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Remembering Emmett Till
Take a drive through the Mississippi Delta today and you’ll find a landscape dotted with memorials to major figures and events from the civil rights movement. Perhaps the most chilling are those devoted to the murder of Emmett Till, a tragedy of hate and injustice that became a beacon in the fight for racial equality. The ways this event is remembered have been fraught from the beginning, revealing currents of controversy, patronage, and racism lurking just behind the placid facades of historical markers.
In Remembering Emmett Till , Dave Tell gives us five accounts of the commemoration of this infamous crime. In a development no one could have foreseen, Till’s murder—one of the darkest moments in the region’s history—has become an economic driver for the Delta. Historical tourism has transformed seemingly innocuous places like bridges, boat landings, gas stations, and riverbeds into sites of racial politics, reminders of the still-unsettled question of how best to remember the victim of this heinous crime. Tell builds an insightful and persuasive case for how these memorials have altered the Delta’s physical and cultural landscape, drawing potent connections between the dawn of the civil rights era and our own moment of renewed fire for racial justice.
In Remembering Emmett Till , Dave Tell gives us five accounts of the commemoration of this infamous crime. In a development no one could have foreseen, Till’s murder—one of the darkest moments in the region’s history—has become an economic driver for the Delta. Historical tourism has transformed seemingly innocuous places like bridges, boat landings, gas stations, and riverbeds into sites of racial politics, reminders of the still-unsettled question of how best to remember the victim of this heinous crime. Tell builds an insightful and persuasive case for how these memorials have altered the Delta’s physical and cultural landscape, drawing potent connections between the dawn of the civil rights era and our own moment of renewed fire for racial justice.
312 pages, Hardcover
Published May 1, 2019
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371 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
September 25, 2023
To be honest, I am a little uneasy commenting on a book about Emmett Till. To me, this feels like cultural appropriation. It’s one thing to read about the icons and martyrs of the civil rights movement, it is quite another thing to talk about those individuals from the perspective of a white gaze. My conscious intent here is to tread lightly and respectfully. -KS
“The Delta was a place where Planters wore suits when they lynched you. They drank illegal whiskey from a clean glass. They delicately wiped their mouths on monogrammed handkerchiefs after they spat on you.” -Yvette Johnson
The Ghosts of Mississippi
It’s best to begin a description of Dave Tell’s Remembering Emmett Till by describing what it is not. It is NOT a biography of the barely fourteen year old Black child who, on the 28th of August, 1955, was kidnapped, tortured, and brutally murdered by racist degenerates in rural Mississippi. Nor is it a memorial to Emmett’s memory or a frank condemnation of the Jim Crow laws and segregationist class structures that facilitated Emmett’s abduction and lynching. Rather than all that, Tell’s book is a detailed philosophical and legal analysis of how Emmitt’s demise was portrayed and utilized in witness depositions, in post-trial confessions, in newspapers and magazine articles, in numerous books and periodicals, and ultimately in placards and signage intended to commemorate both a young boy’s sacrifice and the birth of the mid twentieth century civil rights movement.
Although Tell has an obvious reverence for Emmett’s memory, he’s not at all delicate in his delivery. This book is not for the faint of heart. The unspeakable atrocities of that summer night in Mississippi are detailed and scrutinized and analyzed from every angle. In these pages young Emmett dies a hundred times—steel yourself or be prepared to step away.
“The Delta was a place where Planters wore suits when they lynched you. They drank illegal whiskey from a clean glass. They delicately wiped their mouths on monogrammed handkerchiefs after they spat on you.” -Yvette Johnson
The Ghosts of Mississippi
It’s best to begin a description of Dave Tell’s Remembering Emmett Till by describing what it is not. It is NOT a biography of the barely fourteen year old Black child who, on the 28th of August, 1955, was kidnapped, tortured, and brutally murdered by racist degenerates in rural Mississippi. Nor is it a memorial to Emmett’s memory or a frank condemnation of the Jim Crow laws and segregationist class structures that facilitated Emmett’s abduction and lynching. Rather than all that, Tell’s book is a detailed philosophical and legal analysis of how Emmitt’s demise was portrayed and utilized in witness depositions, in post-trial confessions, in newspapers and magazine articles, in numerous books and periodicals, and ultimately in placards and signage intended to commemorate both a young boy’s sacrifice and the birth of the mid twentieth century civil rights movement.
Although Tell has an obvious reverence for Emmett’s memory, he’s not at all delicate in his delivery. This book is not for the faint of heart. The unspeakable atrocities of that summer night in Mississippi are detailed and scrutinized and analyzed from every angle. In these pages young Emmett dies a hundred times—steel yourself or be prepared to step away.
