It was a tragic mistake.
In the days following Aug. 31, 1955, when Emmett Till’s body was pulled from the Tallahatchie River, “print media outlets… sprang into action” to report “yet another senseless murder of a Black male…” Publications—both mainstream and Black—leaped on the story in days to follow, reporting on “indifference” from Mississippi officials, lack of outrage from white Mississippians at the murder, and the ensuing trial at which the defendants were observed laughing.
Interestingly, Mace says that mainstream Midwestern newspapers covered the story differently than did papers in the West and Northeast. African American publications, particularly from the Midwest, also had understandably different angles. They were, he says, the ones to keep the story alive long after the trial ended.
“At the time,” Mace further adds, “whites in the Deep South could not see that with his death Emmett Till sowed the seeds of change that would sprout forth into the modern Civil Rights Mmovement.
I struggled some with “In Remembrance of Emmett Till.”
Part of the problem is that this book is more academic than I expected; there were times when I was riveted by the information author Darryl Mace uncovered, while other pages made me want to just shelve it awhile.
(“In Remembrance of Emmett Till” by Darryl Mace, c.2014, University Press of Kentucky, $40/$50 Canada, 214 pages.)
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