Seasoned industry veteran Dream Hampton — the executive producer behind Lifetime’s Emmy-nominated “Surviving R. Kelly” documentary series — has been tapped to work on a new project to highlight the infamous events of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921.
Dream Hampton, executive producer of #SurvivingRKelly, will direct 'Black Wall Street,' a documentary series about the Tulsa Race Massacre, a deadly act of racial violence committed 99 years ago https://t.co/KO12nlGiCI
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) June 1, 2020
According to Variety, Hampton will executively produce and direct the Cineflix Productions documentary series to document one of the worst acts of racial violence in American history.
Under the working title “Black Wall Street,” the limited series will weave together past and present events attributed to the 1921 Massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which left hundreds of Black people dead, thousands displaced, and the city on fire.
“Black people from Tulsa have refused to let the Greenwood District Massacre be erased from history. I’m so inspired by their persistence to lift up the stories of what North Tulsa was before the massacre,” Hampton shared in a statement on Monday.
“As the centennial approaches they are still searching for a mass grave they believe contains the bodies of the victims of the Black Wall Street Massacre, and they are still demanding reparations. I’m inspired to learn this history from them, and to tell their ongoing story,” she added.
Hampton’s directing expertise and desire to retell Black stories the way they’re meant to be told is expected to bring this limited series to life.
“After 99 years of silence, Black Wall Street needs to be told, and there’s no one better than Dream Hampton to bring it to life. Driven by social justice, her sensitive yet hard-hitting approach will honor the fallen and help heal a wound by shining a light on a story that’s been brushed under the rug for far too long,” said Cineflix Productions president, J.C. Mills.
“If the recent tragic stories of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery have shown us anything, it’s that there’s still much work to be done.”