Emmett Till was a black 14 year old boy, raised in Chicago, that had come for a visit to his great-uncle, Moses Wright’s sharecropping farm in Mississippi. Before he left Chicago, he was told by his mother to not look white people in the eye and refer to them as sir and ma’am and to be very respectful. On Sunday August 28, 1955 Moses Wright was awakened at 2 am by two white men and at least one black man. “This is Mr. Bryant,” said another white man. “We want to talk to the boy. We’re here to talk to you about that boy from Chicago, the one that done the talking up at Money.” Milan, Chapter 2
No one is entirely clear what happened at the Bryant market in Money, Mississippi. Emmett’s cousins left him alone for only a few minutes. But Mrs. Bryant felt insecure enough to get her husband’s gun out of the car and tell her husband about it when he got home. Her husband and brother-in-law were upset enough about it to kidnap Emmett and brutalize him until he finally died and then throw his body in the Tallahatchie River, where it resurfaced on Wednesday August 31, 1955.
It would not have mattered how carefully the trial would have been handled. No one was going to find Bryant and Milan guilty for the crime of killing a black person, even though he was a child; not in Mississippi.
“[Emmett’s mother] Mamie [Bradley] was haunted by a story of a little black girl who had been playing with a white girl at the home of the white family that employed her mother. The white girl got upset with the black girl and ran to tell her father as he walked up the driveway from work. He angrily snatched up the black girl, shook her like a rag doll, then tossed her up against a tree in the front yard. ‘Now that girl’s mother had to finish her day’s work before she could even look after her daughter, who left there writhing in pain the rest of the day,’ Mamie remembered many years later. ‘Eventually, the little girl died of her injuries. This is a cautionary tale,’ she said, a tale of horror or rooted in real experience.” Chapter 4
Tyson did not only give us a picture into the murder of Emmett in this true crime history memoir but also into the culture at the time that Emmett’s biography takes place and what was happening in politics and race in Mississippi and other southern states. Only weeks before Emmett was murdered 2 black men were lynched for attempting to register black voters in the Magnolia State.
Had Mamie Bradley not immediately begun calling Chicago newspapers when she learned that her son’s body had been found, had she not insisted that his body not be buried immediately in Mississippi but be brought to Chicago and then had an open casket service, her son’s murder may have gone unnoticed. But Bradley was not going to allow her son’s death to be in vain and because of her courage and strength, her son’s death got the attention of people around the world and brought to light not only the behavior of white supremacy in the south but in the north and where complacency was probably worse than actual violent actions.
The death of Emmett Till inspired many people to work hard to gain more traction with more fair civil rights and social justice for everyone. We still have room to grow, but we have come so far. The Blood of Emmett Till by Timothy B. Tyson is an emotional and hard read at times, but it is a well written nonfiction memoir that is an important reminder of American history and the importance of loving our neighbor.
I got this book from my personal collection. You can get your own copy of The Blood of Emmett Till by Timothy B. Tyson on Amazon.
Read My Review on GoodReads:
The Blood of Emmett Till by Timothy B. Tyson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
If you are looking for a light read, The Blood of Emmett Till by Timothy B. Tyson, is not it. But if you looking for a vital read this book does check those boxes. This nonfiction book doesn’t just explore the facts of the Emmett Till murder but also the politics and culture in the United States and especially the southern states where white supremacy was felt the loudest.
I recommend this book as an important part of any educated person’s reading list.
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