Emmett Till: The Murder That Shocked the World and Propelled the Civil Rights Movement

Race, Rhetoric, and Media Series

by Devery S. Anderson, Julian Bond (Contributor)

A gripping reexamination of the abduction and murder that galvanized the civil rights movement

Emmett Till offers the first truly comprehensive account of the 1955 murder and its aftermath. It tells the story of Emmett Till, the fourteen-year-old African American boy from Chicago brutally lynched for a harmless flirtation at a country store in the Mississippi Delta. His death and the acquittal of his killers by an all-white jury set off a firestorm of protests that reverberated all over the world and spurred on the civil rights movement. Like no other event in modern history, the death of Emmett Till provoked people all over the United States to seek social change.

For six decades the Till story has continued to haunt the South as the lingering injustice of Till's murder and the aftermath altered many lives. Fifty years after the murder, renewed interest in the case led the Justice Department to open an investigation into identifying and possibly prosecuting accomplices of the two men originally tried. Between 2004 and 2005, the Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted the first real probe into the killing and turned up important information that had been lost for decades.

This book will stand as the definitive work on Emmett Till for years to come. Incorporating much new information, the book demonstrates how the Emmett Till murder exemplifies the Jim Crow South at its nadir. The author accessed a wealth of new evidence. Anderson has made a dozen trips to Mississippi and Chicago to conduct research and interview witnesses and reporters who covered the trial. In Emmett Till Anderson corrects the historical record and presents this critical saga in its entirety.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Historical, True Crime, Politics, Race, American History

610 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 18, 2015

About the author

Devery S. Anderson, Salt Lake City, Utah, is a graduate of the University of Utah and is an editor at Signature Books in Salt Lake City. He has authored or coauthored several books on Mormon history, two of which won the Steven F. Christensen Award for Best Documentary from the Mormon History Association.

Reviews

[Raymond · Rating 5 out of 5]

Devery Anderson did an amazing job covering the history of the murder of Emmett Till, a 14 year old African-American boy from Chicago who was killed in Mississippi. This book had been on my radar for a few years but I finally decided to read it once I viewed Till's original casket in the National Museum of African-American History and Culture and after the recent news that the Department of Justice is reexamining the case. Anderson's book is divided into two parts. The first part covers the incident that led to Till's murder, the murder itself, the trial, and the aftermath of the trial. The second part covers the resurgence of interest in the case which led to first reopening of the case in the early 2000s. The book covers details of the story that I was not aware of. For example during the trial the defense made the argument that the body was not Emmett Till and that the NAACP planted a body to stir up trouble in Mississippi. Anderson's treatment of this dark episode in American history is very well researched (the amount of detail is amazing) and is in my opinion the definitive account of the Till case.

[robin friedman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A New Study Of The Murder Of Emmett Till

Emmett Till was a 14 year old African American from Chicago who in August, 1955, was visiting relatives in the Mississippi Delta. Till and some companions visited a small grocery story where Till allegedly flirted with and whistled at a white woman, Carolyn Bryant, who was working behind the candy counter and who owned the store with her husband. Three days after the incident, Till was kidnapped, tortured brutally, and killed. His mutilated body surfaced in the Tallahatchie Rive tied to a heavy cotton gin. Two men were tried for the murder, Roy Bryant, Carolyn's husband, and his half-brother, J.W. Milam. Following a five day trial which received broad national and international press coverage, a jury consisting of 12 white men acquitted Bryant and Milam after deliberating for slightly more than one hour. The murder and the acquittal provoked widespread condemnation. Over the years, the Till murder and trial have continued to receive attention, particularly since the 30th anniversary of the events in 1985. There have been books, documentary films, a follow-up FBI investigation in 2004-2005, and many commemorative activities.

Devery Anderson's book "Emmett Till: The Murder that Shocked the World and Propelled the Civil Rights Movement" (2015) is a detailed, carefully documented, and thorough study of the Till murder and its subsequent history. The book shows a command of the extensive source material together with thought and judgment. With its scholarship and objectivity, the book is also highly personal and moving. Anderson became fascinated with the Till murder as a result of taking a college course on the Civil Rights Movement. He devoted over a decade to researching this book, and interviewed many people, including Till's mother, in Chicago, Mississippi, and elsewhere. The book takes account of the information currently available about Till, including the recent confession by Carolyn Bryant Donham that her story of her interaction with Till was in large part fabricated. Anderson's book will likely be the standard work on Till for years to come.

