*Jay Z and Will Smith are behind an upcoming Emmett Till miniseries; the 14 your-old Black American teen who was murdered and mutilated in 1955 in Mississippi for allegedly whistling at a white girl. Till’s killers were acquitted, despite admitting to the murder later. But because of double jeopardy, they could not be tried a second time.
Will and Jay’s project has finally found a home at ABC, Complex reports, and will focus on the story of Till’s mother Mamie Till-Mobley, who dedicated her life to fighting for civil rights after her son’s death.
Till-Mobley famously asked that her son’s casket be left open during his funeral in Chicago, which was attended by more than 50,000 people and covered by Jet magazine. Photos of his lynching rocked the nation.
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Complex writes: “Smith and JAY-Z will tell her story as a part of the planned series Women of the Movement. The anthology will focus on different important women in the Civil Rights Movement and tell their stories over the course of a single season.”
Last year, the Justice Department reopened the investigation into the Till’s murder “based upon the discovery of new information,” the department said in March 2018.
“For African Americans, the murder of Till was evidence of the decades-old codes of violence exacted upon Black men and women for breaking the rules of white supremacy in the Deep South,” the National Museum of African American History and Culture says.
Carolyn Bryant, the woman who accused Till, admitted more than five decades later that she lied about the circumstances which lead to his death. At aged 83, she spoke to author Timothy Tyson for his book about the lynching.
“The circumstances under which she told the story were coercive,” Tyson said. “She’s horrified by it. There’s clearly a great burden of guilt and sorrow.”
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