On August 28, 1955, Mamie Elizabeth Till-Mobley (1921-2003) received a phone call that permanently changed her life. Her son Emmett (1941-1955) had been abducted and murdered while staying with relatives in Money, Mississippi. The crime was brutal and normally would have been swept under the rug in a small southern town. However,  his mother refused to let her son fade away and become a distant memory. She not only insisted on bringing the remains north, but she also made the fateful decision to have an open-casket funeral. Uncensored images of his body which were published in JET and Ebony magazines, sent shockwaves across America, and even today the pictures are haunting. Sadly, Emmett is known as the teenager who was murdered for the crime of “possibly whistling at white woman”. But is that what really happened that day? The woman behind the register, Carolyn Bryant (1934-2023), allegedly admitted in 2007 that the story was fabricated. But she later told the Federal Bureau of Investigation that she had not recanted. A bureau investigation found no credible evidence that she admitted to making false statements in 1955. The truth about the sequence of events at the store remains shrouded in mystery. Her former husband Roy Bryant and his friend J.W. Milam were acquitted of the crime by an all-white jury but in the court of public opinion, America had reached a turning point.

Till’s death is undoubtedly the darkest point in the book, but it is not the sole focus. In fact, this is his mother’s story of her life, her son Emmett and how she managed to continue living after his untimely and senseless death. As the story begins, Mamie takes us through her childhood which starts in Webb, Mississippi. It is a return to the Deep South, where Jim Crow is in full effect. At the age of eighteen, she meets Louis Till  (1922-1945) whom she marries in 1940. The couple soon finds out that they are expecting a child. The marriage should have been joyful but Mamie reveals the dark side to Louis whose unpredictable and volatile nature cast a dark cloud over their union. After one terrible incident in the book, he is given the choice of jail or the Army. America had entered World War II by this point and Louis soon found himself in Europe. He disappears from the story until 1945, when Mamie receives a notification from the military that Louis had been executed due to willful misconduct. She does not go into the details because she had no idea what took place. However, author John Edgar Wideman did examine what is left of the military file regarding Louis’ execution. He wrote about it in his book ‘Writing to Save a Life: The Lous Till File’. The story is convoluted and not clear in some respects, but the reality is that Louis was gone, and Mamie had become a single parent. So, in the 1950s she made the move to Chicago with Emmett in tow.

Mamie and Emmett’s life in Chicago is fairly routine with her son blossoming into a responsible young man. This is by far the best part of the book, and critical in understanding who Emmett was. His mother provides crucial facts that explain his character and determination in life. However, there is one extremely important aspect of his early struggles with language that provides a clue as to what may have happened later  in Mississippi. I do not want to spoil it for the readers but what Mamie explains will make the alarm bells go off in your head. As I read, I found myself feeling closer to Emmett and enjoying his maturity from a child into a teenager. And had he not been killed; he surely would have grown into a fine adult. From the anecdotes provided by Mamie, Emmett’s high intelligence and sharp wit earned the admiration of his mother, grandmother, and all who knew him.

While raising a son, Mamie also has time for love and goes through her difficulties before finding a rock in the form of Gene whom she marries and remains with until his death later in the story. Gene, along with her mother, are the rocks of the family and help weather the storm through the dark times to come. In the summer of 1955, Emmett wanted to visit his family in the Deep South. Mamie at first is against the idea because she knows that life is Mississippi is not like life in Chicago, and even the mildest interactions between Whites and Blacks could escalate to the point of death. But Emmett and his charm win her over and she agrees to let him go. But the grim feeling about Mississippi never leaves her and even up to the day he leaves, she is still wary of him going to the South. She gives him an extensive pep talk and explains all the fears she had about her only son visiting a part of the country where life for Blacks could be unbearable. At first the trip is routine with constant communication between Mamie, Emmett, and her relatives in Money. But on August 28, 1955, that small town changed and life for everyone did as well.

As I mentioned earlier, there is still mystery surrounding the events at the candy story where Carolyn Bryant worked. What is clear is that Emmett and his cousins purchased candy and were on their way out of the store and had stopped on the front porch to congregate as kids often do. It was alleged that Emmett whistled at Bryant, and other outlandish accounts have claimed that he went as far as to grab her by the waist and make suggestive remarks. Although Emmett was from Chicago, I do not believe he was crazy enough to do such a thing. In fact, the story of the sequence of events changed so many times that it is hard to know what happened. Regardless, none of those things, even if they did occur, justify the brutal execution of a teenage boy. Adults failed Emmett and later on, the American justice system failed him and his family. Mamie is at home when the call comes in, and the heartbreaking news comes through in the book like a sledgehammer. It is a moment we know is coming but the dread surrounding it is no less terrifying. I do not know where she found the strength to keep going, but as the events play out, Mamie is like a rock and never stops in her journey to obtain justice for Emmett.

It is clear from the beginning that the trial would be a farce. The local sheriff and citizens were determined to keep Blacks “in their place” and were not going to convict the defendants. However, their crime attracted national attention and put Mississippi in the spotlight, and rightfully so. The jury’s reason for acquittal is laughable and today we know a decision such as that would not happen. But in 1955, in the Deep South, justice for Blacks and other minorities was almost non-existent. But across the country, Americans were waking up to the injustices across the nation. And Emmett’s death catapulted that movement for Civil Rights. Mamie finds herself in the spotlight, meeting scores of famous people from the Rev. Jessie Jackson to Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) And later in life, she meets former U.S. President William J. “Bill” Clinton.  Despite the attention, she never loses focus that the movement is bigger than Emmett. But that does not take away from her grief which remains through her for the remainder of the book. One by one, those close to her make their departures as age and poor health claim their victims. She is the last to go in 2003, but before she leaves, she makes sure to explain the reasons behind her actions and everything she learned in her life. Her collaborator Christopher Benson provides a post-script about Mamie and her death which are a fitting ending to the book. If you know the story of Emmett Till’s death, you must also know the story of his life and his family’s trials and tribulations. This is the place to start.

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B003E8AIDO