Who is black in America? Ethnic tensions flare between black Americans and black immigrants. [View all]

As soon as it was announced that filming would start for the Harriet Tubman biopic with British-Nigerian actress Cynthia Erivo as the lead, a social-media fury erupted.

An online appeal went up, demanding an African-American woman be recast as Tubman, the woman who, after escaping slavery, made more than a dozen trips to lead others to freedom on the Underground Railroad.

In the change.org petition that garnered 1,123 signatures by Oct. 17, organizer Tyler Holmes wrote: "We will boycott the film 'Harriet' until you hire an actual black American actress to play the part."

This, after a tangle in August when Nigerian-born blogger and author Luvvie Ajayi wrote that Tevin Campbell was too obscure a choice to sing at Aretha Franklin's funeral. "Under what rock did they pull that name from?" Ajayi quipped. Twitter's response was livid.

Read more: http://www2.philly.com/philly/news/cynthia-erivo-harriet-tubman-movie-luvvie-ajayi-american-descendants-of-slaves-20181018.html