Say His Name! Emmett Till!

Posted on by under History, Law and justice, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary, Tributes

Last week, the air was sucked out of the room with story after story after story about such things as the upcoming election that is still 462 days away, the inanity of the Republican candidates, the indictments – both present and future – against the former guy, the media covering the former guy’s every word, look, and move, and the inane antics of the Circus Show House of Representatives.  Oh yeah, and Mitch McConnell’s freeze in mid-sentence during a press briefing.  So, given all that super (ir)relevant stuff, you may have missed something that I think is important … President Biden’s proclamation to create three federal monuments to honor Emmett Till and his mother-turned-activist Mamie Till-Mobley.

President Biden was 12 years old in 1955 when Emmett Till was kidnapped, tortured, shot, and thrown into the Tallahatchie River, in Mississippi. Till’s murder sparked the modern Civil Rights Movement.  I have written about what happened to young Emmett before, so I won’t repeat the details, but you can review my previous post from two years ago if you want to refresh the details of the case.

A monument, or even three monuments, cannot return what was taken, cannot bring young Emmett Till back to life nor erase the grief of his mother.  But it can serve as a constant reminder of this nation’s racist past, it can memorialize a young lad who experienced so much hatred and racism in his few years on earth.

In these times when school boards, governors and others are refusing to acknowledge America’s racist past, when books are being banned and such things as slavery, Jim Crow, genocide, and Emmett Till’s murder are being swept under the carpet altogether, else whitewashed like a dirty fence, these three monuments will serve as a timeless reminder of man’s inhumanity to man, or rather of white man’s inhumanity to Black people.

President Biden said it was hard to hold back his emotions when he was preparing his remarks for the White House ceremony, attended by members of the Till family, Congressional lawmakers, and civil rights leaders.

“I found myself trying to temper my anger. I can’t fathom what it must have been like. I know no matter how much time has passed, how many birthdays, how many events, how many anniversaries, it’s hard to relive this.”

The new monument will be managed by the National Park Service. It will include more than 5 acres spread across three distinct sites and is aimed at protecting spaces that tell the story of Till’s life and death.

Are we better today than we were in 1955?  I once thought so, but today I’m not so sure.

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42 thoughts on “Say His Name! Emmett Till!”

  4. Jill, thanks for sharing this powerful news. I have written before, one of the most poignantly disturbing moments in my life came when the docent for the Greensboro Civil Rights Museum asked us to close our eyes at the Emmett Till exhibit as she recited what the mob of white people did to this poor young teen. It is beyond shameful and hateful. It is pure evil.

    So, when I see folks like Ron DeSantis try to tell me this wasn’t so bad, it truly disgusts me. It should be noted the Greensboro museum was built around and including the lunch counter at Woolworth’s, the site of the first sit-in by four students from NC A&T University. As you recall, these black students were denigrated, yelled at, pushed, shoved and spat on, but there they sat asking for service which was available to white people.

    We must know our past. Otherwise, we will allow it to happen again. There are too many haters out there we must contend with. Keith

    Liked by 4 people

    • Indeed, Keith, I well remember you writing about that experience and it has made me want to visit the Greensboro Civil Rights Museum ever since. Perhaps someday. And yes, DeSantis is so full of himself and b.s. that he is something below human in my book. My fear is that we are already allowing it all to happen again … and now they would whitewash history even more … what can the future hold? Sigh.

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  5. Call me blinkered, but I’ve only just realized the irony of the ‘ruler of the free world’ governing ‘democratically’ from a White House. Anyone who believes that racism in the soi-disant ‘free world’ isn’t endemic needs to wake up* and smell the coffee.

    Of course the term ‘woke’ is itself also being (ab)used to keep folks slumbering in their complacency. It’s truly sickening.

    Liked by 5 people

    • I think the White House is so named because of its exterior paint colour, but I do see your point and there is a certain irony there.

      I keep saying that I am, by the current pop culture definition, “woke and proud of it!” I wish I knew how to awaken the rest of the nation!

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  6. With the elections approaching, we can be sure of one thing, that there are going to be, so much more, blackening of names, so many, libel and slanders that the candidates will be using on one another, only to make the opponents, seemed, less worthy of the votes of people, when in reality, no matter how we vote, it doesn’t do a single thing, but we will, still go to the polls, because we are all, fooled into believing, that our votes count for, something, that if we don’t vote, then, we are, forever, silenced, when the truth is, that even IF we vote, those who wanted control over the government can still, manipulate the systems…to their own, advantage, because that, is how, politic, works.

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    • Politics might work that way, tig, but democracy does not. Americans can call what they have democracy all they want, but truly it is demonocracy, led by demons like Trump and the whole Republican Party!

      Liked by 3 people

    • Actually, I would disagree with you on this. It DOES matter if and how we vote. Apathy is the #1 cause for the destruction of democracy. Our votes DO count for something … I know that with 154 million people voting (2020 election), it may not seem as if one vote is going to turn the tide, but what if everyone felt that way? What if Trumpeters were the only ones that bothered to show up at the polls? Voting matters, at least in the U.S. it does.