The book is in two large, interrelated parts. The first and longer part, "In Black and White" consists of ten chapters beginning with Till's early life in Chicago and his relationship to his mother. The book covers Till's brief stay in the Delta and his murder. It includes three extensive, carefully documented chapters about the trial, acquittal, and subsequent grand jury proceeding. Anderson covers the protests and political activity that resulted in the wake of the trial In 1956, the two accused men, Bryant and Milam gave an interview to Look magazine which makes abundantly clear that they had killed Till and which shows no remorse for their actions. Anderson studies this interview at length. In the final chapter of part 1, Anderson examines the subsequent lives of many participants in the Till trial, including Till's mother, his family, the jurors and attorneys, the killers, and their accomplices.

Anderson discusses how the Till murder received reduced attention from the late 1950s through about 1985. During these years the Civil Rights Movement, which received impetus from Till's murder, was a central part of American life while Till was largely forgotten. Anderson documents the revival of interest in Till, first through popular songs, poems and novels and then in more extensive books and documentaries. Thus his book combines a study of Till's murder with a study of the historiography that developed around it. As a result of extended effort, the FBI reopened an investigation into the 50 year old case in 2004. This investigation produced important results. The transcript of the Till trial was discovered after it had been presumed lost, Till's body was exhumed and positively identified using modern forensic techniques, and witnesses were interviewed. The information was turned over to the State of Mississippi and the local district attorney sought an indictment for manslaughter against Carol Bryant Donham. The grand jury, this time consisting of a pool of both black and white and men and women unanimously declined to indict her. Other possible defendants and accomplices had died. In the final chapter of the book, Anderson discusses the many commemorations of the life of Emmitt Till that have occurred in recent years in the Delta, Chicago, and elsewhere.

The two broad sections of the book are interrelated in that Anderson uses the findings the FBI made available in 2004-05, particularly the transcript of the original 1955 trial in telling the story in the first section of his book. The discussion of the murder and the trial thus uses contemporary sources as well as recent findings. The book is a thoroughly researched and valuable work of scholarship. In the final section of the book Anderson gives his own view of the murder and the participants (Bryant and Milam had several helpers both white and black). It is a short summary of the historical information presented throughout the book and of Anderson's assessments and conclusions.

This book is moving and sad. It combines scholarship with feeling, both the author's own commitment to a study that has been a large part of his life and the tragedy of Till's murder. In addition to learning a great deal, I found the book deeply moving. Anderson has written an outstanding book about Till and about American civil rights. This book is long and detailed and convincing It will teach and move its readers.

Robin Friedman

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably as comprehensive an account of the lynching of Emmett Till that you're likely to find. Author Devery S. Anderson does his best to make sense of the innumerable conflicting accounts and revised memories of a terrible crime that has echoed through various civil rights struggles in the decades since. Of course, it would have been easy for Anderson to accept the accounts of those closest to Till, who understandably wish to capture him in the best light. However, Anderson, while recognising that Till's killers were abysmal people, and that the show trial which saw them acquitted was a heinous feature of Jim Crow racism, doesn't agree that the kidnapping and murder occurred in a vacuum. Till's killers didn't just decide to kill him on a whim; they did so because they genuinely felt he had violated the racial customs of segregated Mississippi. Of course, the exact details of everything that happened cannot be attested to with certainty, and it's another credit to Anderson that he doesn't claim to have the final say on the unknowable. I only wish the book didn't get so bogged down in the details of the various media campaigns and movie/TV deals that occurred decades after the crime. In the end, this book is both a complement and a partial corrective to Mamie Till-Mobley's wonderful memoir Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed America . Both books are essential reads for readers desiring to learn more about this horrible moment in U.S. racial history.

[Linda Lipko · Rating 3 out of 5]

With the reading of this book, I have now exhausted my comprehensive search to learn as much about the sad, tragic death of 14 year old Emmett Till.

