Rockmond Dunbar has optioned the book “Soul on Bikes: The East Bay Dragons MC and the Black Biker Set,” written by Tobie Levingston.
Published in 2013, the book is a biography, offering a slice of American history many are likely unfamiliar with.
Here’s Publisher’s Weekly’s summary: “Levingston and his colorful cast of misfits and comrades are an all-black, all-Harley, all-chopper group of motorcyclists who have found more than their fair share of violence and redemption on the battlegrounds of urban America–and their legacy is an important untold portion of African American history. ‘Soul on Bikes’ recounts the club’s adventures with humor, attitude, and, most important, soul.
Further described as a tale of a fascinating black man and an equally fascinating black movement, the East Bay Dragons Motorcycle Club’s story unfolds in the 1950s, in ” the meanest streets” of Oakland, California, as they risked life and limb during the days when it was a revolutionary act for a black man to ride a Harley chopper.
Tobie Levingston, the book’s author, was the club’s original founder.
Dunbar has optioned the book to direct and produce a feature-length film based on it, from a script adapted by Maya Dunbar.
Rockmond Dunbar will also produce along with Norman Aladjem and Ray Moheet of LEG.
No ETA on the project at this time.
Coincidentally, earlier today, Andre Seewood published a review of a new documentary on another black bike club, formed in 1969 in Detroit, Michigan, called the Outcast Motorcycle club. Read it here.
Deadline was first to report the news of Dunbar’s option.
