TV One is set to tell the story of Rosa Parks through a different lens this Sunday.
Behind the Movement tell the story of how the activist’s refusal to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus sparked a grassroots movement that became so much more.
Meta Golding perfectly plays Parks with Emmy-winner Loretta Devine by her side as Jo Ann Robinson, the civil rights organizer and educator who stayed up through the night mimeographing thousands of handbills calling for a boycott of the Montgomery bus system.
“We need to be reminded of our history,” Golding tells ESSENCE, discussing why now is the perfect time for Behind the Movement. “In this time of such racial divisiveness, I think this is a really inspiring move and almost, also, a playbook on how to be an activist, why needs to happen. How even though it’s hard to take that one action, it’s a community that comes together. It’s people showing up. I think it’s a playbook.”
Both actresses reflect on their own experiences with racism, Devine telling ESSENCE, “When I was young, I’m from the South, and as a child, you weren’t aware of the racism around you. But, as you got older, you knew what to do and what not to do to survive.”
Golding adds, “I don’t think you can be a person of color in this country and not have been touched or had put in your face the racism that exists. As an actress, it’s an everyday conversation, like, ‘Oh, they might go for ethnic’ or ‘Oh, they already have an ethnic person on this show.’ Just blatantly like that, but I feel like now there’s a little bit of a shift in our business.”
“I will say,” Golding continues, “that this is not just an American problem. It’s a global problem. There’s racism everywhere.”
“I hope this [film] goes beyond Black History Month,” Devine adds. “I think this and the conversation can go even further.”
Behind the Movement airs Feb. 11 at 7p.m. ET on TV One.