#emmetttill

"When people saw what had happened to my son, men stood up who had never stood up before." - Mamie Till Mobley

#OnThisDay in 1941, Emmett Till was born, and his legacy lives with us forever. At 14 years old, he was kidnapped, murdered, and lynched in Mississippi by two white men after an alleged interaction with a white woman.

“Two months ago l had a nice apartment in Chicago. I had a good job. I had a son. When something happened to the Negroes in the South I said, 'That's their business, not mine.' Now I know how wrong. I was.

The murder of my son has shown me that what happens to any of us, anywhere in the world, had better be the business of us all.” — Mamie Till-Mobley

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“Hace dos meses tenía un bonito apartamento en Chicago. Tenía un buen trabajo. Tenía un hijo. Cuando algo le sucedía a los negros en el sur, yo decía: “Ese es problema de ellos, no mío.” Y ahora me doy cuenta de lo equivocada que estaba.

"Somebody has to do it. It's on my shoulders... You've got to speak up. These things are not going to come easy."

Another name for whom history already weaves a grand tapestry: Medger Wiley Evers. Less-known than his role in crystallizing the modern civil rights movements, is his time with the United States Army during World War II, and the life lessons he internalized while serving.

Born in 1925 Decatur, Mississippi, Evers managed to excel academically even during a childhood of extreme poverty and during a time of oppressive Jim Crow laws. He was also no stranger to cruel injustices, nor the horrors of lynching. In 1943, with WWII raging at full force, seventeen year-old Evers enlisted with the U.S. Army and was detailed to the 657th Port Company, a segregated unit. The 657th was deployed to Europe as part of a larger logistics organization that delivered food, fuel, and ammunition to the front. During his time in the European theater, Evers continued to endure bigotry and undisguised racism from his own country, but also witnessed firsthand how French Black servicemen were treated with total equality. To say this double standard made an impact is likely underselling it.

Perhaps most significantly, Evers's unit saw action on D-Day in Normandy, as part of Operation Overlord. By the time Sgt. Evers completed his service with an honorable discharge in 1946, he had accumulated a Good Conduct Medal, two Bronze Service Stars, and the World War II Victory Medal. He returned to a Decatur culture largely unchanged by the war, and promptly returned to the front lines, so to speak --trying to improve conditions for his fellow Black Americans, beginning with voter registration drives and speaking out very publicly in favour of integration. His (belated) GI benefits were put towards earning a BA at Alcorn State University, and into a life that would eventually encourage boycotts, elevate him to a prominent leadership role in the NAACP, and investigating brutal murders and lynchings in the South, including that of Emmett Till (see Lesson #110 in this series). His assassination in 1963 was in many ways a bellwether for passage of the Civil Rights Act a year later.

Mainstream Media was quick to announce the death of Carolyn Bryant @ 88Yrs Old, but many kept their storylines short & sweet. Another Day in The Life, under the Biden Administration. Bryant reportedly died in hospice care in Westlake, Louisiana. Details were not given by the Coroner of cause of Death, but Bryant's battle w/ Cancer was not exactly a secret. New Black Media has reported in recent Yrs on how she was initially in Raleigh- Durham, North Carolina, before being moved to Kentucky, & later Louisiana.

Back in June 2022, members of Emmett Till's family discovered an Arrest Warrant issued for 'Mrs Roy Bryant', among Records @ the Lefore County Courthouse in Mississippi. The warrant was issued back in 1955, citing the charge of Kidnapping; but it was never served. The Till Family attempted to reissue that warrant, citing Carolyn Bryant's [recent] admission of perjury in the Trial of Emmett Till's brutal murder. In her 2017 interview w/ Dr. Timothy Tyson, Bryant allegedly admitted to lying on The Stand.

Unfortunately, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch didn't think the case presented any new evidence, & in Aug. 2022, The Grand Jury declined to indict Bryant. As recently as Feb. 7th 2023, Emmett Till's cousin, Priscilla Sterling tried to compel Lefore County Sheriff Ricky Banks to reissue the warrant on Carolyn Bryant; but as of April 13th, she was informed that there was 'no point' in reissuing the warrant, since the Grand Jury declined last August.

Some lament missing the opportunity to send Carolyn Bryant- Donham to Prison. She lived a full life, while Emmett's life was brutally ended before it truly began. Bryant lived in anonymity for decades, until The New Black Panther Party & other Activists began showing up @ her addresses in North Carolina & Kentucky- to issue an 'Unofficial Warrant for her Arrest'. Some complained that Blackfolk were terrorizing an 'Old Lady', but no one says anything, when Nazi Hunters take individuals in their Nineties to justice.

