Posted by | Ray Cornelius
The Grio is reporting that Jay Z and Will Smith are joining forces to produce a new mini-series for HBO on the life and tragic death of Emmett Till. Till was the 14 year old African-American youth who was murdered for allegedly flirting with a white woman in Mississippi in 1955.
As the story goes, Till was visiting Mississippi from Chicago, when he allegedly spoke to 21-year-old Carolyn Bryant, the married proprietor of a small grocery. Her husband, Roy and his half-brother J.W. Milam, went to Till’s great-uncle’s house, kidnapped him and took him to a barn where they beat him, gouged his eyes and then shot him in the head. They eventually tied a 70-pound cotton gin around his neck with barbed wire and threw his lifeless body in Tallahatchie River, where it was discovered three days later. Till was funeralized in Chicago, where his mother insisted on a public funeral service with an open casket to show the world what had been done to her son.
No other details are available on this project.
Stay tuned…
Photo Credit: Variety.com