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Source: Kevin Mazur / Getty M amie Till-Mobley, mother of Emmett Till, will be the central focus for season one of ABC’s Women of the Movement, a new series that will highlight and chronicle the civil-rights movement “as told by the women behind it.” The series will be produced by Jay-Z and Will Smith, both of whom were vital to securing the show a spot on ABC’s lineup. The show will focus on Mamie Till, whose son — Emmett Till — was lynched by a white mob in Mississippi for allegedly winking at a white woman in 1955. Following his death, Till-Mobley went on to join a forces with major players in the fight for civil rights justice following her son’s death. She dedicated the rest of her life to the civil justice and reform until her own passing in 2003. Jay-Z originally teamed up with HBO to work on a miniseries surround Emmet Till, where Taraji P. Henson was set to play his mother, but when director John Middleton died in April, the project was believed to be dissolved. It is not confirmed, but speculated that Women of the Movement is a the product of the work already done into the aforementioned miniseries surround Till. When proposed with the possibility of grabbing the rights to this, ABC Entertainment President Karey Burke instantly loved the idea as the series would turn attention to the women who were responsible for so many key events associated with the civil rights movement. This move aligns perfectly with Burke’s proposition to get more women in programming at the station.
Jay-Z & Will Smith to Produce Series Highlighting Women of the Civil Rights Movement
