Alfre Woodard is switching gears from futuristic sci-fi to a drama rooted in very real history. The star of “See” has signed on to headline and exec produce a limited series about civil rights and voting activist Fannie Lou Hamer for ABC Studios. Variety broke the news.
Born and raised in Mississippi, Hamer came from a family of sharecroppers. She began helping her family in the fields at age six and left school after the sixth grade to work full-time. As an adult, Hamer helped spearhead the 1962 Freedom Summer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. She was arrested on trumped up charges in 1963 and put in jail, where she was badly beaten and incurred permanent kidney damage.
Hamer made headlines when she spoke as the representative of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party at the 1964 Democratic National Convention. Arguing that the Democrats should recognize her party instead of Mississippi’s segregated Democratic Party, Hamer recounted the acts of violence she witnessed while participating in the civil rights movement. She died in 1977.
A 17-time Emmy nominee, Woodard took home awards for “The Practice,” “Miss Evers’ Boys,” “L.A. Law,” and “Hill Street Blues.” She received an Oscar nod in 1984 for “Cross Creek.”
Woodard plays a shaman in “See,” which has been renewed for a second season on Apple TV+. Her other recent credits include “The Lion King,” “Juanita,” and “Clemency.” Woodard’s director on the latter, Chinonye Chukwu, has a feature in the works about Emmett Till, the 14-year-old Black boy who was tortured and lynched by two white men in 1955. The project will also center on his mother, Mamie Till Mobley, and her determination to obtain justice for her son, which helped spur the civil rights movement.
Other projects in the pipeline about the civil rights movement include a biopic of Lena O. Smith. While studying at Northwestern College of Law, she worked with the NAACP and helped file suits against discriminatory businesses, participated in the investigation of a lynching, and found legal representation for Black citizens standing trial. She served as president of the NAACP’s Minneapolis branch from 1930-1939.