      Liked by 1 person

  7. There was a time when I used to enjoy and be fascinated by the regular two year run up to the election of a US president.
    These days, I just get more and more fired up with either frustrations, for others probably rather disturbing ideas on how to bring the US back to its senses or dread at where this will all end.
    I’ve said it before and I will say it again, these extremists of the Republican Party have no idea what they are letting themselves in for.
    FDR, RFK, LBJ, George Bush Snr rise from your slumbers and come together to save this nation your worked so damn hard for. (two patricians and two hardcores should do it)

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            • I have a stick that lives on the porch. It is made from Rose of Sharon and a carved black snake spirals around it. It walks along with Ace and I. I also carry steel as I have since I was 7 and this scout leader told me and some friends that if we joined we could handle knives and fire. I like the heft of a big pistol but I quit carrying when Ohio said I could with the passage of concealed carry. It was superfluous anyway as now in America if you need one some fool will provide. I will seek out one of your books. Strong women and weak sticks require special handling, you can’t learn enough. I have the same faith in America as that held by Winston Churchill. I’m not ready to give up yet but we are likely doomed to try a few more things.

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              • Churchill’s quote is one of my favourites, I still cling to it.
                Since the late 1950 / earlier 1960s the USA firstly via cartoon shows and comic books caught my attention. There was a vitality, inventiveness and variety. I found the sit-coms funnier. Then with the 1960s music from across the Atlantic hooked me in. At the same the Cuban Missile crisis, Death of Kennedy, Vietnam, Civil Rights and the fall of Nixon drew me into American politics and the USA as a whole. It became my go-to-place. My sort of second home (although we never did get around to actually travelling to anywhere in the USA).
                With the white-right wing hysterical reaction to Obama’s election my concerns started to rise, and then came the disaster of 2016 when the right chose some loud-mouthed child of privilege who never did the proverbial honest day’s work to be their action toy. Since then I have started to despair and mourn for my adopted nation. My anger against the Rabid Right, as opposed to the Traditional Right grows by the day.
                Cary your stick and steel my friend and keep the nation that was (yes with all its flaws and murky parts of history-whose nation doesn’t? ) close to your heart.

                As a PS: If you are interested in the books, they’re on Kindle under R J Llewellyn Vol.1 ‘Of Patchwork Warriors’….one of the characters, she’s a tribute to what is good in the USA (with her flaws too).

                Take care.

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      • For what it’s worth, there are a few everyday Americans, like the local Democrats and political activists I know, who are trying to make things better in this country. You don’t hear about them on the news and they’re not very glamorous–they are simply at work in their communities. And it is thankless, hard work, which involves a lot of that one step forward, two steps back stuff, which is probably why more people don’t join us in the endeavor. (And I will put it out there that I certainly don’t blame people who are working two jobs to try to make ends meet, and who are also parents, for not being able to be more politically active.) I don’t know that these are “heroes” (they would certainly never call themselves that) but they are very much alive and they are here.

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    • There was a time when the election season didn’t kick into full gear until the summer before, but today it starts immediately after the last election, before the ink is even dry!

      I share your frustrations, Roger … I think we are at a tipping point in this next election that will decide the fate of this nation for the next 100 years or more. And I like your idea about bringing the old guys back to fix things!

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      • I’ve got it all worked out Jill.
        FDR would be the president because although a tough and ruthless guy he played the patrician to the nation so well.
        RFK could be Vice President with a remit to be a political hunter-killer against the entire Republican Right, and ruin them as induvial political forces completely. Just the level of viciousness needed. When done he could turn his energies on repairing the damage done on social reform (and ruin a few right-wing commentators on the way.)
        LBJ would be the fixer with Capitol hill (whatever title) let him get back to the role he loved, back-room deals and a few threats
        George Bush snr would have overall control of CIA / FBI / NSA, since he had the experience and maturity to deal with the subtle nuances.
        FDR and Bush I feel would get on straight away, mature men with focus on the nation.
        FDR could of course tell RFK and LBJ in no uncertain terms to sink their differences. Or else! (When he invited Truman to be next VP running mate in the 1944 election Truman said ‘he could go to hell’. FDR said in a loud voice for all big movers there to hear. ‘Fine. If he wants to ruin the Democratic Party, let him’ under that sort of pressure Truman gave in.)
        Ahhh what a team
        To quote the old Beach Boys song:
        ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice’

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  8. It pains me that for that for every small step that is made for racial equality, a way is found to push it back down by eliminating affirmative action, whitewashing slavery, eliminating lessons of slavery and Black history. “Old White Men” is usually my response but I think I need to just drop the Old.

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    • I fully agree. There was a time that it seemed this nation was on a path toward that dream Martin Luther King had, but today we have turned around and are walking backward, back to the days of Jim Crow. How far back will we go? And women’s rights … women fought for centuries for the right to own property, to equal pay, to bodily autonomy … and bit by bit those rights are being chipped away. I don’t understand it, and it is heartbreaking.

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  9. It is not about where you are at or how far you have got to go but about how far you have come. We have come along quite a bit. We can see it now, that wasn’t so back then.

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    • We did make quite a bit of progress, but today we are moving backward, back to a time when women have fewer opportunities, when Black people are considered less than full citizens, and when LGBTQ people are ostracized. I don’t want to go back there! I want to move forward, toward a world where everyone has equal rights and respect is universal.

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      • The wind does not, cannot, blow always in the direction you seek to go. A sailor who wants to get to a specific destination must learn to tack. A captain who wants success must learn to sail upriver into a headwind. He will be known as Master. Winston had something to say about that too.
        “This is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.” Winston Churchill

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        • No, and I do expect some steps backward, but when it becomes one step forward, then two steps backward, I see it as a problem.

          I do love the Churchill quote … never heard that one before. These days, it’s good to remind ourselves of that … I fear too many have become apathetic and are ready to throw in the towel. Heck, some days I am.

          Liked by 1 person

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