May 21, 2019
A fascinating account of the behind-the-scenes maneuvering of politics, race, and economics that have impacted where and how the story of Emmett Till's brutal murder is commemorated (or not) in the Mississippi counties in which it took place.
Exhaustively researched, Tell manages to weave an engaging narrative of the history and factors that impact Till commemoration that provides valuable insight for both the casual observer, like myself, or the dedicated scholar.
Exhaustively researched, Tell manages to weave an engaging narrative of the history and factors that impact Till commemoration that provides valuable insight for both the casual observer, like myself, or the dedicated scholar.
May 11, 2020
Excellent. He lost me a little on Delta geography and fluvial planes, but the last two chapters were riveting.
December 9, 2019
This is the story of the Emmett Till story, an exploration of how the story was told, by whom, for what purpose...it's the story of historiography, the story of how stories are remembered.
We've all heard the broad story of Emmett Till's murder and seen the casket picture of his face. Some say that the incident was the spark that lead to the Civil Rights movement, though Tell points out that the Civil Rights movement may well have been sparked by a myriad of other incidents and pictures both before and after he was killed. This is the first of many "truths" that may or may not be true.
Similar are the story's inclusion of 2 murderers (there may well have been more), the site of the murder (it was probably in a different county), and the "center" of the remembrance/commemoration (a courthouse? NOT the kidnapping, murder, or even the grocery site?).
There are witnesses who might have been jailed under other names, reporters who either blindly followed non-leads or were willfully incomplete in their stories, museums who were built on monies designed to promote computer access and are inaccurate in their information, and, most amazingly, pride and competition in being viewed as the most racist location in our country.
As it turns out, there is much money to be made because of the death of a 14 year old child.
This is an academic treatise that leaves no detail or lead unturned, a book staggering in its complexity and so incredibly depressing in its implications. If you think that history is Truth, read this book. It's 'way more complicated than you've ever imagined.
We've all heard the broad story of Emmett Till's murder and seen the casket picture of his face. Some say that the incident was the spark that lead to the Civil Rights movement, though Tell points out that the Civil Rights movement may well have been sparked by a myriad of other incidents and pictures both before and after he was killed. This is the first of many "truths" that may or may not be true.
Similar are the story's inclusion of 2 murderers (there may well have been more), the site of the murder (it was probably in a different county), and the "center" of the remembrance/commemoration (a courthouse? NOT the kidnapping, murder, or even the grocery site?).
There are witnesses who might have been jailed under other names, reporters who either blindly followed non-leads or were willfully incomplete in their stories, museums who were built on monies designed to promote computer access and are inaccurate in their information, and, most amazingly, pride and competition in being viewed as the most racist location in our country.
As it turns out, there is much money to be made because of the death of a 14 year old child.
This is an academic treatise that leaves no detail or lead unturned, a book staggering in its complexity and so incredibly depressing in its implications. If you think that history is Truth, read this book. It's 'way more complicated than you've ever imagined.
January 12, 2020
There is no arguing that this book has an important message that everyone would benefit from hearing. This book exposes how commemorating important events is often only an afterthought in how historical grant monies are often used and more specifically, how racism is perpetuated by ignoring the important lessons of a hate crime, like the death of 14 year old Emmett Till, in a grab for money for self gain. However, this book is often repetitive. There were several times in the book that I stopped, thinking I had mistakenly got on the wrong page and was reading something I had already read. In fact, I had already read it, but it was appearing again in a later chapter. It's also an extremely dry account, reading more like a debate case or a doctoral thesis. Tell provides excellent source material and arguments, making this a valuable resource for someone, but not an engaging read.
September 10, 2019
Very interesting and insightful but very choppy repetitive writing style.
March 18, 2023
An excellent and informative read.
September 6, 2019
Certainly academic; yet marvelously free of [most] jargon. Honestly, each chapter felt like it was an evolving mystery novel: each a story with sometimes absurd twists detailing stories of corruption, blatant paternalism and fevered attempts to make money.
This important history of race, place and the life and death of Emmett Till deserves our attention; it should inspire a steady resolve to commit ourselves to continued action.
What Tell refers to as "an ecology of memory" creates a powerful frame to understand the way concepts we daily take for granted intermingle and implicate big systems of power.
The past is never really dead because rivers, historical markers, bayous and human witnesses continue to remember.
And...also...this is one of the most beautiful book covers I have ever seen. Haunting. Sad.
