''Women of the Movement'' is an American

historical drama A historical drama (also period drama, costume drama, and period piece) is a work set in a past time period, usually used in the context of film and television. Historical drama includes historical fiction and romances, adventure films, and sw ...

miniseries A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. " Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries forma ...

that premiered on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

on January 6, 2022. Created by Marissa Jo Cerar, the series centers on Mamie Till-Mobley, played by Adrienne Warren, who devoted her life to seeking justice for her murdered son Emmett, played by Cedric Joe.

Tonya Pinkins Tonya Pinkins (born May 30, 1962) is an American actress and filmmaker. Her award-winning debut feature film ''RED PILL'' was an official selection at the 2021 Pan African Film Festival, won the Best Black Lives Matter Feature and Best First Fe ...

also co-stars as Alma Carthan, Emmett's grandmother. The series is based on the book ''Emmett Till: The Murder That Shocked the World and Propelled the Civil Rights Movement'' by Devery S. Anderson. In August 2021 during post-production, the book ''Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed America'' by Mamie Till-Mobley and Christopher Benson, was also added to the project.

Background

In 1955, Mamie Till-Mobley's son

Emmett Till Emmett Louis Till (July 25, 1941August 28, 1955) was a 14-year-old African Americans, African American boy who was abducted, tortured, and Lynching in the United States, lynched in Mississippi in 1955, after being accused of offending a whi ...

was murdered in

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Missis ...

during the

Jim Crow era The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...

. Her fight to get justice for him and to make sure he would not be forgotten would ultimately help to spawn the

civil rights movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the United ...

Cast and characters

Main

* Adrienne Warren as Mamie Till-Mobley *

as Alma Carthan, Mamie's mother and Emmett's grandmother *Cedric Joe as Emmett "Bobo" Till *

Glynn Turman Glynn Russell Turman (born January 31, 1947) is an American actor, writer, director, and producer. Turman is known for his roles as Lew Miles on the prime-time soap opera '' Peyton Place'' (1968–1969), high school student Leroy "Preach" Jackson ...

as Rev. Mose Wright, Mamie's uncle * Ray Fisher as Gene Mobley. Mamie's boyfriend *

Chris Coy Christopher James Coy (born May 1, 1986) is an American actor. He is known for portraying Calvin Bunker on Cinemax’s ''Banshee'', L.P. Everett on HBO's '' Treme'', Martin on AMC's '' The Walking Dead'', and Paul Hendrickson on HBO's '' The D ...

as J. W. Milam, Roy's half-brother *Julia McDermott as Carolyn Bryant, Roy's wife *

Carter Jenkins Carter Mark Jenkins (born September 4, 1991) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in the films '' Aliens in the Attic'' (2009), ''Valentine's Day'' (2010), and '' Struck by Lightning'' (2012). On television, Jenkins was part of th ...

as Roy Bryant *

Gary Basaraba Gary Basaraba (born March 16, 1959) is a Canadian actor. He appeared as Sergeant Richard Santoro on Steven Bochco's ''Brooklyn South'' and Officer Ray Hechler on the critically acclaimed but short-lived ''Boomtown''. He has worked for Martin S ...

as Sheriff Clarence Strider

Recurring

* Jamir Vega as Simeon Wright, Emmett's cousin * Joshua Caleb Johnson as Wheeler Parker Jr. *

Leslie Silva Leslie Silva (born April 21, 1968) is an American actress who has had long running television roles in '' Odyssey 5'', '' Providence'', and ''Shades of Blue''. Early life and education In 1968, Silva was born in Schenectady, New York. She gradu ...

as Ruby Hurley, the South-Western Director of the NAACP * Chris Butler as Rayfield Mooty, a well-networked steel worker from Chicago who takes up Mamie's cause. * Alex Désert as Dr. Theodore Roosevelt Howard * Miles Fowler as Simeon Booker * Tongayi Chirisa as

Medgar Evers Medgar Wiley Evers (; July 2, 1925June 12, 1963) was an American civil rights activist and the NAACP's first field secretary in Mississippi, who was murdered by Byron De La Beckwith. Evers, a decorated U.S. Army combat veteran who had served i ...

