The Blood Of Emmett Till

The Blood Of Emmett Till

Adult nonfiction
"The imagined beastly lust of black men for white women seized
Brady's pornographic political imagination, and the unsullied Southern
white woman became the most important symbol of white male
superiority. 'The lovliest and purest of God's creatures, the nearest
thing to an angelic being that treads this celestial ball is a well-
bred, cultured Southern white woman or her blue-eyed, golden-haired
little girl,' he wrote. 'The maintenance of peaceful and harmonious
relationships, which have been conducive to the well-being of both the
White and Negro races of the South, has been possible because of the
inviolability of Southern womanhood.'"
I think most of us have heard of Emmitt Till, how he visited
Southern relatives in the summer of 1955, how he allegedly said
something to a store owner's wife that violated elaborate racial rules
and offended her family, how his mutilated body was fished out of the
Tallahatchie River, how his mother--going against advice and even
direct orders--had insisted on an open casket funeral so that the
world could see what had been done to her boy, and how the killers
were acquitted despite the overwhelming amount of evidence against
them. Maybe you even heard how in 1956, safe from being tried twice
for the same crime, they sold the real story to Look Magazine. That
was the bare skeleton of information that I knew. I wanted it fleshed
out. So I was delughted to discover Timothy B. Tyson's The Blood Of
Emmett Till.
An amazing amount of research went into the book. Just check
out the bibliography. Tyson portrays a number of scenes so vividly
it's almost like you were there. He also highlights important aspects
of the events that might not be immediately obvious to 21st century
readers. For example, there is the huge significance of Moses
Wright's testimony in the trial.
"After two days of jury selection and delays, the short, wiry,
dark-skinned preacher was the first witness called. That was not the
only reason for the rapt attention in the room, however. Moses Wright
was a black man called to testify against two white men charged with
murder. In Mississippi that constituted an almost suicidal affront to
white supremacy. And he had been duly warned."
The Blood Of Emmett Till raised two awarenesses in me--one
looking backward and the other looking forward from the tragedy.
I'd never realized how strongly linked with the Supreme Court's
1954 decision in Brown v Board of Education. This ruling cut to the
heart of Southern tradition and identity and seemed to be the first
step toward the "mongrelization" of the "superior" white race. White
and black kids going to school together might end up dating, marrying,
and consumating those marriages.
[To be fair, this racial mix fear wasn't limited to the South.
In the 1960s one of my best high school friends and her professional
parents (black father, white mother) received death threats and had
rocks thrown through their windows when they moved to Lexington, an
upscale suburb of Boston.]
"It was in this context that a Chicago teenager walked into
Bryant's Grocery and had his fateful encounter with Carolyn Bryant.
After Till's murder defense attorney J. J. Breland told William
Bradford Huie, 'There ain't gonna be no integration. There ain't
gonna be no nigger voting.' He saw the murder as part of a larger
struggle. 'If any more pressure is put on us, the Tallahatchie River
won't hold all the niggers that'll be thrown in it.'"
Looking six decades ahead, so much hasn't changed. Schools are
still segregated and unequal. There's an epidemic of white police
officers killing unarmed blacks. And now that we have a president
endorsed by the KKK...
...doesn't the below speech sound like the spewing of the alt
right?
"...As long as I live and can do anything about it, niggers are
gonna stay in their place. Niggers ain't gonna vote where I live. If
they did, they'd control the government. They ain't gonna go to
school with my kids. When a nigger even gets close to mentioning sex
with a white woman, he's tired of living. I'm likely to kill him..."
On a personal note, I worked this morning and am now spending the rest
of the day with the best little cat in the world. Whatever else you
are doing, remember it's not just about cookouts and parades. Today
is about remembering those who lost their lives or came back maimed or
shell shocked and doing all we can to prevent wars in the future.
A great big shout out goes out to the best little cat in the world.
jules hathaway


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