Death of Innocence : The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed America (9781588363244)
Read Death of Innocence : The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed America (9781588363244) Online
Authors: Jesse Rev (FRW) Christopher; Jackson Mamie; Benson Till-Mobley
PRAISE FOR
Death of Innocence
“The book does what it should: informs or reminds people of what a courageous figure for justice [Mamie Till-Mobley] was and how important she and her son were to setting the stage for the modern-day civil rights movement.”
—
The Detroit News
(four out of four stars)
“In
Death of Innocence …
Till-Mobley offers to history the gift of her son. Now it’s possible to ask questions about the murder and, in a new, deeper way, take the real-life boy into account.”
—
The Columbus Dispatch
“A testament to a mother’s devotion to her son.”
—The Dallas Morning News
“Till-Mobley speaks with a powerful voice that produces tears of profound sadness, anger, and finally, great admiration for this mother who experienced the death of her only child.”
—Library Journal
(starred review)
“In
Death of Innocence
, Till-Mobley describes how she dealt with her grief and rage by speaking publicly about Emmett’s murder and how the story of his life and death inspired people to protest the brutal racism that oppressed Southern blacks.”
—
Chicago Sun-Times
“
Death of Innocence
is really a testament to the power of the indestructible human spirit—of which the tortured face of Emmett Till speaks as eloquently as the diary of Anne Frank.”
—
Washington Post Book World
“Death of Innocence
presents a riveting account of the tragedy that upended her life and ultimately the Jim Crow system in the South.”
—Chicago Tribune
“In
Death of Innocence …
Till-Mobley courageously tells how [Emmett’s] killing changed her life and our country’s history.”
—Reader’s Digest
(Editor’s Choice)
“
Death of Innocence
documents an American tragedy and the stubborn faith it took to transcend it.”
—
O: The Oprah Magazine
“None of us can really know [Till-Mobley’s] pain, but through
Death of Innocence
, we do know her grace. Her book is a story of faith and hope—but not
blind
faith and hope; rather faith and hope as action, as being worthy of the challenge.”
—N
IKKI
G
IOVANNI
,
Essence
“Mamie Till-Mobley still has a message that should be heard and discussed by citizens of all races and all ages.”
—
The Chicago Defender
“Death of Innocence
is an important document from an extraordinary woman.”
Black Issues Book Review
“I am so thankful for the bravery and courage Mamie demonstrated when she shared her only child with the world. The news of Emmett’s death caused many people to participate in the cry for justice and equal rights, including myself. The respect I have felt for her since 1955 will always live with me. She was blessed among women to carry the mantle with grace and dignity.”
—R
OSA
P
ARKS
“Death of Innocence
reveals Mamie Till-Mobley for what she was: one of the greatest, but largely unsung, heroes in all of African-American history. Her words are powerful; her strength and vision in the face of the unspeakable horror of her son’s death are astonishing. The life and work of Mamie Till-Mobley serves as an inspiration to all who love justice.”
—S
TANLEY
N
ELSON
, executive producer and director
of the documentary
The Murder of Emmett Till
“An epic drama of despair and hope. The most powerful personal story, so far, from the civil rights movement.”
—M
ORRIS
D
EES
, Southern Poverty Law Center
“Mamie Till-Mobley has written a powerful book in which she reveals to us the life she shared with her son, Emmett Till, and her pride and joy as he became a remarkable young man. This story shows us how the cruelty of a few changed the life of a loving, caring mother and the history of a nation.”
—K
ADIATOU
D
IALLO
, author of
My Heart Will Cross This Ocean:
My Story, My Son, Amadou
“Mamie Till-Mobley has always deserved our admiration for her insistence that the world know her son’s terrible fate, and for her determination to confront his killers in a Mississippi courtroom. Now, in the final act of her life, she gives us an account of the crime, its victim, and its aftermath that is as historically valuable as it is inspiring.”
—P
HILIP
D
RAY
, author of
At the Hands of Persons Unknown:
The Lynching of Black America
A One World Book
Published by The Random House Publishing Group
Copyright © 2003 by Mamie Till-Mobley and Christopher Benson
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by One World, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in hardcover by Random House, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, in 2003.
One World is a registered trademark and the One World colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.
“I Have a Dream” copyright © 1963 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Copyright © 1991 Estate of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Reprinted by permission of Writer’s House, New York.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Till-Mobley, Mamie, d. 2003.
