ABC will add historical context to its upcoming limited series Women of the Movement with the companion docuseries Let the World See.
Premiering Thursday, Jan. 6 at 10:01 pm, “Let The World See is a fresh and deep examination of Mamie Till-Mobley’s fight to bring her son’s body home to Chicago and her pivotal yet heartbreaking decision to have an open-casket funeral for the public to see, which ultimately served as a turning point for the civil rights movement.”
Let the World See is executive produced by Shawn Carter, Will Smith and Aaron Kaplan, with an original soundtrack from GRAMMY nominated producer Salaam Remi.
The three part series airs after each episode of Women of the Movement. It features interviews with “Emmett Till’s cousins Rev. Wheeler Parker, who was a witness to the abduction, Ms. Ollie Gordon and Amos Smith, and Ms. Thelma Wright, Ms. Mamie Till-Mobley’s cousin.”
Rev. Jesse Jackson, Lent Rice, the FBI agent who was part of the team that opened a new investigation of Emmett Till’s case over 50 years later, Dan Wakefield, a journalist who covered Emmett Till’s murder trial and Betty Pearson, who was in the courtroom watching the trial, will all appear in the docuseries.
Authors Angie Thomas, Christopher Benson, John Edgar Wideman and Michael Eric Dyson will also be interviewed, with Dyson visiting the crime scene to read his “Letter to Emmett Till.”
Limited series Women of the Movement debuts Thursday, Jan. 6 at 8 pm, before Let the World See.
Airing in three 2-hour episodes, Women of the Movement stars Adrienne Warren as Mamie Till-Mobley “who in 1955 risks her life to find justice after her son Emmett is brutally murdered in the Jim Crow South. Unwilling to let Emmett’s murder disappear from the headlines, Mamie chooses to bear her pain on the world stage, emerging as an activist for justice and igniting the Civil Rights movement as we know it today.”
According to Deadline, at ABC’s TCA press conference, Emmett Till’s cousin Reverend Wheeler Parker Jr spoke about the importance of the project.
“Although this story is not a pleasant story, it needs to be told over and over again to remind us of American history,” Revered Parker said, “to show us how far we’ve come, and how much more we have to do.”
A behind the scenes video for Women of the Movement highlights the timely nature of the story and how the director and cast took great care in giving Mamie and Emmett Till the respect they deserve.