An African-American woman is rattling at a white woman. A group of white men snatched Emmett Till out of his uncle’s house in Money, Mississippi, in the middle of the night and tortured and killed him. ABC’s new limited series Women of the Movement tried to re-create the horrible event in Thursday’s premiere.
Thursday’s premiere and opened with, A pregnant woman, drenched in sweat, lying in a hospital bed. She has the feeling she could give birth at any moment, but the nurse dismisses her. July 25, 1941, is the date. Mamie Till (Adrienne Warren) appears to be by herself, but her mother, Alma Carthan (Tonya Pinkins), suddenly appears and demands that someone pay attention to her. Mamie is sedated, and when she awakens, the doctor informs her that her son was born breech, with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck for a period of time. He advises her to put the infant in an institution since the lack of oxygen could cause learning difficulties. Mamie looks at her kid and declares that she will never do such a thing to him and that she will do whatever it takes to get him what he requires. Emmett Louis is the boy’s middle name, which is the first name of his father.
Emmett (Cedric Joe) is now 14, and he lives with Mamie in his hometown of Chicago, on August 14, 1955. A stammer is the only trace of his troubles as a child. Gene Mobley (Ray Fisher) has entered Mamie’s life; Louis died in unexplained circumstances during World War II. Mose Wright (Glynn Turman), her uncle, is visiting from Mississippi and wants Emmett to work on his cotton farm for a few weeks. Mississippi, Mamie believes, is simply too unsafe for Emmett, where Jim Crow laws still reign. Mamie eventually relents after Emmett vows to be careful.
He gives him and his cousins the day off after their first couple of days picking cotton in the August heat, and they head into Money to get some candy and drinks at Bryant’s general store. Emmett sought to impress some of the town’s guys by flirting with the shopkeeper’s wife, but he paid a high price for his innocent childhood transgression.
He walks in and strikes up a conversation with Carolyn Bryant (Julia McDermott), who is so disturbed that she pulls out a gun and scares all of the Black males away. When her husband Roy (Carter Jenkins) learns of it, he resolves to track down the child who dared to talk to his wife.
JULIA MCDERMOTT
A few days later, Roy and his half-brother, J.W. Milam (Chris Coy), arrive at Mose’s house in the middle of the night, armed with weapons and flashlights, and compel Mose to tell them which kid spoke to Roy’s wife. He unwillingly takes them to Emmett, fearing for the lives of everyone within the house; they carry the youngster into their truck and drive him away.
Women of the Movement Episode 2 recap
Mamie is trying to get attention for Emmett’s abduction in the second episode, called “Only Skin.” When Maime returns to Chicago, she learns that Emmett has been kidnapped and goes to the NAACP to help spread the word. They assist her in contacting Chicago reporters, to whom she shares Emmett’s story. Emmett’s body is discovered in the Tallahatchie River a few days later, beaten and tortured with a gunshot wound in the head. Mose is ordered by the sheriff in Tallahatchie County to bury the young guy immediately away, but when Mamie learns about it, she insists on having him return home.
ADRIENNE WARREN
Mose and his sons find an undertaker who agrees on the condition that Mamie is not allowed to see the body. Mamie is adamant that she see what the racists in Mississippi did to her son, and once she does, she demands that his wake be held in an open coffin so that the rest of the world can see it as well.