Death of innocence: the story of the hate crime that changed America / by Mamie Till-Mobley and Christopher Benson.
p cm.
eISBN: 978-1-58836-324-4
1. Till, Emmett, 1941–1955—Death and burial. 2. Lynching—Mississippi. 3. Hate crimes—Mississippi. 4. African American youth—Crimes against—Mississippi. 5. Racism—Mississippi. 6. Trials (Murder)—Mississippi. 7. Mississippi—Race relations.
I. Benson, Chris, 1953– II. Title.
HV6465.M7T55 2003 364.1′34—dc21 2003046928
v3.1
We cannot afford the luxury of self-pity. Our top priority now is to get on with the building process. My personal peace has come through helping boys and girls reach beyond the ordinary and strive for the extraordinary. We must teach our children to weather the hurricanes of life, pick up the pieces, and rebuild. We must impress upon our children that even when troubles rise to seven-point-one on life’s Richter scale, they must be anchored so deeply that, though they sway, they will not topple.
M
AMIE
T
ILL-
M
OBLEY
November 5, 1989
Dedication of the Civil Rights Memorial,
Southern Poverty Law Center Headquarters,
Montgomery, Alabama
FOREWORD
G
od’s magnificent women.
God chooses ordinary people to do extraordinary things when they honor His will and His way. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., contended all cannot be famous because all cannot be well known, but all can be great because all can serve.
The struggle for our emancipation is a history of strong women who by their courage, commitment, and craftiness made America honor her creed of “… life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness …” for all. Magnificent women: Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells, Constance Baker Motley, Madam C. J. Walker, Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, Gertrude Johnson Williams, mother of John H. Johnson. In that tradition of a high league of service has stood Mamie Till-Mobley. She was an emancipation heroine.
Magnificent women.
Strong women don’t merely birth children. They cultivate them to render service. One example is that of the mother of the Biblical Moses.
When the government’s decree was issued to kill the firstborn babies, she didn’t just cry and pray and hope. She acted. She crafted a plan, made a basket, hid him in the water, floated him toward Pharaoh’s daughter, who, in turn, would become emotionally connected to the baby and adopt Moses. Later, Moses’ mother volunteered to “babysit” her own baby.
Magnificent women who made a difference.
Mother Mary traveled by donkey to Bethlehem, and gave birth outdoors in a stable. When King Herod was frustrated that he couldn’t find Baby Jesus, he ordered all firstborn babies killed. The impression is that most mothers wept and wailed. Mary was so committed to Jesus she traveled
to Africa to hide Him. Likewise, Gertrude Johnson Williams said to her son John, the dreamer, “I will give you all I have; my prayers, my love, my five hundred dollars, and put my furniture in hock.” Women of faith are courageous, committed, and crafty.
All these women went beyond giving birth, all the way to magnificent action. Mamie lost her only son so that we might have salvation. She planned to be a mother, yet she became a freedom fighter. In 1954,
Brown
v.
Board of Education
broke the legal back of segregation. But the murder of Emmett Till broke the emotional back of segregation. Emmett’s death—and Mamie’s life—gave us the backbone to resist racism.
The 1954 legal victory changed the assumptions of our lives, but hardly our emotional mind-set. I remember in 1954 my grandparents trying to describe what integration meant, because the law had changed, but nothing around us had changed.
On August 28, 1955, when Emmett Till was killed, unlike with
Brown
there was no need for definition. It shook the consciousness of a nation. It touched our bone marrow, the DNA of our dignity.
People tend to want to cover up a lynching. But Mamie put the struggle for emancipation and her outrage above personal privacy and pride. She allowed the distorted, water-marked body from the Tallahatchie River to be displayed in an open casket, at that time the largest single civil rights demonstration. More than 100,000 demonstrated their disgust at that casket. Each one of those people who saw how her son was defaced left telling their own story. They were never the same again. Mamie’s courage unsettled people of conscience into action.
Mamie empowered the media to nationalize the lynching. Jet magazine exploded, and the tragedy became the
Chicago Defender
’s finest hour. It was an earthquake and Mamie used the aftershocks of that earthquake to awaken, to transform a people, and to redirect our course. Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955; Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957; Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1960 are aftershocks of the murder of Emmett Till and the genius of his mother.
We often think of the modern civil rights movement as beginning in Montgomery in 1955 because of the dramatic arrest of Rosa Parks and the emergence of Dr. King. But that is not so. There is a scientific theory that the earth was born through the big bang. One could make the case that Emmett Till was “the big bang,” the Tallahatchie River was “the big bang” of the civil rights movement.