This is quite a comprehensive study of the subject. In particular, the author did a marvelous job of depicting the strong Jim Crow atmosphere of the Mississippi delta.

The fact that black men were depicted as depraved animals longing to violate white women was clearly outlined. While I find this thinking despicable, it was helpful in explaining the reason why two white red neck, vile, white men walked away free. With smiles on their faces, they left the court room smug in their victory.

Knowing that they could lie in the court room and have the backing of their lawyers who used the ugly sentiment at the time, allowed them to walk away freely.

A small price to pay considering that a 14 year old innocent young boy was mutilated and savagely murdered, both men had marriages that ended in divorce. And, while not particularly liked before their murder of Emmett Till, they were ostracized and not able to make a decent living.

It was grossly wrong that two men got away with vicious murder. I hope that if tried today, they would be given a life sentence in jail. Even that would not be enough to suffice for what they did.

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential reading. Till's murder was the pebble in the pond; Rosa Parks cited his lynching as among the reasons she refused to give up her seat a few months later. It also followed hard on the heels of Brown vs. Board of Education, as the South geared up to face threats to segregation. The most astounding part of the book is the simple naked racism and brutality that accompanied everyday life for African Americans in 1955 Mississipi. Emmett's mother, Mamie, was adamant in court and when she interviewed with Anderson (many times) that she had drilled her Chicago son in the etiquette of being black in Mississippi before sending him down for a family visit at the end of that summer. The kid was 14 when he was beaten, tortured and shot to death by J.W. Milam and his half-brother, Roy Bryant. It was alleged that he had made a sexual overture to Carolyn Bryant, Roy's young wife. She was running the family store when Till went inside after a dare from one of his companions. In the space of one minute, something happened. Carolyn Bryant eventually testified that Till had tried to molest her after buying two cents worth of bubble gum, and was dragged outside by another black kid while she went to get a gun. His friends sped away in an old truck. Bryant's husband was away at the time of the incident, but when he returned from his trip, someone told him what had happened. He confronted Carolyn, and later that night showed up at the home where Till was staying. He, Milam and several others kidnapped Till and by morning, had pushed his battered body into the river. It was found almost immediately. Bryant was arrested after Till's great uncle identified the body and described the kidnapping (Bryant actually identified himself when he came for the boy).

Bryant and Milam were acquitted. The decision was expected in 1955 Mississippi, but nonetheless shocked the nation. Emmett's mother had brought his body back to Chicago, and held wakes with the body available for view. Even with some attempted cosmetics, the sight of it was sickening. And everyone saw it --- photographs of Emmett in his casket appeared in Jet magazine, but eventually everywhere.

Anderson has written an exhaustive book. His access to Mamie Till until her death afforded him insights about her pain and enduring fight to achieve justice for her son. But he is also meticulous in reconstructing the initial incident with Mrs. Bryant. He debunks the idea that Emmett attempted to molest Carolyn Bryant (something she recently confirmed to another author; Bryant is the only major player from this tragedy still alive, and one can only assume she wants to die with an easier conscience). Anderson does think that Till was probably overly familiar with her in his manner of speech, as in insufficiently deferential and possibly flirtatious. It continued during his murder. Bryant and Milam were interviewed for Look magazine after their acquittal by a man named Huie. They signed release forms, and because of double jeopardy, had no compunctions about presenting themselves as Till's murderer's. They claimed they were revenging an insult to Southern womanhood (!) and that after initially beating the child, were goaded into shooting him because Emmett kept insisting that he was "as good" as they.

Interest in the case began to swell again during the 1980s, and by the early years of this century memorials to Emmett began to appear in Mississippi. The book makes it clear that there was a horrible miscarriage of justice, and Anderson takes the reader through the ensuing legal struggles. A final chance to reopen the case fell apart when a grand jury refused to indict one of the last men still alive who was present the night of the murder, and it was (and is) unlikely that Carolyn Bryant will face legal retribution for her perjury.

The book is a crackling read. Anderson is terse, meticulous and very successful at hurling the reader in the South of the second half of the 20th century. Highly recommend for those interested in the history, or even true crime.

[Clif · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I visited the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis this year, the bookstore had many interesting titles for sale, this one among them. Though there have been many books published on Till's story, I figured the museum would choose among the best and I was not disappointed in this tale of horror that shamed the South.

