Black in Period Films

Lovie Simone has been casted in the Apple TV+ true crime limited series "Manhunt" based on Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer  by James Swanson. The series follows the Lincoln assassination and the resulting aftermath. It will be lead by Tobias Menzies ("Rome, “The Crown,”, “Outlander”) as Edwin Stanton, Lincoln’s war secretary and friend. Simone has been casted as Mary Simms, the first Black American to testify on May 25, 1865 during the conspiracy trial for the assassination of President Lincoln. Mary Simms was the former slave of Samuel Mudd, the doctor who treated the leg injury of John Wilkes Booth (to be played by Anthony Boyle) and gave him safe harbor after his crime. Simms remembered her former enslavers dislike for Lincoln and discussed specific conversations during her testimony. Mary Simms' brothers Elzee Eglent,14 year old Milo Simms, and seven other formerly enslaved people also testified in the case so I'm looking forward to their c...

  Official Film Summary : Alice (Keke Palmer) yearns for freedom as an enslaved person on a rural Georgia plantation under its brutal and disturbed owner Paul (Jonny Lee Miller). After a violent clash with Paul, she flees through the neighboring woods and stumbles onto the unfamiliar sight of a highway, soon discovering the year is actually 1973. Rescued on the roadside by a disillusioned political activist named Frank (Common), Alice quickly comprehends the lies that have kept her in bondage and the promise of Black liberation. Inspired by true accounts, Alice is a modern empowerment fable tracing Alice’s journey through the post-Civil Rights Era American South. I love KeKe Palmer and the premise of the story is interesting so I'm looking forward to seeing this film. When the trailer says that the film is "inspired by true events" it is most likely referencing the story of Mae Louise Walls Miller. Mae Louise Walls Miller and her family were enslaved well into the 1960s.