The family of late civil rights leader Vernon F. Dahmer Sr. is calling out Paramount and producers for whitewashing and reimagining history in its new film “By Any Means.”
Vernon was a grassroots organizer who registered African-Americans to vote and paid some of their poll taxes in the 1960s. He died five months after the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The Hattiesburg NAACP chapter leader succumbed to injuries after the Ku Klux Klan torched and shot up his Hattiesburg, Mississippi, home around 2 a.m. on Jan. 10, 1966.
Vernon helped his wife and kids flee and then went back into the residence and engaged in a gun battle. The Dahmers had reportedly been harassed by the KKK for years. Their guards came down after the Voting Rights Act passed, and then the Klan struck.
The businessman was not wounded in the melee; his cause of death was ruled asphyxiation from fire damage to his respiratory system. That part of his life’s story inspired the upcoming film, “By Any Means.”
Vernon’s family says his legacy is not being honored on the big screen, calling the project a “white savior trope” movie.
Actor Mark Wahlberg stars as Gregory Scarpa, a real-life mafia hitman, and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as fictional FBI agent Wayne Strider in the Elegance Bratton-directed film. The historical “revenge thriller” casts Giancarlo Esposito as Vernon.
The plot follows Strider as he investigates the killings of civil rights leaders in Mississippi when he joins forces with Scarpa.
Paramount’s official synopsis states, “He (Strider) finds himself pulled into a deadly hunt where justice and vengeance begin to blur. When the system is broken, two men divided by everything agree on one thing: the law has limits. They don’t.”
Atlanta Black Star spoke with Dennis Dahmer Sr., 73, about “By Any Means” two weeks before its Sept. 4 theatrical release.
Dennis is Vernon’s last living son and was only 12 when his father died.
Ellie Dahmer, 101, Vernon’s widow, also opposes the film’s depiction of Vernon and the plot.
“Vernon Dahmer, my late husband, if he were alive today, he would not support this movie. He’s against everything it stands for. Some of his last words were, ‘If you don’t vote, you don’t count,’” said Ellie in a video shared on social media.
A press release statement stated that Ellie was “initially duped by these movie people into thinking this movie was a true reflection of who VERNON F. DAHMER, SR. was.”
“Well that is not the case after reading the script and my discussion with the director about his storyline,” it stated.
He told ABS that producer Alex Lebovici reached out to him two to three years ago about the film. Dennis rejected the proposed story about a criminal and an agent avenging his father’s death. He never heard back from Lebovici.
Dennis also questioned Wahlberg’s casting because of his criminal record. The Boston native was 15 when he shouted slurs and threw rocks at Black kids. At 16 years old, he attacked two Vietnamese-American men, again hurling racial epithets, resulting in a 45-day prison sentence.
“That reinforces what I was saying. You don’t give a damn about Vernon Dahmer and his legacy. How can you cast that guy knowing his background? How you end up with that guy?” he wonders. “You could have found somebody else.”
On this day in 1966, NAACP leader for voting rights and businessman Vernon Dahmer, Sr. died saving his family after KKKs members set his home on fire and gunfire. He suffered lung damage.
— . (@SankofaTravelHr) January 10, 2020
“If you don't vote, you don't count." – Vernon Dahmer pic.twitter.com/pocUUfzYuV
“They’re overexaggerating the role of this mobster individual. They’re turning him into a white savior trope hero,” Dennis vented. “Then they go even farther; they create this Black fictitious FBI agent.”
He added that the overall “premise is based upon my dad’s murder.
“We don’t need to be creating fictitious characters and events, okay? This is real. This ain’t Django, okay? Not to these Hollywood people, it’s just entertainment,” added Dennis.
Online fans were equally outraged, wondering how and why Wahlberg got casted.
“Mark Wahlberg though?” one person asked. Another said, “Can we stop making films where we need help from people that don’t like us? Please and thank you. Got mad love for Yahya.”
Another user said, “Soon as I saw Mark Wahlberg I knew it was done bull shit so I’m glad to see this.”
Dennis claims, “Alex has the nerve,” to contact his younger sister, Bettie Dahmer, who signed off on the film after his meeting with Lebovici.
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Dennis says Lebovici was aware of his concerns about the script denigrating Vernon’s image, but “he went on and he did it anyway.”
Additionally, he explained, “Anything that you do associated with him should be telling the truth about who he is. … But these Hollywood people, they operate by a different standard. And their standard is motivated by ‘How much money can we make?’… The storyline does not do my dad justice.”
Former KKK Imperial Wizard Samuel H. Bowers was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 1998 for Vernon’s murder.
As for what the film leaves out, it’s simple: an accurate representation of Vernon.
According to his son, “The truth is, is that Vernon Dahmer was a grassroots organizer in South Mississippi. He joined the civil rights movement in the 1940s.”
He believed society should treat everyone fairly and equally, regardless of skin color or social position. They should have all the rights. … So, we deserve the right to have our voice heard. … That’s what he pushed and that’s who he was.”
The family asks supporters to register to vote, cast ballots, and sign a petition demanding that the film open with the following prologue:
“VERNON F. DAHMER, SR. was a real person who fought (literally) & died for Black folks Civil & Voting Rights! This movie is a FICTIONALIZED VERSION of one lesser event surrounding the investigation of his murder.”
Thus far, more than 1,100 people have endorsed the petition, the goal is 10,000 signatures.
ABS reached out to Paramount Studios but has yet to receive a response.
