Danai Gurira has battled zombies and defended Wakanda, but now she's taking on a role that features a whole new kind of fight. Just announced this week, Gurira will star as the trailblazing politician Shirley Chisholm in the upcoming, aptly-titled
The Fighting Shirley Chisholm.The new film will follow Chisholm’s historic 1972 run to become the Democratic nominee for President of the United States.
Variety shared the news on November 11 and noted that the upcoming film is not a biopic but rather an in-depth look at Chisholm’s campaign and how “the Chisholm Trail was populated by young people who sought social and political change during one of the most turbulent times in American history.” It’s always been a good time for a Shirley Chisholm film, but now it feels more relevant than ever.Gurira’s breakout role came with the New Orleans-based drama
Treme, where she appeared as the character Jill for six episodes between 2010 and 2011. A Tony-nominated playwright, the multitalented Gurira amassed a huge fan base after being cast as the machete-wielding Michonne in
The Walking Dead. Gurira left the series earlier this year during
The Walking Dead’s tenth season to focus more on feature films. She has played Wakanda warrior Okoye since 2016, appearing in
Black Panther, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and
Avengers: Endgame. Gurira also appeared in the 2017 Tupac Shakur biopic
All Eyez On Me where she played Tupac’s mother, Afeni Shakur.The film will be directed by Cherien Dabis, who is best known for her work in TV, including directing episodes of
The L Word, Ramy, Sweetbitter, Empire and
Quantico. Adam Countee, who has worked on
The Mindy Project, Community, Silicon Valley, and
Run, will write the script.Chisholm’s life has previously been portrayed on the small screen in this year’s Emmy-winning drama
Mrs. America. In the limited series, Chisholm is portrayed by Emmy and SAG-winner Uzo Aduba.Gurira will play the iconic and fearless politician who in 1968 became the first Black woman ever to be elected to Congress. Born in Brooklyn in 1924, Chisholm represented New York's 12th congressional district for seven terms from 1969 to 1983. In 1972 she once again made history when she became the first black person to be a candidate for a major party’s nomination when she ran in the Democratic Party presidential primaries. Chisholm was also the first woman to ever run for the Democratic nomination (Republican Margaret Chase Smith had previously run for her party’s nomination in 1964).Chisholm spent her career championing food and health programs for the poor, fighting against segregation and institutional racism, and working in education. She left Congress in 1983 and became a professor at Mt Holyoke College. In 2015, President Barack Obama presented Chisholm with a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom. Chisholm died in 2005 after suffering several strokes and is buried at the Birchwood Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo. Her vault bears the name of her 1970 autobiography, her campaign slogan and the title of the political documentary that covered her run for president, reading “Unbought and Unbossed.”[video_embed id='2072975']Before you go: The historical significance of Kamala Harris as America's vice president[/video_embed]
