Debra Martin Chase (“Sparkle,” “The Princess Diaries”) is set to produce a new miniseries for ABC entitled “The Black Calhouns,” a new historical drama centered on an African-American family. The miniseries will be based on the nonfiction book of the same name, written by Gail Lumet Buckley. Buckley–daughter of actress and icon Lena Horne–traced her family history from the civil war to the civil rights movement.
The Black Calhouns is a vibrant portrait of six generations during dynamic times of struggle and triumph. Gail Lumet Buckley begins the story with her great-great grandfather, a house slave named Moses Calhoun, and follows the thread of her family through America’s most pivotal moments in history, including Reconstruction, the Harlem Renaissance, Jim Crow, and the Civil Rights Movement.
For those of you that like to read the book before the movie/TV show comes out, you can find the book here.
No news yet on who will star in the project.
Chase (alongside Viola Davis) is also executive producing Conviction, a legal drama inspired by the life of Kym Worthy, the chief prosecutor of Wayne County, MI, known as the toughest woman in Detroit.