This important history of race, place and the life and death of Emmett Till deserves our attention; it should inspire a steady resolve to commit ourselves to continued action.
What Tell refers to as "an ecology of memory" creates a powerful frame to understand the way concepts we daily take for granted intermingle and implicate big systems of power.
The past is never really dead because rivers, historical markers, bayous and human witnesses continue to remember.
And...also...this is one of the most beautiful book covers I have ever seen. Haunting. Sad.
January 28, 2020
I cannot even begin to fathom the work that went into telling this story.
February 24, 2020
Didn't read much of this book. Just wasn't my cup of tea.
September 27, 2020
bejesus, this book screams is was written by a white-patriarchal-paternalistic-farmer!
good luck
good luck
September 21, 2020
2.5 stars. Obviously the topic and content are important but stars were deducted for the presentation of the book by the author. A lot of research went into this, there is no doubt about that. But I guess I should have read the book jacket more carefully, as I expected this to be a more individual/intimate book about commemorating Emmett Till rather than a look at the infrastructure, Delta soil, and financial aspects of the actual memorial markers and such. It was interesting but I found a lot of the info repetitive and, to be honest, a lot of it read like a first or second draft of an undergrad research paper as opposed to a book. On top of this, the author (while going incredibly in depth in most aspects) tended to leave things out to fit the story, such as the rumor that Rosa Parks thought of Emmett Till when she refused to move from her seat. For all the branching-out research done by Tell, he never mentioned Claudette Colvin in relation to Parks. While this book was packed with info (much of which made me sad as I learned that Till's commemoration focused more on finances than actual memorial), I couldn't focus as much as I wanted on the book due to the repetiton and other aspects that took away from the main point.
will-not-finish
May 6, 2020Emmett Till foi um rapaz que, aos 14 anos, foi brutalmente torturado e assassinado em 1955, num estado do Sul dos EUA, e cujo evento tornou-se num dos símbolos e talvez na faísca que iniciou o movimento dos direitos civis nos EUA, em que destacaram Martin Luther King Jr. e Rosa Parks.
Este é um livro, ao contrário do que eu pensava quando comecei a lê-lo, não se trata da história e consequências do rapaz e do cruel destino a que foi sujeito, mas sim à forma como o evento é lembrado hoje em dia, com placas comemorativas e explanatórias nas províncias (counties) onde ocorreram os eventos que levaram à sua morte.
Uma vez que esse aspecto não me interessava particularmente, li apenas cerca de 20% do livro.
Este é um livro, ao contrário do que eu pensava quando comecei a lê-lo, não se trata da história e consequências do rapaz e do cruel destino a que foi sujeito, mas sim à forma como o evento é lembrado hoje em dia, com placas comemorativas e explanatórias nas províncias (counties) onde ocorreram os eventos que levaram à sua morte.
Uma vez que esse aspecto não me interessava particularmente, li apenas cerca de 20% do livro.
April 15, 2021
This book was a really good read. The audio version of this book takes you on a drive through the Mississippi Delta. The book gives the reader a behind-the-scenes look at the politics, economics, and race happening during the time of the kidnapping of Emmett Till. At times I did get lost when they focused on geography but the last two chapters of the book contained the most compelling information. It's crazy to think parts of Mississippi to this day still commemorate the kidnapping of Emmett Till. This book shows how the past isn't really in the past. It was crazy to find out that the gas station where it took place has been allowed to run down but a filling station gets grants to help with preservation. This would be a good book for people of all ages to read or listen to.
October 22, 2021
I listened to the audio version of this book. This is a scholarly research of Emmett Till's trial. The author has tirelessly researched each detail of the trial, including witness statements, the supposed locations of the murder, misleading information, and the influence of the Mississippi Delta culture. He brings together all the forces that concluded in the death of Till, his remembrance, the freedom trail, the Blues Trail, and answers the who, what, where, when and why of Till's death. I personally do not think this is the first book you want to read if you know nothing about Emmett Till or his death.
August 28, 2024
This book appealed to the history major in me--it's about the commemoration of what happened to Emmett Till, not the history of Till and his murder. That is to say, if you aren't a history major and don't know the basics of the Till case, this isn't the book for you. There's a lot of details about commissions and grants and the politics of all that, and honestly, the stories themselves are fascinating. (Like the mayor of Glendora, MS, who's been mayor since 1982 and is, as far as I can tell, STILL mayor--this despite the time he spent in federal prison.) There's a lot of towns out there fighting for their place in the Emmett Till history books--Tell's main point (or, one of them, at least) is the connection between commemoration and the economic benefits it brings.
