Cathay Williams, the only known FEMALE Buffalo Soldier, to be portrayed by Tiera "Mook" Thomas! #Kickstarter #ShirtsVsSkins

Tiera "Mook" Thomas will be portraying Cathay Williams, the only known FEMALE Buffalo Soldier in the upcoming film Shirts vs. Skins! Cathay Williams was a slave, served as a cook during the Civil War, enlisted in the US Army as William Cathay, and served for TWO years before anyone realized she was a woman!

Tiera "Mook" Thomas will portray Female Buffalo Soldier, Cathay Williams in "Shirts vs. Skins"

We are $1,000 short on our Kickstarter and need the final push. Here's a video, cued up to me talking about Mook taking on this role...taking on this history! Co staring Tajir S. Hawkins, Nevaeh Hinton, and Tina Johnson

Cathay Williams is the only known Buffalo Solider...and served in the US military disguised as a man, William Cathay. While Williams wasn't the first woman to this (two women did this same thing during the Revolutionary War), she is the only known African American woman to so. I first learned about Williams in 2000 while serving as the Program Director of the African American Heritage Program for the Commonwealth of Virginia at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities...and yes, all of that fit on my business card. At the time, Colin Powell was giving Cathay Williams a honorable discharge, after it was discovered that she had not been given one. She was actually "found out" and removed from the military, TWO YEARS after enlisting.

So many questions came up for me that inspired me to learn more and since then I've been wanting to tell her story on film. This is the beginning of that dream coming true for me. I say beginning because one day I WILL shoot an epic feature about Cathay Williams. Cathay Williams will serve as a hero to young Dale Michaels (portrayed by Nevaeh Hinton) in a time where her identity is a source of conflict, pain, bullying, and emotional/physical abuse to her. 12 year Dale will have to do a history report, discovers Williams and it will change her life forever.

And while Mook Thomas doesn't look like Cathay Williams as she is depicted in illustrations of the hero, Mook resembles Nevaeh...I want young Dale to see Cathay Williams...but most importantly, see HERSELF in Cathay Williams.

So...there ya go. I COULD tell you more, but it'll be better to see it in the film.