by Chisholm’s story that he produced a spec script that would be subject to a heated bidding war between Amazon and Stephanie Allen’s Homegrown Pictures (Hustle & Flow, Dear White People). That said, everybody wins when Viola Davis is involved — it’s what Black audiences and Chisholm deserve.