(As a graduate of Gettysburg College, I can attest to commemoration of an event being the main economic driver of a town.)
Tell writes in an academic way (there's a lot of "In this section, I will..."), but I've definitely read books that came off more as doctoral theses than this one does. He focuses on the "ecology of memory," which is probably the most jargon-y thing in the book. (I spent most of the book a bit confused about the concept, to be honest, which he defines as "the powerful ways in which commemoration is bound up with questions of race and place" [p. 219]). In one section, he keeps saying that the story he's telling clearly shows this connection between race and place, but I don't think I ever 100% understood what he was saying.
A lot of this is really interesting. The discussions of the different types of racism, the jockeying for money by various towns, the purpose of commemoration to the people doing the commemoration--good! He goes a lot into the Look magazine confession of the legally "not guilty" murderers, how that story was used in future recounting of the Till murder, and how because only two men were actually tried and found not guilty, they had to provide a story in which they were the only two involved. This meant leaving out a bunch of people as well as changing many of the locations from the night of the murder. Tell goes into this a LOT. He care about all of this very very deeply. He seems offended at the idea of the county where the murder likely took place being left out of history books.
He cares about PLACES very deeply. He talks a lot about how Emmett Till's murder is now described as one of the events that started the civil rights movement (and also is amusingly snarky about another historian's relationship with that description) and about how various places in Mississippi embrace that moniker because it'll bring tourists and, thus, revenue to their towns. But he also goes on these impassioned...I can't even say "asides" because they are in zero way "aside"...discussions about how really it wasn't the murder or the trial, per se, that spurred the movement, but rather the picture of Emmett and that, of course, was taken in Chicago, so honestly, what claim does Mississippi even have here? Other than, you know, the murder part. Or the trial part.
He also--understandably, given the topic of the book--goes into details about the roadside signs and driving tour signs that show various sites involved in the Till case. There's another lengthy discourse about places being left off this one driving tour, but...the places he got upset about not being included do have their own signs and are included on other tours? I was confused. Perhaps because of the various acronyms that I couldn't retain.
Tell goes deep into what happened to Bryant's Grocery Store, where Till whistled at a white woman. The Bryants sold the store not long after the murder, and it became Young's, and let me tell you, Dave Tell does NOT like that people still referred to it as "Bryant's" when they visited it during the Youngs' ownership. There's a lot about people visiting and thinking about the "forensics" of the murder (i.e., what actually happened in the store?) and how people care about that but not the place specifically, which...duh? Yes? Forensics, says Tell, are important, but are not a part of commemoration. To him, the meaning of the store has increased over the years as it has deteriorated; today, it's just ruins. He thinks that more people are visiting because the store has fallen into ruin and that holding onto the memory of the place is more urgent. Which I kind of get, but...it's hard to sympathize when he says things like, "The facts of 1955 are only half of Till's story, if that."
(It is interesting that the ruins of the store--as well as the renovated nearby gas station--are owned by children of a juror on the Till case.)
Tell ends with discussion of the signs that were put up where--reportedly, though far from being 100% definitely--Emmett Till's body was found in the river. The first sign was thrown into the river. Then bullet holes kept appearing in the replacement signs. Some (white) folks tried to say that people just get bored and like to shoot at things. Other people point out the obvious racism and threats in the bullet holes. So a company offered to make a bulletproof sign. Dave Tell is NOT here for that: Putting up bulletproof signs comes at a "tremendous cultural cost...[it] hides the ecology of memory, hides the entanglement of race and commemoration, and hides the power of the sign to testify to what persists from the distant tragedy that it commemorates" (p. 221). I can't help but feel like it matters more to help visitors feel safer--particularly people of color. It left a bad taste in my mouth to use that to close out the book.
(As a graduate of Gettysburg College, I can attest to commemoration of an event being the main economic driver of a town.)
Tell writes in an academic way (there's a lot of "In this section, I will..."), but I've definitely read books that came off more as doctoral theses than this one does. He focuses on the "ecology of memory," which is probably the most jargon-y thing in the book. (I spent most of the book a bit confused about the concept, to be honest, which he defines as "the powerful ways in which commemoration is bound up with questions of race and place" [p. 219]). In one section, he keeps saying that the story he's telling clearly shows this connection between race and place, but I don't think I ever 100% understood what he was saying.
