Two years ago, Whoopi Goldberg accomplished one of her biggest dreams by making a documentary about comedian Moms Mabley. The HBO project was a success, and now Goldberg is giving another voice to the voiceless as she embarks on a film about Emmett Till.
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Goldberg, along with Keith A. Beauchamp and Frederick Zollo (producer of Mississippi Burning and Ghosts of Mississippi), will produce Till, based on Beauchamp’s 2004 documentary, The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till, and Simeon Wright’s Simeon’s Story: An Eyewitness Account of the Kidnapping of Emmett Till.
Till was only 14 years old when he was found tortured and lynched on Aug. 28, 1955, after allegedly whistling at a white woman while visiting relatives in Money, Miss. Beauchamp’s documentary prompted the government to reopen the case in 2004.
In order to gain funding for the production, the producers launched a Kickstarter campaign, according to Variety.
“Here is a story that is as much a part of American history as the Boston Tea Party and may stand as the greatest argument for getting rid of sanctioned racism,” Goldberg said. “Emmett Till’s brutal death at the hands of ignorant, brutish people exposes the Jim Crow-era South that gave the implicit OK to uphold that kind of racism without any real fear of repercussions. Today, the return of rampant, unchallenged racism cries out for the telling of Emmett Till’s story again.”
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