Michael Ealy To Play Civil Rights Activist Dr. Gilbert Mason in Biopic ‘A Civil Right’Posted by Wilson Morales
September 12, 2014
Source: Deadline
Deadline is reporting that Michael Ealy has been tapped to play civil rights activist Dr. Gilbert Mason in biopic A Civil Right.
The film tells the story of the Biloxi physician who led nonviolent “wade-ins” against segregation on Gulf Coast beaches between 1959 and 1963, protests that sparked violence from whites and resulted in the first successful anti-discrimination suit against the state of Mississippi. Mason’s activism landed him at #3 on the FBI’s civil rights agitators most-watched list, and he went on to successfully fight for school desegregation in the state and help form the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO). He served as President of the Mississippi NAACP for three decades before his death in 2006.
Salvatore Stabile will write, produce and direct from his own script, with Revolution Media’s Michael Benaroya and Darryl Taja serving as producers. They’re looking to fill out the cast of real life figures involved in Mason’s historic efforts including Zack VanLandingham, a FBI agent turned state investigator who moved back to the south to protect and preserve his family’s way of life in the fight against integration.
Currently filming the Screen Gems thriller The Perfect Guy with Sanaa Lathan and Morris Chestnut, Ealy was last seen in Think Like a Man Too, as well as About Last Night, which came out earlier this year. He also starred in the short-lived TV series Almost Human.
