ABC is producing a new series Women of the Movement about the story of Mamie Till Mobley, the mother of Emmett Till who dedicated her life to advocating for civil rights after he son was lynched in 1955.
The network announced the six-part series on Tuesday while sharing its plans for the upcoming television season, according to The Associated Press. A teaser for the show dropped on Tuesday featuring Adrienne Warren as Mobley and Cedric Joe as Till.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QJw19B-GqY
Till died on August 28, 1955 after his mother sent him to Mississippi to stay with relatives for the summer. The 14-year-old encountered a white woman, Carolyn Bryant, who later accused him of whistling at her. Later that night, Roy Bryant, her husband, and his brother J.W. Milam, kidnapped Till from his great-uncle’s home. The boy was later beaten, tortured and thrown in the Tallahatchie River with a cotton gin tied around his neck.
After he was killed, Mobley requested her son’s body be sent home to Chicago, per The Washington Post. When the corpse arrived by train, Till was unrecognizable to his mother. His body was bloated, his teeth and one ear were missing and one of his eyes were hanging out of the socket.
Despite the body’s appearance, Mobley demanded her son’s funeral include an open casket so the world could see what Milam and Bryant did to her boy. Milam and Bryant were brought to trial for the killing but they were acquitted by an all-white jury. Carolyn Bryant admitted she lied on Till in 2017.
“I think everybody needed to know what had happened to Emmett Till,” she said at the time, according to PBS.
The decision changed the course of history and Mobley received immense support from the Black community. Till’s death is often considered the turning point for the Civil Rights Movement.
Mobley died of heart failure in 2003. She was 81 years old.
Women of the Movement will air in late 2021.
