Taraji P. Henson to Star in Emmett Till Film

By Sameer Rao Jan 09, 2018

Actress Taraji P. Henson ("Hidden Figures") confirmed in an interview yesterday (January 8) that she will star in a movie about the life and murder of Emmett Till.


“I am producing ‘The Emmett Till Story’ and am starring as Mamie Till,” Henson told Global Grind yesterday. "That’s one [project] that I’ve been passionate about since Trayvon Martin was murdered.” She added that "Snowfall" director John Singleton will helm the film.


Mamie Till famously chose to give her son, Emmett, an open-casket funeral after the 14-year-old boy was lynched by J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant. Jet magazine and The Chicago Reader published photos of his body, providing photographic evidence of the violence that White supremacists inflicted on African Americans.


Vanity Fair first reported on the film in a February 2017 article that mentioned two other forthcoming projets on Till: a miniseries from HBO, co-produced by Will Smith and Jay-Z, and "Till," a feature film produced and directed by Whoopi Goldberg.