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Actress and producer Nia Long has just signed onto a new documentary series by ABC that details the journey of the woman behind the moment the Civil Rights movement was born, Mamie Till-Mobley.
As announced by ABC News, Long will be part of Let The World See, a companion documentary series to the limited series Women of the Movement that will air on the network. Let The World See will chronicle the life of Mamie Till-Mobley and her determination to see the men that brutally lynched her son, Emmett Till, be brought to justice and in the process be the spark to the Civil Rights movement. The Love Jones actress will read excerpts from Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime that Changed America, Till-Mobley’s memoir. The first episode of the series will cover her early life, Emmett Till’s childhood days, and will also cover the fate of his father and all of the events that led to Emmett’s murder in Mississippi in the summer of 1955.
The episode will also feature interviews with Reverend Wheeler Parker, Emmett Till’s cousin who witnessed his abduction as well as Thelma Wright, Till-Mobley’s cousin. Also taking part in the episode in the series are Ollie Gordon and Amos Smith, who help to provide context and more insight into Till-Mobley making the fateful decision to hold an open-casket funeral so that the world would bear witness to how her son was murdered. Other notable figures that will appear in the first episode include former First Lady Michelle Obama, Common, Reverend Jesse Jackson, journalist Dan Wakefield who covered the murder trial, and Betty Pearson, who was in the courtroom for the trial.
The documentary series is directed by Jeanmarie Condon and Fatima Curry, with Will Smith and Shawn Carter listed among the executive producers. The first episode of Let The World See will air on Thursday, January 6th on ABC at 10 P.M. ET. Following this premiere, episodes will be available on-demand and on the Hulu streaming service.
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