Hope & Redemption: The Lena Baker Story

"The Lena Baker" story is another tragic tale of many involving whites trampling upon the rights and lives of Black folks. This is about Lena Baker (played by Tischina Arnold) who was imprisoned and repeatedly raped by Elliott Arthur (played by Peter Coyote). After years of such treatment off and on, and no help forthcoming from the law, she shot and killed Elliott Arthur. For that she was arrested, tried, convicted, and executed.

Lena was born in 1900 and executed in 1945 in Georgia. Because of the blind racism of the whites of Georgia no one could possibly conclude that perhaps Lena was being victimized. Furthermore, they couldn't possibly conclude that Lena may have been defending herself when she killed Mr. Arthur (real name Ernest Knight). If only she was afforded the same benefit of the doubt that George Zimmerman and Kyle Rittenhouse were.

The story is tragic, sad, infuriating, and heart breaking. I only wish the movie was better. It's a TV movie with a TV movie script and TV movie quality which seriously detracts from the gravity and impact of the events. I don't fault the actors at all, they did their best with what they were given, but Lena and others like her deserve better.