Emmett Till

by Devery S. Anderson

  Chatham went straight to the point by asking Smith what statement Bryant actually made to him. Smith said that Bryant admitted getting “the boy” from Mose Wright’s home and that he took him to his store in Money. Because he turned out to be the wrong one, Bryant “turned him loose.” Bryant did not name anyone else involved, but said he then played cards at a relative’s home for the rest of the night.

  Swango ruled that before Smith could testify in front of the jury, the state would need to establish evidence of a crime. “There has been no proof of any criminal agency shown here as far as a corpus delicti is concerned.”130

  Smith could not testify to that because he was in Jackson when the body was discovered and never actually saw it. Therefore, Chatham called Chester Miller back to the stand, believing his expertise could establish that the body in the river had been the victim of murder.

  Miller said he had made only a “casual examination” of the body, but he described its several wounds, one of which he believed to have been made by a bullet. The defense quickly objected to that as speculation, but Miller was allowed to describe the wound as a hole, about a half-inch square, located above the right ear. He said that much of the head had been “crushed in” and that a piece of the skull fell off into the boat. Breland objected when Chatham asked the witness if “the wounds which you described here were sufficient to cause his death.” Swango allowed the question to stand, and Miller answered affirmatively.131

  Under cross-examination, Miller could only say for sure that death came to the victim by “some kind of instrument,” but when pressed, could not say for sure if damage to the body occurred before or after death. Once that point was made clear upon Breland’s repeated questioning, Miller was again excused. Court then adjourned at 11:45 A.M. for a three-hour recess.132

  During the break, the defense spent two-and-a-half hours questioning the four new witnesses from Sunflower County. Only three, in the end, would testify, because Walter Billingsley became fearful and told attorneys that he knew nothing about the case. Chatham had assured reporters earlier that morning that the witnesses “will place the defendants with the Negro boy several hours after they took him from old man Mose’[s] house.” Robert Smith said that their testimony “could substantially change the case.”133 By the end of the day, Chatham ended speculation that this new evidence, as important as it was, might bring about a change of venue. The victim appeared to have been shot, but because no one on the plantations in Drew claimed to have heard a blast, the prosecution concluded that Till was likely “roughed up” at the barn but killed elsewhere. This meant that the trial would continue in Sumner.134

  When court reconvened at 2:45 P.M., two witnesses recounted the discovery and retrieval of the body from the river. Seventeen-year-old Robert Hodges told how he had been fishing when he saw human knees and feet protruding from the water. Hodges described the condition of the corpse as having wounds to its back and a gash in the head. Smith asked Hodges about the ring on the finger, which Hodges remembered was silver. Smith showed him the ring with its inscription, but Hodges said he never got close enough before to see what it read.

  “But that looks like the ring though?” asked Smith.

  “Yes, Sir,” responded Hodges.135

  B. L. Mims, Hodges’s thirty-year-old neighbor, gave similar testimony about the scene at the river. He added an important description to bolster the state’s case. When he and those with him approached the body, “we could tell by looking at it that it was a colored person. That is all we could see, just from the knee on down, both knees.” Neither Mims nor Hodges was questioned by the defense.136

  Sheriff George Smith returned to the stand and, in front of the jury, told the story of Bryant’s confession. On cross-examination, Breland once again sought to make a case for the conversation’s confidentiality because Smith had been a friend, did not tell Bryant he was there to arrest him until after they talked, did not have a warrant, and did not tell Bryant that any statement made would be used against him. Upon redirect, Chatham asked Smith one question, which made it clear that none of the above made any difference.

  “And when you talked to [Bryant] on this particular Sunday afternoon, he knew you were Sheriff of Leflore County, is that right?”

  “That’s right, Sir.”

  Swango allowed Smith’s testimony to stand on the same grounds, telling the defense that Smith, as sheriff of Leflore County, had the “duty to investigate any and all crimes and alleged crimes” in his jurisdiction. Smith then admitted to the defense that at no time during his conversation with Bryant was Emmett Till’s name mentioned. In fact, neither he nor Bryant was yet aware of the missing boy’s identity.137

  Leflore County deputy John Cothran was the last witness of the day. Once again, Swango excused the jury.

  Cothran said he talked to J. W. Milam alone at the Leflore County jail on Monday, August 29, one day after Bryant’s arrest. Chatham asked if he promised Milam any rewards or immunity, and if he threatened or intimidated him, all of which Cothran denied doing.