Till, a youngster of 14 from Argo (Summit), Illinois, a suburb immediately southwest of Chicago, went to visit relatives in rural Mississippi in the hot summer of 1955. While there, he went with a small group of black boys around his age to a local store and on a dare went inside to talk to the white woman who was tending the place under the pretense of buying candy. He spoke to her, possibly suggestively as a result of the dare, and then left. She later reported this to her husband, he joined up with a relative and together they kidnapped Till at night from the home where he was staying, then tortured and killed him before weighing his body down and dumping it in the nearby river, all for speaking to a white woman. The body was found, the men who killed him were identified, tried and declared innocent first of his murder and then of his kidnapping under a system of justice composed entirely of whites.

This story makes up the first two-thirds of the book. The rest tells of more recent events in the drive by Till's mother, Mamie Bradley, for justice that resulted in Till's body being disinterred for an autopsy that confirmed it as Till's.

The twists and turns in the event and in the resulting trial and follow up kept me reading closely. The appalling treatment African-Americans in the South have received comes through powerfully. When people believe that others are less than their equals, any kind of mistreatment of those labeled inferior is bound to follow and to be considered acceptable, even proper, by people who consider themselves decent citizens.

For the two men who committed this murder, living in such a society, it is easy to see how they could be elevated in their own minds from poor people barely making a living to admirable defenders of society cheered by fellow whites. Not only were the two freed, they went on to take money for an article recounting events published in Look magazine. Yet the momentary blaze of glory passed and the two sank back into hard times, though there is no evidence they felt a second of remorse.

The most shocking thing is that all the concerned parties, the jury, the townsfolk (white or black), the lawyers, agreed that the men would be judged innocent regardless of the evidence or the law. The idea that Till had it coming and received what he deserved was the common feeling among all but a few whites in the area. In fact, it was considered by them a good thing because it would serve as a warning to other blacks from the north to stay away. There were even those who accused the NAACP of masterminding Till's death as a way of stirring up hatred for the south.

All of this unfortunately resonates with the kind of outrageous claims and conspiracies we hear about coming from the extreme right today, not to mention the stout defense of racial superiority and slavery that came from the antebellum South. It's a very persistent state of mind. I wonder how Martin Luther King Jr. survived to the age of 39.

Major civil rights personalities were involved in this national story that had Till's mother traveling around the country speaking out for the NAACP. Till's courageous uncle, Mose Wright, risked his life to testify in the murder trial and had to leave Mississippi for Chicago never to return, giving up all that he had known in the hope of seeing justice done.

Emmitt Till is a wide ranging dramatic story very well told by Devery Anderson with impressive character studies to interest any reader.

[W. · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the Wall Street Journal, November 7, 2015
http://www.wsj.com/articles/a-martyr-...


Through the late 1930s, outside its Fifth Avenue headquarters in New York City, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People flew a two-sided black banner proclaiming in bold white letters: “A Man Was Lynched Yesterday.” All across America, but particularly in the South, African-Americans accused of a crime—or of simply violating social or racial customs—could be hunted, abducted, tortured and brutally murdered by mobs empowered by a community. The NAACP took the lead in bringing attention to these deaths “at the hands of persons unknown,” which was the official way lynchings were characterized, granting a chilling anonymity to the sadistic killers. Between the revolution and 1950, nearly 4,000 blacks were lynched in the American South.

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education, black citizens began to mount voter-registration campaigns in Mississippi—and whites responded with miscellaneous acts of violence and intimidation. “There’s open season on Negroes now,” an anonymous white man in the Mississippi Delta remarked to journalist David Halberstam that summer, noting further that any white man who wants to shoot a black man could do so without any legal consequences.

Stepping into this morass of racial fear in August 1955 was a 14-year-old boy from Chicago by the name of Emmett Louis Till. Although warned by relatives about the dangers of the Jim Crow South, Till was unaccustomed to the segregation he encountered there. In an innocent act of teenage daring, he whistled at the wife of a white store owner in Money, Miss.

Four days later, Till was abducted by two men in the middle of the night from his uncle’s house, beaten, tortured and murdered. His body was tied to a cotton gin fan and dumped in the nearby Tallahatchie River.