* Jason Turner as James L. Hicks * Daniel Abeles as Chet Packton *

Timothy Hutton Timothy Tarquin Hutton (born August 16, 1960) is an American actor and film director. He is the youngest recipient of the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, which he won at age 20 for his performance as Conrad Jarrett in '' Ordinary Peopl ...

as Jesse J. Breland, the prosecuting lawyer in Mississippi *

Gil Bellows Gil Bellows (born June 28, 1967) is a Canadian actor, screenwriter, and director. He is best known for the roles of Tommy Williams in the 1994 movie ''The Shawshank Redemption'', Billy Thomas in the Fox television series '' Ally McBeal'' (1997– ...

as Gerald Chatham * Vivian Fleming-Alvarez as Elizabeth "Lizzie" Wright, the wife of Mose *

Dan Byrd Daniel Byrd (born November 20, 1985) is an American actor. His most prominent roles include the 2004 film ''A Cinderella Story'', the 2006 remake of '' The Hills Have Eyes'', the 2010 films ''Easy A'' and ''Norman'', and the sitcoms '' Aliens in ...

as Dan Wakefield * Kevin Cutts as Sheriff Smith * Jason Gaines as Johnny Whitten * Jason Horgan as J.W. Kellum * Ted Welch as Harvey Henderson * Chip Lane as Judge Curtis Swango * Deja Dee as Willie Mae * Luke Hardeman as Maurice Wright * Hudson Hurley as Roy Bryant Jr. * Todd Barnett as Robert Smith * Charlotte Haynes Hazzard as Mandy Bradley

Episodes

Production

Development

Jay-Z Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969), known professionally as Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and founder of Manhattan-based conglomerate talent and entertainment agency Roc Nation. He is regarded as one of ...

Will Smith Willard Carroll Smith II (born September 25, 1968), also known by his stage name The Fresh Prince, is an American actor and rapper. He began his acting career starring as a fictionalized version of himself on the NBC sitcom ''The Fresh ...

and Aaron Kaplan of Roc Nation, Overbrook Entertainment and Kapital Entertainment first tried to produce an untitled miniseries based on the life of Emmett Till at

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television, premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office busi ...

in 2016. While at HBO, the group merged with Rosanna Grace and Nicole Tabs of Serendipity Group Inc, John P. Middleton and Alex Foster of The Middleton Media Group, and David Clark of Mazo Partners. When the project left HBO it was reconceived to focus on women during the civil rights movement. The series, now titled ''Women of the Movement'', began development in April 2020. On August 28, 2020, on the 65th anniversary of

's murder,

gave the official green light to the series, with Marissa Jo Cerar coming on board as the writer and

Gina Prince-Bythewood Gina Maria Prince-Bythewood (born June 10, 1969) is an American film director and screenwriter. She is known for directing the films ''Love & Basketball'' (2000), '' Disappearing Acts'' (2000), '' The Secret Life of Bees'' (2008), ''Beyond the Li ...

confirmed to direct the first episode of the series.

Casting

On October 16, 2020, Adrienne Warren was cast in a leading role of Mamie Till-Mobley. On November 13, 2020,

Niecy Nash Carol Denise Betts (née Ensley; born February 23, 1970), known professionally as Niecy Nash-Betts (), is an American actress, comedian and television host, best known for her performances on television. Nash hosted the Style Network show '' C ...

joined the series as Alma Carthan, Emmett Till's grandmother. On December 3, 2020, Cedric Joe joined the series as Emmett Till. On December 9, 2020,

joined the series as Mose Wright, Emmett Till's great uncle. On December 17, 2020, Ray Fisher joined the series as Gene Mobley, Mamie's husband. On January 6, 2021, it was announced that

had replaced Nash in the role of Alma Carthan. On January 11, 2021,

, Julia McDermott and

joined the series as J. W. Milam, Carolyn Bryant and Roy Bryant, respectively. On March 10, 2021, Joshua Caleb Johnson was cast in a recurring role. On April 13, 2021,

, Chris Butler, Alex Désert, Miles Fowler, Tongayi Chirisa, Jason Turner, and Daniel Abeles joined the cast in recurring roles. In June 2021,

joined the cast. In August 2021,

was cast in a recurring role.

Release

On October 21, 2021, ABC released a teaser trailer for the miniseries. The first two episodes premiered on January 6, 2022.

Reception

Critical response

The

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

reported an 89% approval rating with an average rating of 6.8/10, based on 19 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "''Women of the Movement'' enlivens the tragedy of

with solid storytelling and a deeply moving pair of performances by Adrienne Warren and Cedric Joe."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc D ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 71 out of 100 based on 15 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Ratings

Accolades

References

External links

* * {{Authority control 2020s American black television series 2020s American drama television miniseries 2022 American television series debuts 2022 American television series endings American Broadcasting Company original programming Civil rights movement in television Cultural depictions of American women Emmett Till in fiction English-language television shows Television series by Kapital Entertainment Television series by Roc Nation Television series set in 1955 Television shows based on non-fiction books Television shows set in Mississippi