The whole Emmett Till 'Tragedy' revolves around the Culture of protecting a White Woman's 'Honor'- whether she's worthy or not. Emmett Till & Carolyn Bryant are the only ones who know what really happened on Aug. 24th, 1955. According to Emmett's cousins, he was in the Store for a minute before they entered; they didn't know if he knew how to 'act' around a White Woman. From what they saw, Emmett didn't say or do anything threatening; they admit to hearing him whistle @ her. Carolyn Bryant initially concurred, but in Court, she recounted a different story.

In her Court Testimony, Bryant recounted how (14Yr Old) Emmett "put his left hand on my waist, and he put his other hand on the other side." When she rebuffed him, he replied: "What's the matter baby? Can't you take it?" She went on to say that Emmett uttered obscenities that she refused to repeat in Court, but related to his sexual prowess w/ White Women. According to Press Reports, Bryant gave the [unmistakable] impression of being afraid that Emmett might rape her. The Jury took about an hour to deliberate; the Foreman said that it would've been shorter, but they decided on having a [Soda] Pop.

In his 2017 interview, Dr. Tyson says that Carolyn Bryant- Donham told him that her testimony about Emmett grabbing her & uttering obscenities was 'not true'. Unfortunately, his recording of that interview was not enough to change the Grand Jury's opinion about reissuing the 1955 Arrest Warrant. For the most part, The State of Mississippi & The Federal Government were more concerned about the welfare of Carolyn Bryant, than the Family of Emmett Till. The Press described her as a former Beauty Queen that was raised in Poverty, w/ little Education or 'Knowledge of The World'... She was a product of her environment.

Following her death, Dr. Tyson wrote that 'Carolyn Bryant's precise role in the murder of Emmett Till remains murky, but it's clear that she was involved.' It appears that Bryant was in the car when her husband abducted Emmett; she pointed him out. By the time they reached the Store to drop her off, Dr. Tyson says that Bryant may have learned Emmett's fate, & was now saying that he wasn't the boy. In her interview, Bryant says that Emmett didn't do anything that warranted what was done to him. It appears that Emmett's Big Crime, was putting money in Carolyn Bryant's hand, & not on the counter.

Dr. Tyson speaks on how American Society views the Emmett Till Lynching as a story of 'Monsters', including Bryant. Professor Black Truth often speaks about how [White] Society operates on Moral Relativity & Situational Ethics. Applying them here, we can easily see how Dr. Tyson concludes that Society finds it easier to condemn Carolyn Bryant- Donham's actions, than confronting what America is. It's a big reason why both Democrats & Republicans have problems w/ Critical Race Theory (CRT).

For all of the aid & comfort that The State of Mississippi provided Carolyn Bryant- Donham, I can't stop thinking about Emmett... What was that 14Yr Old boy thinking when those grown White Men took him out of his family's house? Took him to that barn where they beat him mercilessly, shot him in the head, tied him to a 70lb Cotton Gin Wheel, & dumped his body into the river... As bad as that Jet Magazine Cover of Emmett's face looked, I can't get past the sheer TERROR he must have felt being alone, in the presence of Pure Evil.

Tonight's fillum was 'Till' (2022) which gives a concrete example of how low the cis white male — and female — can descend in American society in the recent past.

This film made a great impression on me and changed my view of America. It still feels the exact same to me with racist and corrupt police, judges, politicians, medical centers, and universities.

Mamie Till became an educator and activist in the Civil Rights Movement after the death of her 14-year-old son, Emmett, who, in 1955, was beaten severely, shot dead then thrown into the Tallahatchie River with a 75lb cotton gin fan tied around his neck with barbed wire by white supremacists for whistling at a white woman, while visiting his cousins in Money, Mississippi. Mamie Till insisted that the casket containing her son's body be left open to show the world what they had done to him. The film is told entirely from her perspective.

Trivia Produced by Orion Pictures, the film uses 27 years' worth of research by Keith Beauchamp, whose efforts led to the reopening of Till's case by the United States Department of Justice in 2004. Simeon Wright, Till's cousin and an eyewitness of the event served as a consultant to the project until his death in 2017. Chukwu's screenplay is based on a draft she previously co-wrote with Beauchamp and producer Michael Reilly. Disfigured in death, Till's swollen, virtually unrecognizable face was made famous in a photograph by David Jackson, first published in Jet magazine, showing the boy's mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, looking down on her son.

Till had its world premiere at the New York Film Festival on October 1, 2022, and was released in the United States on October 14, 2022, by United Artists Releasing, and will be in the United Kingdom on January 13, 2023, by Universal Pictures. The film received positive reviews from critics.