LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A new film that will star Sterling K. Brown will focus on Scipio Africanus Jones, who was a lawyer who defended 87 men who were wrongfully accused of murder after the Elaine massacre of 1919.
Deadline reported that Searchlight Pictures has secured the rights to the script from E. Nicholas Mariani and George Tillman Jr. will direct.
The script was selected in the 2018 Black List, which included scripts for Promising Young Woman and King Richard.
Anywhere between 100 and 300 Black people were killed in the Elaine massacre after a group of Black sharecroppers meeting in a church were attacked by a group of White landowners.
Jones, in the aftermath of the massacre, defended the Elaine 12 along with other men in a series of trials.
A ledger and other recently found documents suggest that the White employers sparked the violence, fearing that they would be sued by their Black workers.
The UA Little Rock Center for Arkansas History and Culture has a digital exhibit on the Elaine Massacre you can find by clicking here.