Keesha Sharp on 'Marshall,' playing strong women and her NAACP Image Award nomination (EXCLUSIVE)

Black women aren’t often recognized or remembered for their extensive contributions in history. However, with her roles in film and on television Keesha Sharp is making sure that some of these women are getting the recognition that they deserve. Last year, the Girlfriends alum starred in the critically acclaimed FX series, American Crime Story: The People v. O.J .Simpson as Dale Cochran, the wife of the infamous attorney Johnnie Cochran. Her most recent role as Buster Marshall – the wife of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall in the legal thrill Marshall proved that Sharp is ready to give more unsung women the spotlight. When Sharp heard a film about Thurgood Marshall's life was in development, she jumped at the chance to be involved. "I said, ‘Oh my god, they're doing something on Thurgood Marshall!,’” Sharp told me just a few days after she’d been nominated for an NAACP Image Award for her role in the film. “I was so excited even to be able to audition for it, to be honest, because is someone in this country I don't think we know enough about. We know the two major things, but a lot of us don't know the struggles and the fights. I think it's important for us to see and to know that we can do that too. It gives us inspiration that this man started someplace where we all can start. We can all be advocates for things that we believe in. It was exciting to be a part of it, and I was so really blessed when I got the role.”

Since she was such a private woman, there is little known about Vivian “Buster” Marshall, but we do know how much she sacrificed for her husband and for Black people's education in this country. “She had cancer while was fighting , but she did not tell him," Sharp explained. “She didn't want him to be distracted in any way. It tells you so much about her just knowing that information. We know Thurgood Marshall, we know what an activist he was, but what we don't know is how important Vivian was in the shadows. She was holding him up and being the strength for him and encouraging him to continue the fight. Even knowing that she had cancer wouldn't tell him because Brown vs. the Board of Education was more important to her than her personal fight."

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'Marshall' is more of a thriller than a biopic (Review)

Superheroes. It's a word that's thrown around lightly these days. We eagerly flock to movie theaters and our television screens to watch metahumans with extraordinary strength and abilities conquer the world. In everyday life and certainly throughout history, there have been real-life figures who've defeated evil and transformed the world. They have been pillars of change who've forced mankind to move forward — whether we were ready for it or not. The late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall was one of those leaders. When we receive our primary education, we (hopefully) learn about Justice Marshall and his contribution to the Civil Rights Movement — namely that he was the force behind Brown v. Board of Education, which desegregated public schools in the United States. However, Brown v. Board is nestled in the middle of an illustrious career, one that spanned nearly seven decades and helped reshape the world as we know it.

Reginald Hudlin's latest film Marshall follows the lawyer at 30-years-old just as his career was beginning to gain some traction. In 1941, Marshall was the sole lawyer for the NAACP. The United States was on the verge of entering World War II when Marshall was sent to Connecticut to defend Joseph Spell (portrayed by Emmy- winner Sterling K. Brown), a black chauffeur who was accused of raping his white employer (portrayed by Kate Hudson).

Though oddly cast, Chadwick Boseman slides on Marshall's fedora perfectly — capturing his cadence and arresting intellect as soon as the film starts rolling. Though the brown skinned Black Panther actor looks nothing like the 6-foot tan skinned Baltimore native, you believe him from the very minute he opens his mouth, from the way he enraptures the courtroom to his everyday encounters when confronting bigots and racists on the screen.

Despite his massive success and reputation, 1941 still presents its hardships and barriers for Marshall. Upon arriving in Connecticut from Harlem, he is forced to enlist the help of a young Jewish insurance lawyer named Sam Friedman (played by a very convincing Josh Gad) who would be content to simply just exist in the background of the WASP washed suburb where he lives and practices. The fantastic banter between Gad and Boseman is what kept the film elevated when it might otherwise flounder into ordinary.

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Reginald Hudlin & the 'Marshall' cast talk the Supreme Court justice's legacy & why the past is repeating itself

“You don't have Obama without Thurgood Marshall," Marshall director Reginald Hudlin explained to me as we discussed why he was inspired to bring the late Supreme Court Justice’s massive life to the big screen. In the midst of a turbulent fall where the world seems to be spinning out of control each day — Marshall is about to jolt us all awake again. Over the course of his lifetime, Thurgood Marshall worked diligently to bring Civil Rights to all Americans. These days it's more and more evident that this country has done very little to honor his legacy. Still, Thurgood Marshall’s story was one that Hudlin has always wanted to tell. “Thurgood Marshall has always been a giant hero of mine. I almost named my son Thurgood ... I thought that was a little bit too much," he said laughing. For Hudlin, it was Marshall who laid the groundwork for equality under the judicial system. “The Constitution was a tremendous promise of what America could be, but flawed from the beginning because of racism and slavery,” Hudlin articulated. “And the man who did the most to make it a reality is Thurgood Marshall."

Set just as the United States was poised to enter the Second World War, Marshall hones in on a facet of racism not often seen on the big screen. We have grown accustomed to full-fledged bigots, with their white robes and torches in Southern set films—Marshall explores something else entirely. “I liked that it was set in Connecticut because Northern racism kind of gets a pass,” Hudlin revealed. “Everybody is used to the Southern redneck sheriff chewing tobacco, we've seen that. We're all comfortable with condemning those people. ‘Oh, we're better than them.' But when you see Northern racism — which is much more genteel on its face, but it's the same institutional racism that looks more like what exists today. I thought, okay this will be more resonant to the audience because you can't simply write it off as ‘back then.'” The visceral parallels aligning the past to the present are what make the film so eerie to watch. “45 people ... That look like the same,” Hudlin expressed. “The ones that are there today and the ones that were depicted in the movie.”

As a young Civil Rights lawyer — the sole lawyer working for the NAACP in 1941, Marshall crossed the country taking on case after case with the hopes that he could save the lives of his brethren who had been condemned solely because of their race.

Continue reading at Shadow and Act.