Though his killers, store owner Roy Bryant and his half-brother J.W. Milam, were arrested and brought to trial less than a month after Till’s body was found, the pair were acquitted by an all-white, all-male jury that deliberated for just 67 minutes. Later, one juror said to a Time magazine reporter: “If we hadn’t stopped to drink pop, it wouldn’t have taken that long.” This travesty of justice effectively made Till’s murder a lynching.

A few months after the trial, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Ala. Recalling her act of defiance Parks said, “I thought of Emmett Till, and when the bus driver ordered me to move to the back, I just couldn’t move.”

Devery S. Anderson’s “Emmett Till: The Murder That Shocked the World and Propelled the Civil Rights Movement” provides a full and detailed picture of the murder of Emmett Till and its legacy. While there have been numerous books and several documentaries on Till’s murder, trial and its aftermath—including the posthumously published “Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed America” by Till’s mother—Mr. Anderson’s book takes readers deep inside the political psyche and cultural mindset of Mississippi at the time. “Emmett Till” is masterfully researched, drawing on public archives and public collections to present the most detailed account of this horrific story.

Since Till’s grisly murder, how he is portrayed has been a point of contention. The control of the narrative, as Mr. Anderson explains, began with the state of Mississippi. After Till’s body was found and identified by his great-uncle Mose Wright—the boy was wearing his late father’s signet ring, which was the only thing that identified him—his mangled body was placed in a casket, nailed shut and bore an official state seal ordering it not to be opened.

Till’s mother, Mamie Bradley, insisted that the seal be broken in Chicago. When she drew close and saw her son’s maimed, naked body covered in lime to control the smell of his decaying flesh (it did not), she became determined to have an open-casket funeral. “Let the world see what they did to my son,” she said to the funeral home director while in the presence of Jet magazine reporter Simeon Booker.

Till’s partially decomposed corpse was dressed in a dark suit and white shirt he had been given the Christmas before. A photograph of him from that holiday was placed under the glass of the casket, to contrast the mutilated face with that of the young boy from just a year before. At a viewing in a Chicago funeral home, 10,000 to 50,000 people filed past the body to see what had been done to Till. Thousands more subscribers and readers of Jet magazine viewed Till’s remains when the pocket-sized magazine published what has since become an iconic image.

White Mississippians criticized Bradley’s decision to have an open casket, seeing it only as a means of raising funds for the NAACP, an organization some thought was filled with communists and their sympathizers. But as Mr. Anderson makes clear, there was nothing calculated in Bradley’s decision, which had no connection with the NAACP. It was simply a powerful response by a woman who felt completely powerless.

Mr. Anderson gives full credit to the black press for revealing essential parts of Till’s story, which these persistent journalists did despite being greeted every morning at the trial by Tallahatchie County Sheriff Clarence Strider with a racial epithet. But the book starts to lose steam in its last third, beginning with a chapter called “Never the Same,” which details what happened to all of the players after the trial. The book is at its best in detailing the murder and the trial itself.

Over the years, some writers have thought that the publicity surrounding Till’s funeral and its coverage in the press may have contributed to the jury’s rapid acquittal of Bryant and Milam. But Mr. Anderson points out strong evidence to the contrary: It was the makeup of the jury pool. The prosecution’s strategy was to choose a group of men unfamiliar with Bryant and Milam, thinking it would produce a more impartial jury. Yet it was the people who knew the accused—the two were known bullies and generally disliked—who would have been more likely to convict. The defense team understood that this jury strategy by the prosecution would probably work in their favor and did not object. (Bryant and Milam essentially confessed to journalist William Bradford Huie in his January 1956 story in LOOK Magazine just months after their acquittal.)

While Mr. Anderson makes a strong case for the connection between Till’s murder and the civil-rights movement of the 1960s, I finished “Emmett Till” thinking more about how Till’s legacy is linked to the way we live now. In light of the numerous shootings of unarmed black men by police over the past year, one cannot help but see a connection between what happened in the Mississippi Delta in 1955 and the acquittal of those who have recently murdered black men in cities across the country.

