August 28, 2008 will mark the fifty third anniversary of Emmett Till's death. If you are not aware of whom Emmett Till is then perhaps you are too young or were not living in America around the time of his brutal death. Three days after his disappearance on August 31, a white boy fishing in the Tallahatchie River found the decomposing body of a human male. It was Emmett Till. On September 23, after deliberating for one hour and seven minutes, an all-White jury found both men (his abductors) not guilty of murder. In Mississippi at this time if you were a black person whistling at a white woman would get you killed. Emmett Till was just a kid from Chicago who was too young to understand the consequential brutality of Mississippi whites. Any one who had high regards for white folk was brought back to earth when they "remembered what happened to the Till boy." Emmett Till will always be remembered as a civil rights martyr. The hatred of Mississippi will always be remembered.
Poem and excerpts inspired by an article from N'DIGO Magazine Profiles 2002: Mamie Till-Mobley ANATOMY OF A HATE CRIME BY Rosalind Cummings-Yeates and David Smallwood.
Dear Mississippi
I aint forgot what you did to my brother Emmett Till
It's still in my mind after fifty three years
The Tallahatchie River still carry his blood
From the start to the end and from the brim to the mud
More than 600,000 people saw your ugly face
They saw what you did to one innocent black race
They saw what you call: "Putting niggers in their place"
I was down around Money1 just the other day
Still see those blood stains, they aint never going away
1the town were the event occurred
Odium of Mississippi © 2002 Albert Chester Jr