Viola Davis has reportedly added yet another film to her hefty list, this one centering on Barbara Jordan, a national figure who was larger than life yet hardly known personally. Not only was Jordan the first Black person to serve in the Texas Senate since Reconstruction, but this pioneer also became the first black woman elected to Congress as well as the first to deliver a keynote address at a national party convention. Due to her very private ways, the public and even some of Jordan's acquaintances and friends knew very little about the politician, even regarding the illness that led to her untimely death at age 59. 

The film is set to be directed by Paris Barclay and is based off of a 2000 biography on Jordan written by Mary Beth Rogers. The Emmy-nominated writer Paris Qualles will be adapting the book to the silver screen. Davis and Barclay have worked together previously on the television series "City of Angels," and wanted to give themselves a second opportunity to work with one another, hence Davis brining her on board. "We're hoping this becomes a movie that shows the world everything that Viola can do," said Barclay. "People haven't seen everything that she's capable of, and this role is so powerful." Leave it to Viola to deliver a knockout, multi-dimensional representation of an outstanding Black woman who made history at the eve of the Civil Rights movement through today.

Would a film on this political pioneer get moviegoers to the theater? What other Black women deserve a biopic?