Last summer when Michael Brown’s body was left on a street in Ferguson, Missouri, for four hours, I thought of Emmett Till drifting for days in the Tallahatchie River. Few young people know the story and couldn’t conjure that image as I can, as a native Mississippian born two years after Till’s murder. With this book, perhaps they will.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Welp. Here's one I finished some time ago and failed to review in a timely manner. True confession, that would be, eh hem, a couple years back, and you should know a couple now means about 5 to me these days. I am sad that is this case because this is an important story that should not be forgotten and the author has done an excellent job telling it. Very well researched yet accessible.

My heart breaks every time I see in the news how far we still have to go.

Highly recommended.

[Cynthia Sillitoe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has an approachable narrative and is also meticulously researched. It's the most comprehensive and definitive book I have ever read about the Emmett Till case.

[Shahara’Tova · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very long. Works more as an encyclopedia of Emmett Till. A necessity for any scholar of the Civil Rights Movement.

[Raquel Nunez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this book was very sad. The death of 14 years old, Emmett Till is not only disturbing but unfair. The author did an incredible job covering the history of his murder. Emmett Till was an Africa American boy from Chicago who was killed in Mississippi. Emmett went to the grocery store. This is where he was accused of flirting with a white woman, Carolyn Bryant, who owned the store with her husband. Three days after the incident. Emmett was kidnapped, tortured brutally, and killed. Two men were tried for the murder, Roy Bryant, Carolyn's husband, and his half-brother, J.W. Milam. After a five-day trial, this received broad national coverage. There have been books, documentary films, a follow-up FBI investigation in 2004-2005. This book is written in two parts, part one is about his early life in Chicago and his relationship with his mother. It includes three carefully documented chapters about the trial, acquittal, and subsequent grand jury proceedings. The author makes a point that between the 1950s -1985 the attention received on Emmett murder reduced. This was the time during the Civil Rights Movement which was overlooked an important part of American life, the story of Emmet Tills murder. The author says, that the revival of intent in Emmet Till, is first done through popular songs, poems, novels, and then documentaries. As a result, the FBI reopened the case to investigate it 50 years later in 2004. The information was turned over to the State of Mississippi and the local district attorney sought an indictment for manslaughter against Carol Bryant Donham. This book is filled with a lot of feelings. On the other hand, the author's commitment to study Emmett Till life and his murder and within this book bring about awareness of the injustices that have occurred in our past history. This is a great read to learn more about history , politics, and court system .

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book had been on my to-read list for quite some time. I had avoided it because I knew I needed to be emotionally prepared for it. I thought I finally was.

I wasn't. The truth is, there is no preparation for this story. This TRUE and tragic story will never leave you once you have heard it. Once you've seen the infamous, heart wrenching photo of Emmitt Till's beaten, bloated body encased in a glass covered coffin, you will never be the same. As important as that photo is, as much emotion as it conveys, it's imperative that you know the story of it, all of it, every available detail. And that is what Devery S. Anderson has done here.

His meticulous research covers pretty much every aspect of the case, including letters written by the public and sometimes monotonous details about about the life of anyone who played a role in this story. He connects everything so that the reader can grasp how the murder of Emmett Till, the subsequent trial, and acquittal of his killers was a catalyst of the coming civil rights movement. He does this in a completely thorough and factual way, leaving his own emotions and opinions out of the equation, which couldn't have been an easy task.

What you will find here is going to make you cry. It will make you angry to the point that you swear you can actually feel your blood boiling. The unfairness, the blatant and tragic racism, and the unending struggle that still surrounds this case, everyone involved in it, and the life of Emmett Till himself is not something you will just forget about once you've heard the details.

This beautiful, 14 year old boy was brutally tortured and murdered and his killers got away with it. A whole TOWN got away with it. This is the story of what happened. It is vital. It is important.

[Spencer Pyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heartbreaking but inspiring

Emmett Till should never be forgotten. Through this atrocious act and by Mamie Till's unrelenting pursuit of justice for her son, the Civil Rights era began. I had the opportunity to go with my daughter's highs school, North Marion High School, from Marion County, WV to Sumner, MS to put on a mock trial of the Till Murder Case at the Tallahatchie Co Courthouse. To be in that court room and have the students read and act out the transcript of the trial was an awesome and eye opening experience. It was as if you were transported back to that time and the emotions were running high. Wheeler Parker joined us in the courtroom and it was an honor to hear him speak as well. Emmett Till you have truly opened my eyes and inspired me to live my life with love and to turn something that could have created hate into something that brings out love and compassion and we should all be thankful. This book is just as inspiring and I recommend anyone to read it. It will surely open your eyes!

