“First The Till Family. Then The Crime” Marissa Jo Cerar Discusses ‘Women Of The Movement’

The horrific murder of fourteen year old Emmett “Bobo” Till (played by Cedric Joe) on 28 August 1955 for allegedly wolf-whistling at Carolyn Bryant (played by Julia McDermott ), a white woman, still haunts us today as stark reminder of the scourge of hate crimes in America more than sixty years later.

Showrunner Marissa Jo Cerar (The Handmaid’s Tale, 13 Reasons Why, Shots Fired) was initially inspired to create Women Of The Movement based on the book Emmett Till: The Murder That Shocked the World and Propelled the Civil Rights Movement by Devery S. Anderson.

Emmett Till’s death is foundational and instigated an entire movement. “Emmett Till’s story launched the Civil Rights Movement as we know it today,” declared Cerar.

Emmett’s kidnapping, and subsequent murder followed by the insistence of his mother Mamie Till-Mobley (played by Adrienne Warren) of an open casket at his wake and funeral opened the hearts and minds of people all over the world. The resulting outrage at the Jim Crow South was marked by global demonstrations, and not just by black people. “This was instigated by his mother refusing to allow the story to be removed from the headlines.” Mamie took control of the narrative of various media which frequently villainized her son and were complicit in his being tried as an adult. “He was often characterized as a predator, when he was just a boy living his life.”

“I chose to tell a character-driven story from Mamie’s point of view. Many of these lynching stories are told from an activist’s or criminal justice point of view,” said the showrunner. 

Women Of The Movement is really a story “about a mother and her family.” This character-based approach lends itself to Cerar’s writing tastes which aren’t true crime, but rather, family drama.

Other versions of the well-documented Emmett Till story typically focus on his death. Cerar chose to open her TV series with his birth to celebrate his short life. “I wanted to find out who Emmett was and who Mamie was. She was a women who changed the world. I wanted to know who these people were, not just what happened to them.”

Women Of The Movement had many big names behind it including Jay-Z, Will Smith, Gina Prince-Bythewood, and James Lassiter. Fortunately, this didn’t result in too much input threatening to derail the show. “There was a lot of trust in me. Everything is a conversation. They wanted me to tell the story in the way that I wanted without micromanaging the process.”

Marissa Jo undertook lengthy, painstaking research to shape her story. “I read every book, newspaper article, and watched every news clip and documentary I could get my hands on. I wanted to get every angle on the story – even the wrong angle.” It was subsequently revealed that Carolyn Bryant who accused Till of a crime gave false testimony in court, tragically without consequence. The paid killers also confessed to lying eventually, again without consequence. In fact, the case was dismissed to protect the killers.

Although the showrunner used her mountain of research as a North Star, she was mindful of maintaining the narrative flow of the series. Some characters were merged into one, while others where excluded. “Facts were expanded or contracted, but never invented, to fit the characters.”

Cerar was fortunate to meet some living people who were alive at the time of the events. These included Reverend Wheeler Parker Jr (Joshua Caleb Johnson), Emmett’s cousin, who was present when Emmett was kidnapped at the market. She watched every single interview he gave as well as those Emmett’s mother Mamie gave. “Then I crafted dialogue based on how they saw the kidnap and murder and how they felt.” She used this meticulous approach for many characters when official court transcripts weren’t available.

Mamie Till-Mobley was surprisingly not driven by hatred, anger, or revenge. “She was a regular, single mother driven by love. Mamie was supported by her community, her faith, and her family to get her through the ordeal.”

Writing of 'Women Of The Movement'

By the time Cerar pitched her show to ABC TV executives, she had each episode thoroughly planned. Her pitch meeting lasted over an hour as she pitched the entire series. She pitched the tone and theme of every episode and how they inter-linked. “I wanted the first episode to be a coming of age story. A story of a mother letting go and her fourteen year old son on the verge of becoming a man.”

“Episode two was pitched as a kidnapping thriller. Mamie’s anxiously waiting for her son to come home because nobody knows what’s happened to him except for the audience.” The kidnapping had exploded to the extent that people were calling in claiming to have seen him, sometimes falsely.

“Episode three showed Mamie identifying her son’s body and making the decision to leave his casket open for all to see while the law tried to cover up the heinous crime.”

“Episodes four and five were the trial episodes to show a court wading through legal processes with a pre-ordained outcome. Episode six was the hour-long biopic episode. What happens when you know that the men that kidnapped and killed Emmett were never going to be convicted despite them having confessed?”

Once the TV writers’ room was staffed, the writers had a solid outline from which to work. M.J. Cerar asked the writers to read the book and watch certain documentaries to be fully prepared for the writing process.

Despite the drastic uptick in anti-hate crime activism over the decades, the world is only marginally safer for the Emmett Tills of the world. The epilogue after the final episode accurately captures this sentiment

Cerar wanted to focus on the shared humanity of the Till family more than the crime. “Emmett was a boy looking to spend the summer in Mississippi with his cousins without his mother in tow. Unfortunately, he became a martyr for a civil rights movement that exists today.”

Mamie Till-Mobley showed us that one person can make a difference no matter where they’re from or their background. Her memory is as vivid as her son’s. Cerar wants to raise awareness of Emmett’s fate and hopes the audience acts in some way after watching the TV series – no matter how big or small. Shining a harsh light on hate crimes is everybody’s problem, not just the victims and their families, so we need to collectively address it.