Leslie Silva to Star in ABC Civil Rights-Themed Limited Series “Women of the Movement”

Leslie Silva is on the move(ment)

The 52-year-old Afro-Latina actress has been cast in ABC’s limited series Women of the Movement, which hails from creator-writer Marissa Jo Cerar and a producing team that includes Jay-Z, Will Smith and Aaron Kaplan.

Leslie Silva,

Silva, who will portray Ruby Hurley, joins a cast that includes Chris Butler as Rayfield Mooty, Alex Désert as Dr. Howard, Miles Fowler as Simeon Booker, Tongayi Chirisa as Medgar Evers, Jason Turner as James Hicks, and Daniel Abeles as Chet Packton.

Inspired by the book Emmett Till: The Murder That Shocked the World and Propelled the Civil Rights Movement by Devery S. Anderson, the six-episode limited series is set in 1955. It centers on Mamie Till-Mobley (Adrienne Warren), who risks her life to find justice after her son Emmett (Cedric Joe) is brutally murdered in the Jim Crow South. Unwilling to let Emmett’s murder disappear from the headlines, Mamie chooses to bear her pain on the world stage, emerging as an activist for justice and igniting the Civil Rights movement as we know it today.

Glynn Turman, Chris Coy, Julia McDermott, Carter Jenkins, Tonya Pinkins and Ray Fisher co-star.

Silva’s Ruby Hurley was a famed NAACP activist and leader in the Civil Rights Movement. A lady badass among men, Ruby was fiercely committed to getting justice for Emmett Till.

Silva’s television and film credits include NBC’s Shades of Blue, CW’s In The Dark, Showtime’s Odyssey 5, the Hulu limited series The Looming Tower and the independent film Reversion.

On stage, she starred in the Signature Theatre’s production of Chicago, directed by Joseph Chaikin and Sam Shepard, as well as The Master Builder directed by André Gregory.