[Martha Brown Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Legacy

I thoroughly enjoyed this book because it gave me a great account of the Till story that I never knew. (Great job Author!) It was HEART WRENCHING but it had to happen to bring about unity. The struggle was real and still is real. Emmett Till‘s mom fought for justice until the end and God orchestrated through people to made it so that it would change the lives of this country; especially the state of Mississippi. We have to stand for God‘s love no matter what.

I recommend that all walks of life read this book to know that we MUST love one another because God loves us and died for us.

[Lilia Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was incredibly thorough and incredibly informative. I listened to it on Audible over a series of about six months, as the content was incredibly painful and invoked many emotions. My heart aches for Emmett. Finishing this right after Ahmaud's murderers were arrested enforces that inequality and hate runs rampant through the United States. Ahmaud deserves better. Emmett deserved better. We owe it to their legacy, and that of every black person lynched, murdered, or attacked to do better.

[John Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating study of the culture, politics, law, and media process of America’s constant and continuing battle against white supremacy. Ground zero in this saga was the murder trial of Roy Bryant and J.W Milam for the 1955 kidnap, torture, and murder of 14 year old Emmett Till in Tallihatchie County, Mississippi. This excellently written and researched book on how vibrant and resilient racism is right up to the present time in the United States. Emmett Till’s plight became the fuel for the what became the Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s and 1970’s.

[Carly · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my opinion this is the best of all the Emmett Till books. It collates and references all info from other books and films, and clearly sets out a timeline and answers questions and clarifies rumours. I like that Devery Anderson names the other men that took part in the murder, as this was not just Milam and Bryant like much of the public think. This book is very well researched.

Defo read this if you want the full picture

[Tina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an incredible look at the historical context of Emmett Till's murder. By examining the context, the author also sheds light on the current attempts to whitewash the history of this country and the failure to accept that there are still racial concerns that must be addressed.

I recommend this book to anyone who would like to know more about why we are still struggling to overcome our biases in this nation.

[NCHS Library]

From Follett: Provides an account of the 1955 murder of Emmitt Till, a fourteen-year-old African American boy from Chicago who was lynched for a harmless flirtation at a country store in Mississippi. His death and the acquittal of his killers by an all-white jury ignited protests that were felt worldwide and spurred on the civil rights movement.

[Mike Boyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Comprehensive

The author produced a full picture of the crime, the legal proceedings and the aftermath of those involved in Emmett Till’s death. The author covered the span of 50 years after the murder to show the personal stories of key figures and the impact of the murder from a political and sociological perspective.
Excellent book.

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book reads like a history book, so it takes time to get through it, but it is worth it. Where information from different sources or different time periods conflicts, the author gives you the background and why he chose the version that he did. The bibliography also gives a wealth of sources if you want to read more. I thought it was well written.

[Gwen Lester-Cunningham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shocking. I'd heard about this case, but I never knew the shocking details. This book is not for the weak of heart. Reveals a level of heartlessness and cruelty the average person could never imagine.

[Erin Abbatangelo · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story itself is sad and anger-provoking. I found the book a bit hard to follow as there are so many consecutive historical references to people and newspapers that these details overtook the story and facts.

But from a historical sense a very good book.

[Lizzy · Rating 3 out of 5]

It gave a lot of good information but it was very long and some of the information at the end was sort of irrelevant to Emmett Till. I read this for a project and it helped me a lot.

[Carl Purdon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well-written and disturbing.

[Joyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shocking and sad.

Very interesting true story of the murder of Emmitt Till and his murderers getting off. Lots of statistics that I skimmed.

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very well-researched book. It tells the whole story about everyone involved. Such a very sad and anger inducing incident.

[Gary · Rating 5 out of 5]

The impact of this story and its aftermath is way more than I ever knew. Very good book.

[Silena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well researched and informative read

[Evilblacksheep · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actual rating: 4.5 stars