Award-winning actress Taraji P. Henson, who portrayed pioneering NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson in the film "Hidden Figures," is now on a mission to help highlight another significant story in U.S. history: Emmett Till.
"I am producing 'The Emmett Till Story' and am starring as Mamie Till," Henson told Global Grind in a recent interview. "That's one (project) that I've been passionate about since Trayvon Martin was murdered."
In the summer of August 1955, while visiting his family in Mississippi, Emmett Till, a 14-year-old boy from Chicago, was kidnapped and brutally murdered by two white men (J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant) after being accused of whistling at a white woman at the local grocery store.
His mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, chose to have an open casket service to show the world the horrific racial violence that African Americans faced in the South. Emmett's death went on to become one of the major incidents that fueled the civil rights movement.
Henson revealed that legendary filmmaker John Singleton will direct the film. Henson and Singleton's Emmett Till project has not yet received a start date.