Broadway Star Adrienne Warren to Play Mamie Till-Mobley in New ABC Drama Women of the Movement'

Broadway star Adrienne Warren is preparing to use her Tony-nominated skills to bring yet another icon to life. Warren, who was recently nominated for Broadway's most prestigious award for her role as Tina Turner in the "Tina Turner The Musical", has now been cast as the mother of Emmett Till, Mamie Till-Mobley. Warren, 33, was the first to be cast in the new ABC Anthology series "Women of the Movement" set to debut in 2021. The series was created by Marissa Jo Cerar and producers Jay-Z, Will Smith and Aaron Kaplan. Gina Prince-Bythewood, known for directing the films Love & Basketball and The Secret Life of Bees, is directing the pilot and is an executive producer.

Here's the breakdown: After the brutal murder of her son in the Jim Crow South, Mamie (Warren), a soft-spoken young mother in Chicago, put her own life on the line to seek justice in his name. Unwilling to let Emmett’s murder disappear from the headlines, Mamie chose to bear her pain on the world’s stage, and as a result ignited the civil rights movement as we know it today.

According to Shadow and Act "Women of the Movement is envisioned as an anthology, with each season focusing on a different woman. This season is based on Emmett Till: The Murder That Shocked the World and Propelled the Civil Rights Movement” by Devery S. Anderson."

We don't know what has shifted in Hollywood but we can definitely appreciate the uptick in Black stories being told.