Taraji P. Henson to Star and Produce Film about Emmett Till
Taraji P. Henson is bringing the story of Emmett Till to Hollywood. It has been reported that the acclaimed actress is set to produce and star in a forthcoming film with noted director, John Singleton.
While promoting her upcoming film, Proud Mary, Henson revealed that she is working on the film during an interview with Global Grind. “I am producing the Emmett Till story and I am starring as Mamie Till. John Singleton is going to direct it. We don’t have a start date yet but the deal has been done.” The “Empire” star added that this isn’t any normal project. “That’s one that I have been passionate about since Trayvon Martin has been murdered.”
With Singleton serving as director, Michael De Luca (American History X) and Laray Mayfield (Luke Cage) will work alongside Henson, who will produce under her production company TPH Productions. As Vanity Fair reports, the screenplay will be develop by Michael Roden and Jerry Mitchell, MacArthur Award-winning journalist whose reporting aided in the conviction of four Klansman of fatal hate crimes in the 1960’s.
In 1955, Emmett Till was brutally murdered by two white men for allegedly whistling at a white woman while visiting family in Mississippi. The two men kidnapped the Chicago native and nearly beat him to death, gouged his eye out, shot him in the head and threw his body into a river. Although his body was severally brutalized to the point of no facial recognition, his mother decided to have an open-casket funeral so the world can see what the racist men did to her son. His assailants, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, were acquitted by an all-white jury who deliberated for less than an hour.
The death of Emmett Till brought the brutality of the Jim Crow segregation in the South to light. After the tragic death of her son, Mamie Till-Mobley became an educator and a civil rights activist and traveled around the country to share her son’s story. In 2003, Mamie Till-Mobley passed of heart failure. She was 81.
Be sure to check out Taraji P. Henson’s full interview with Global Grind below.
Photo Credit: PR Photos
