Zendaya Will Play An Important Role in Black History

Zendaya will produce and star in a movie about Anita Hemmings, the first black woman to graduate from America's elite Vassar College. According to Deadline, the multi-talent, 21-year-old star will play the lead in the Anita Hemmings thriller biopic. The film is adapting Karin Tanabe's The Guilded Years novel which depicts Anita's real-life experiences as a student at Vassar College in the 1890s. Anita Hemmings is light-skinned, African American woman who was the descendent of slaves. As a white-passing person, Anita Hemmings secretly snuck in to the prestigious university 50 years before it began admitting black students in 1940.

It was convincing to many that lead Hemmings to the elite world where she was treated as a wealthy, educated, white woman who finds romance with a moneyed Harvard student. This is not the first film Zendaya was cast as a public figure, Zendaya was set to be in a biopic about R&B songstress Aaliyah in 2014. But she dropped out after receiving harsh criticism based on her skin tone. However, Zendaya will also star alongside actress Reese Witherspoon in the adaptation of the Karin Tanabe novel titled A White Lie.

The film follows Anita's place while being threatened at the university when her dorm-mate's vindictive father makes it his mission to out her to the school board. Furthermore, even thought this is Zendaya's first time producing a feature film, she isn't a stranger of the craft since she produced 40 episodes of her Disney Channel show KC Undercover. Not too Shabby.