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February 5th, 2021
by
KRNB
Courtesy of Deon Taylor
Deon Taylor has been tapped to direct
Freedom Ride, a period drama centered on the life of late civil rights icon and U.S. Congressman
John Lewis.
The film, co-written by Taylor, will be based on first-person accounts by a dozen of the original Freedom Riders, including Lewis himself. Civil rights attorney
Benjamin Crump and his company, Brooklyn Media, are also on board to co-executive produce the project alongside Taylor and his Hidden Empire Film Group.
Set in 1961,
Freedom Ride will follow the actions of a multiracial group of young activists led by 20-year-old John Lewis, as they decide to take matters into their own hands in the fight racial discrimination and hate. After signing their own last wills and testaments, Lewis and his fellow Freedom Riders travel to the segregated South, where — even with federal law on their side — they are brutally beaten, arrested, and firebombed. Their nonviolent actions and refusal to back down eventually forced the government to desegregate all the buses, trains, public places and facilities used in interstate travel.