Sixty-one years after the brutal murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till helped ignite the civil rights movement, cable television network HBO has begun work on a miniseries about the case. Based on Devery Anderson’s definitive book Emmett Till: The Murder That Shocked the World and Propelled the Civil Rights Movement, it will be produced, in part, by Will Smith, Jay-Z, and Casey Affleck.

Anderson joins Library Director Crosby Kemper III in discussing the 1955 case against the backdrop of today’s racial tensions. Kansas City civil rights activist Alvin Sykes, one of Anderson’s sources for his book, delivers opening remarks. He instigated Congress’ passage of the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act in 2008 and now is pushing for its extension.