Viola Davis To Play Harriet Tubman
At this rate she’ll never get back on stage, which is where I most love her: Viola Davis is attached to star in an HBO telepic about the life of Harriet Tubman, the activist who helped devise a system that allowed hundreds of slaves to escape to freedom via the Underground Railroad. The untitled movie is based on the book “Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman: Portrait of an American Hero†by Kate Clifford Larson. Tubman became an American icon as a woman who escaped from slavery in Maryland in 1849 and helped organize a network of safe houses to help her relatives. She eventually helped hundreds of slaves to secure their freedom and became the most famous “conductor†on the network. Tubman is not the only African-American historical figure that Davis has sought to portray onscreen. The actress has been developing a feature film based on the life of pioneering congresswoman and LGBT icon Barbara Jordan.
