Women of the Movement (that aired on ABC last month), for example, the story of Emmitt Till is told, not to rehash his gruesome murder in a manner that could be perceived as “trauma porn,” but rather to give a voice to his mother and spotlight the role her activism played in the success of the Civil Rights Movement. And last year, Misha Green’s Lovecraft Country brought to life the experience of Black travelers in a sundown town in the 1950s, while the devastation of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre became a crucial plot point in the Regina King–led drama series Watchmen.The fictional and nonfictional story lines in Ava DuVernay’s Queen Sugar, When They See Us and Colin in Black & White connect the dots between the Black history our ancestors lived and the lasting remnants of that era—as we navigate the same economically crippling social construct that is systemic racism today.