A lot of this is really interesting. The discussions of the different types of racism, the jockeying for money by various towns, the purpose of commemoration to the people doing the commemoration--good! He goes a lot into the Look magazine confession of the legally "not guilty" murderers, how that story was used in future recounting of the Till murder, and how because only two men were actually tried and found not guilty, they had to provide a story in which they were the only two involved. This meant leaving out a bunch of people as well as changing many of the locations from the night of the murder. Tell goes into this a LOT. He care about all of this very very deeply. He seems offended at the idea of the county where the murder likely took place being left out of history books.
He cares about PLACES very deeply. He talks a lot about how Emmett Till's murder is now described as one of the events that started the civil rights movement (and also is amusingly snarky about another historian's relationship with that description) and about how various places in Mississippi embrace that moniker because it'll bring tourists and, thus, revenue to their towns. But he also goes on these impassioned...I can't even say "asides" because they are in zero way "aside"...discussions about how really it wasn't the murder or the trial, per se, that spurred the movement, but rather the picture of Emmett and that, of course, was taken in Chicago, so honestly, what claim does Mississippi even have here? Other than, you know, the murder part. Or the trial part.
He also--understandably, given the topic of the book--goes into details about the roadside signs and driving tour signs that show various sites involved in the Till case. There's another lengthy discourse about places being left off this one driving tour, but...the places he got upset about not being included do have their own signs and are included on other tours? I was confused. Perhaps because of the various acronyms that I couldn't retain.
Tell goes deep into what happened to Bryant's Grocery Store, where Till whistled at a white woman. The Bryants sold the store not long after the murder, and it became Young's, and let me tell you, Dave Tell does NOT like that people still referred to it as "Bryant's" when they visited it during the Youngs' ownership. There's a lot about people visiting and thinking about the "forensics" of the murder (i.e., what actually happened in the store?) and how people care about that but not the place specifically, which...duh? Yes? Forensics, says Tell, are important, but are not a part of commemoration. To him, the meaning of the store has increased over the years as it has deteriorated; today, it's just ruins. He thinks that more people are visiting because the store has fallen into ruin and that holding onto the memory of the place is more urgent. Which I kind of get, but...it's hard to sympathize when he says things like, "The facts of 1955 are only half of Till's story, if that."
(It is interesting that the ruins of the store--as well as the renovated nearby gas station--are owned by children of a juror on the Till case.)
Tell ends with discussion of the signs that were put up where--reportedly, though far from being 100% definitely--Emmett Till's body was found in the river. The first sign was thrown into the river. Then bullet holes kept appearing in the replacement signs. Some (white) folks tried to say that people just get bored and like to shoot at things. Other people point out the obvious racism and threats in the bullet holes. So a company offered to make a bulletproof sign. Dave Tell is NOT here for that: Putting up bulletproof signs comes at a "tremendous cultural cost...[it] hides the ecology of memory, hides the entanglement of race and commemoration, and hides the power of the sign to testify to what persists from the distant tragedy that it commemorates" (p. 221). I can't help but feel like it matters more to help visitors feel safer--particularly people of color. It left a bad taste in my mouth to use that to close out the book.
May 8, 2020
This an academic text that reads a bit like a novel. I had no idea how political historical markers can be. In Mississippi, at least, historical markers can be largely ignored. In the case of the Emmett Till murder, the location of the murder and the courtroom of the foregone conclusion of a trial has been moved. An insignificant filling station gets hundreds of thousands in grant money for preservation, while the actual store where the murder occurred is allowed to fall down. It's not hard to imagine that it's all about racism and political cronyism. Disgusting.
July 6, 2023
An important consideration of the commodification of racism? With the understanding that the author worked very close with the Emmett Till memorial, after reading this I visited many of the sites in the text and it really helped and live in the material. And also think about the different ways that we commemorate. Highly recommended, and I highly recommend a visit to Mississippi feel these experiences after reading.
November 9, 2022
I accidentally bought this on Kindle and didn't care for it because it lacks the factual heft you get in the Devery Anderson book on the same subject. On the other hand, it's good as a social/cultural history, and I think it might be a good place to start if you're mostly unfamiliar with the story.
November 16, 2024
Truly a transformative piece of work.
March 7, 2025
This Book was more about paying tribute to the murder of Emmett Till, and the politics behind it. As opposed to the murder and Lynching of Emmett Till, and its effect on the civil rights movement.
January 29, 2024
A lot of great and relevant information about the Till case and the lengthy process of commemoration around it. The only issue I have with this book was the writing style is more like reading someone’s thesis. So, don’t expect a page turner. But f you are interested in the Till murder, how racism is systemic and carried on over generations this is a good book. 3 stars only because of the writing style.
December 8, 2023
4/5 March 7th, 2023
5/5 Oct 9th, 2023
5/5 Oct 9th, 2023
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