  “Was any statement made to you on that day in the Leflore County jail by Mr. Milam?”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  “And was the statement made to you on that day, at that particular time, freely and voluntarily made?”

  “Yes, Sir.”138

  Through a series of questions, Chatham brought out the details of Cothran’s conversation with Milam, which clearly had been a casual one.

  “Mr. Cothran, will you tell the Court in the absence of the jury what your conversation was at that time with Mr. Milam?”

  “I asked him if they went out there and got that boy.”

  “When you said ‘they,’ did you call them by name?”

  “I didn’t call anyone by name. I just asked if they went out and got that boy. And then he said, yes, they had got the boy and then turned him loose at the store afterwards; at Mr. Bryant’s store.”

  “Did he say why they turned him loose there?”

  “He just said that they brought him up there and talked to him, and then they turned him loose.”

  “Did he say why he went down to get the boy at Mose Wright’s house in the first place?”

  “No.”

  “Did he offer any explanation to you as to why they didn’t carry the boy back down to Uncle Mose’s house after that?”

  “I didn’t ask him.”

  “And he didn’t offer any explanation to you about that?”

  “No.”

  Chatham then addressed the court and said, “I believe that is all we have in qualifying the witness for the State.”139

  Carlton, cross-examining Cothran, probed for details about his relationships with Milam, Bryant, and their extended family. Cothran said that he believed the entire family had supported him in his recent unsuccessful campaign for sheriff of Leflore County, and admitted to being “good friends” with Milam. Carlton objected to the admission of Cothran’s testimony, claiming any statement Milam made to Cothran was said involuntarily and that Milam had not been advised of his rights. Also at issue was the identity of the body, which had not been shown to be that of Emmett Till. Nor was there proof that the victim died as the result of “any criminal agency whatsoever.” Again, Swango overruled all objections, and the jury returned to the courtroom.140

  Deputy Cothran repeated most of his earlier testimony for the benefit of the jury and added details about the morning of August 31, when he was summoned to the Tallahatchie River. He saw one of the morticians remove a ring from a finger on the body, the same ring that was given to Mose Wright and which Wright gave to Cothran shortly thereafter. Cothran had kept the ring in his possession, knew the inscription, and had no trouble identifying it when Chatham showed it to him on the stand. Cothran also identified the cotton gin fan as the one lying in the boat with the body.141

  Cothran described the body as he saw it at the river, saying “his head was torn up pretty bad. And his left eye was about out, it was all gouged
out in there.” Also, “right up in the top of his head, well, there was a hole knocked in the front of it.” There was also a hole above the right ear, which “I wouldn’t say it was a bullet hole, but some of them said it was.” Breland raised an objection to that statement, which Swango sustained. Cothran continued to describe the condition of the body without speculating to the cause of the wounds.142

  Carlton, for the defense, probed Cothran about Milam’s statement at the jail. Cothran said the admission had come before he told Milam he was under arrest, but that it had occurred while the two were walking to the jail. Milam did, however, ask to call his attorney before making his statement, which Cothran allowed him to do from the office. The attorney was probably Hardy Lott of Greenwood, whom Milam referred reporters to shortly after his arrest.143

  Before excusing Cothran from the stand, Carlton asked him to look over the gin fan, count the blades, and even describe their shape and size. Could the fan itself have caused the gashes on the body’s head if it had simply been dropped on the body? Cothran admitted it could have. He also testified, in response to Carlton’s questioning, that the body’s genitals had not been mutilated and that they were “well developed privates.”144 The implications of those revelations, from the defense standpoint, were twofold. Because the genitals were “well developed,” the victim, in life, would have been capable of rape, which would have made the jury suspect. At the same time, had the body really been that of a black man accused of insulting white womanhood, he would have been castrated. The latter would imply that neither Milam nor Bryant had any motive to kill him. All of this would work in favor of the defense.

