(AllHipHop News) A movie about slain African-American teenager Emmett Till is in the works. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Taraji P. Henson (Empire, Proud Mary) is set to star as Emmett’s mother Mamie Till-Mobley.
Henson’s TPH Productions is developing the motion picture as well. Oscar-nominated filmmaker John Singleton (Boyz n the Hood) is currently attached as the director.
In 1955, Emmett Till was killed in Money, Mississippi by two white men. His murder was prompted by a white woman claiming the 14-year-old Chicago native flirted with her which was considered offensive by local residents.
Carolyn Bryant eventually admitted to The Blood of Emmett Till author Tim Tyson that she lied about the encounter. An all-white jury acquitted Bryant’s then-husband Roy Bryant and his brother J.W. Milam of murdering Till, but they later publicly confessed to the crime.
Till-Mobley helped provide a catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement by demanding her son’s funeral feature an open casket in order for the world to see the cruelty inflicted on Emmett by racists empowered by segregation. The pictures of the boy’s brutalized body were published around the world, exposing the treatment of black Americans in many areas in the South.
There have been reports HBO is also in the process of creating a mini-series about Till. Jay-Z’s Roc Nation and Will Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment were connected to that production which is not affiliated with Henson’s forthcoming film.