The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till

The murder of Emmett Louis Till and and subsequent sham of a trial for his murderers were key catalysts for the American civil rights movements. After the brutal lynching, Mamie Till- Mobley put her son in an open casket because she wanted "the world to see what they did to my son." Keith A. Beauchamp's investigative documentary powerfully captures the moment remarkably well, along with posing questions about the continuing lack of justice for Till, and by extension, other victims of racism.

Emmett Till was a 14-year-old boy when he went to Mississippi to visit his uncle Moses Wright and cousins in 1955. A trip to the grocery store led to Emmett wolf-whistling at shopkeeper Carolyn Bryant. Emmett's cousins took him quickly away from the scene fearing that Mrs. Bryant was going to get a gun. Her husband Roy and his friend J.W. Milam decided that Emmett's action was not only a crime, but a capital offense. Till was taken by the two, in the company of others unnamed, from Wright's house in the middle of the night of 28 August. At some point during the night, Till was killed. His body was dumped in the Tallahatchie River, bound to a cotton bale with barbed wire. After a few days his grossly mutilated body was recovered and after some difficulty, returned to Chicago where it was view in an open casket by thousands of mourners. The graphic photos of Till mutilated corpse shocked much of the nation as much of white America saw images of crimes they were normally able to ignore.

Bryant and Milam were caught and put to trial for murder and kidnapping. Despite the NAACP and black newspapers finding several witnesses for the prosecution an all white, all male jury released them after deliberating for less than one hour. Bryant and Milam then proceeded to confess to author William Bradford Huie in national monthly Look, double jeopardy preventing the confessions from being cause for retrial. All this is recounted in a straightforward manner in the film. The case is not an unfamiliar one for people with any interest in civil rights or the history of the civil rights movement and the film presents only a few new insights into the crime itself. One important and depressing fact uncovered by Beauchamp is the participation of a few African-American youths in the original kidnapping, though not the torturing and killing, of Till. Till's surviving cousins relate and react to the information with a visible distaste of knowing something yet not wanting to accept it.

Where the film truly succeeds is in composing an understanding of conditions in the South at the time. Mamie Till-Mobley recounts how friends and family in Chicago helped prep the Till boys on how to behave in the South, kind of a How to Survive Amongst Violent Racists course. Reporter Dan Wakefield, who covered the trial for The Nation recalls his surprise not so much at the crime, but at how the people of the town didn't see what the big deal was. Virtually everybody involved expresses something approaching awe for Moses Wright, who fingered Bryant and Milam in their trial. This at a time when testifying against a white man was as dangerous as it was ineffective. More than the narrative of the crime, it is these and other similar details that give us the most insight into the case and the conditions of African- Americans in the US South.

The investigation by Mr. Beauchamp has uncovered more participants and led to the Justice Department reopening the case. 50 years is a long time to wait for prosecution given that most figures involved in the case are long dead. It is however, a testament to how profoundly the legacy of Emmett Louis Till resonates today.

We remember the generalized imagery of the pre-integration South, but as a person pretty well educated in such matters (or so I like to think) it was still horrifying to be confronted not only by the viciousness of the lynching and murder of Emmett Till but of the Mississippi attitudes that resulted in the acquittal of his killers. Truly, my jaw was open.

Some details received short shrift. Perhaps that is because the film was about the emotional impact of the murder, and the political outcome from it. But if Beauchamp wanted to also cover the "whodunnit" details as he suggested, there were some interesting omissions. Gone was any discussion of the forensic evidence, and although a mention was made that a "confession" was published a year later, why did Beauchamp not tell us what it said? It would have also been interesting to know what the assailants (and the accuser, the woman in the store/wife of a killer) had to say, if anything, before they passed away.

But setting aside what was "missing," what was there is really worth seeing, even if you think you know the story.

The Emmett Till story is really that of an American tragedy. A young man about 14 years old is sent from Chicago to spend summer in Money, Mississippi. He doesn't know how different the South is from Chicago. When he's there, he comes into contact with a white female cashier at the store where he places the money in her hand. Later, he is caught whistling at her. What happens next is horrific to describe. Emmett Till was an only child of a loving mother who had no idea about the tragedy that would occur in taking his life. Not only was Emmett's kidnapping and murder horrific, so is the terrorism that was happening in the South where lynchings, murders, and kidnapping of African American men were happening at an alarming rate. I hope the Emmett Till story and this documentary should be mandatory viewing in every classroom in America to show the hatred, violence, and horror of our history.

The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till (2005)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Strong documentary taking a look at the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old boy from Chicago who was in Mississippi with relatives when he was kidnapped and brutally murdered after whistling at a white woman. The documentary runs 70-minutes and features interviews with Till's mother, many of his friends and cousins who witnessed the kidnapping as well as a journalist who was covering the trial. This is the second documentary I've seen on the Till killing and it always catches me off guard when I see his mother as well as people who witnessed the crime. This type of event was just so shocking and unbelievable that it's really hard to imagine that this took place not so long ago and it's especially recent when you see so many people from its story are still with us. It's always sad when certain bits of history are forgotten by so many and while I'm far from a history expert I do think that certain stuff (Pearl Harbor, 9/11) are such important events that they need to be remembered. This is such a case because it's not only a matter of Civil Rights but it's also the horrifying fact that a 14-year-old could be beaten and tortured so badly and no one ever paid for it. The recounting of the events are still chilling no matter how many times you hear them and especially the stuff with the mother talking about opening the coffin box and seeing how mutilated her son's face and body was. Graphic photos are shown of the body so people should be warned as the images are just ghastly and it's hard to believe that something like that could happen. THE UNTOLD STORY OF EMMETT LOUIS TILL is a very good documentary taking a look at one of the ugliest crimes in American history. It's certainly worth watching.

Tremendously powerful, straightforward documentary about the horrific lynching of a black teen in 1955 Mississippi for whistling at a white woman, and the pathetic lack of justice that followed. The incident itself helped launch the modern civil rights movement.

The film is mostly simple interviews with Till's surviving family and friends, and a few other witnesses to the events , interspersed with some stills and bits of news footage from the time. But a story this strong doesn't need a lot of gloss, and if the film feels almost amateurish at moments, that pales before its heartrending, infuriating, and terrifying story, made real by the memories of those who were there.

The film was responsible for re-opening a federal investigation of the crime, 50 some odd years after the fact, with the hope of finally bring some justice and closure to the noble and brave Till family, and to all African-Americans, for whom this crime represents the worst of America.

An important moment in recent history that should never be forgotten