Today’s blog
Lynn Murphy Mark
Till
Last night we decided to splurge and watch a movie that is also out in the theaters. We debated over which one to watch and finally settled on the true story of Emmett Till and his mother Mamie Till-Mobley. We knew going in that this would not be a light hearted movie – Emmett Till’s story is a tragedy, one of so many that happened in the South. We were not prepared for the depth of the acting showing the raw grief and anguish of a mother whose only son was brutally lynched and murdered.
Emmett was raised in Chicago. His nickname was Bo and he was a happy and carefree child. In his fourteenth year he was invited to visit cousins in Mississippi. His mother eventually gave in to his fervent requests to be allowed to travel down South. But underneath her approval was a deep unease, since she had grown up in Mississippi and knew firsthand the vicious racism that was a daily part of life. As sternly as she could, she emphasized that he must show nothing but the utmost respect in the presence of any white person he encountered.
But Bo was a friendly, outgoing young man. He and his cousins were at a store buying sodas and candy. Bo went to the cashier, a young white woman, to get some penny candy. He looked at her and smiled and said, “You look like a movie star!” She did not take this compliment well and Bo left the store. The boys were sitting on the porch when she came out and Bo, still unaware of the local boundaries, wolf whistled at her. She was shocked and ran to her car to get a gun. The boys piled into their cars and left quickly. Emmett was immediately put in his place by his companions. He, however, had no idea of what he had done wrong, and what the possibilities were as a result.
In a few days two men appeared at his uncle’s house and Emmett was taken to a barn, brutally beaten, taken to the edge of the Tallahatchie river, shot in the head and dumped into the river. His body was not discovered for three days, until August 31, 1955.
His mother insisted that his decomposing beaten body be returned to her in Chicago. Against the advice of many, she insisted on an open casket. “I want the world to see what they did to my baby.” This was her stance and she never waivered. She stood strong during his service as hundreds of people filed by to honor the boy and his mother.
Of course, there was a trial in Mississippi which she attended and at which she testified that she identified the body as that of her only son. The two men who killed Emmett were found “Not Guilty”. They were charged with a fee to pay and set free. By this time she was as straight as a rod of steel and knew that she would have to remain so for Emmett’s sake.
The NAACP recognized her as a powerful speaker and sent her around the country to educate people about the truth of the Jim Crow South. The film ends at the beginning of her activism. I read that she later attended Chicago’s Teacher College and became an educator as well as a Civil Rights activist.
The actor who played Mamie is Danielle Deadwyler. That’s a new name to me, but one that I will follow. There is one scene where she is taken to the train station in Chicago to get her son’s body. When she sees the pine box carefully unloaded from the train she collapsed in anguish. Her portrayal of a mother’s grief is one of the most compelling moments in film that I have ever seen.
We watched this film because we know that racism still pervades in this country. The movie took one tragic example of its consequences and laid it open for it viewers. It is 2022 and there are still lynchings happening on our soil. Thousands of innocents have been murdered in the cruelest ways imaginable. Emmett Till’s tragic death helped start the Civil Rights movement.