  For the dozens of reporters covering the trial, there was much to report on this opening day of testimony. In the courthouse lobby, people staffing the Western Union booth worked overtime. Tommy Woodward, manager of the Greenville office helping out in Sumner, said that on Monday they sent out 19,000 words; Tuesday it jumped to 22,000. Wednesday, with the beginning of testimony, it was shooting even higher. Western Union was the method used by most of the larger papers, but organizations such as UPI, International News Service (INS), and AP used specially installed private phones. In the hustle and bustle of reporting so much news out of the crowded lobby on Wednesday, Bob Denley, of INS, dropped and broke his phone, which created a crisis for him and his news organization until it could be replaced.145

  On this first day of testimony, the state introduced seven witnesses. Mose Wright clearly demonstrated that two men came into his home and kidnapped his nephew, Emmett Till. One of the intruders said he was Roy Bryant, the other was tall and bald. Both the sheriff of Leflore County and a deputy received admissions from Bryant and Milam that they took the boy, but both defendants said they let him loose. A body found in the river three days later wore a ring that Wright identified, albeit secondhand, as belonging to Emmett Till. Connecting the dots pointed logically to Milam and Bryant as the kidnappers and, presumably, the killers. The defense tried to cast doubt on the actual identity of the kidnappers as well as the body and how it met its demise. That would remain the defense’s focus for the remainder of the trial.

  So far, Judge Swango had been universally praised for his fairness, and the prosecution was applauded for its persistence in seeking justice. What about the four bailiffs in charge of the sequestered jury? Little is known about how well they kept outside influences away from the men under their watch, and there are some contradictory stories. Shortly after Judge Swango adjourned court on Wednesday, a juror was heard arguing with one of the bailiffs.

  “Does a juror wish to ask a question?” asked the judge, who overheard the commotion.

  “Yes,” replied the juror, sitting in the back of the jury box. “We want to listen to the prize fight tonight and the bailiff says it might raise a racial issue.”

  This was an impressive insight. The match was between white champion Rocky Marciano and black contender Archie Moore. Yet Swango didn’t think it would pose a problem, and he granted the men permission to listen to a radio broadcast of the fight at their hotel. That night, at Yankee Stadium, Marciano won the bout by knockout in the ninth round.146

  The concern exhibited by the bailiff may have been an anomaly. A few years later, a graduate student interviewing the jurors and others reported “rumors” that members of the Citizens’ Council visited each member of the jury during the trial and encouraged them to vote “the right way” when the time came. Whether or not this was true, it is clear that someone wanted to influence the jury. Early Wednesday morning a cross was set ablaze between the Delta Inn and the Sumner depot of the Mississippi Valley Railroad. This incident, typically an act of intimidation by the Ku Klux Klan, received little attention, perhaps because local resident Clarence Sumner saw the fire and extinguished it before too many people noticed. In fact, one black reporter said the incident “had less effect on Negroes as a flea bite on an elephant.” The blaze may have been set by the Klan or may simply have been what Greenwood Morning Star editor Virgil Adams called a “juvenile prank.” Either way, a burning cross in front of the hotel where the jury slept obviously had an intended message.147

  The first day of testimony also coincided with, or perhaps was the cause of, increased resentment among the local citizens. Throughout the day, those gathered outside the courthouse still conversed and laughed together, but there was “a nervous edge not evident before,” observed Clarion-Ledger reporter Jay Milner. The crowds seemed more deliberately segregated, with blacks gathering on the east side of the courthouse and whites on the west. Milner believed the heightened tensions among locals may have been rooted in the Tuesday arrivals of Mamie Bradley and Representative Charles Diggs. “Many Deltans are convinced the two have hidden motives for being here.”148 There was also animosity toward the press, and people wondered why “those blankety-blank newspapers are making all this fuss.” Milner noted that the “tan faces” of the white residents “wrinkle into a kind of helplessly belligerent signal when an expensively dressed Negro reporter or photographer would stride confidently past them.” Were the members of the jury feeling the same thing? Milner believed this resentment represented the biggest obstacle for the state in winning sympathy for its case.149 Similarly, Virgil Adams thought the problem originated with the outside press, and branded those visiting from the North as “radicals” who were “probably spreading vicious propaganda about Miss[issippi] in New York and foreign newspapers.”150

  Perhaps Adams took some satisfaction that Wednesday was not a good day for at least a few of the visiting reporters. When Baltimore Afro-American journalist James Hicks went to his car after the morning recess, a deputy approached and promptly arrested him. He escorted Hicks to Justice of the Peace Ralph Lindsey, who, being the linotypist for the Sumner Sentinel, was at work at the newspaper office. The deputy refused to tell Hicks the charges against him, even after others came to the scene and vouched for him, including William Simpson, owner of the Sentinel. Simpson had come to know many of the reporters, and let them use his office to write their stories. He even entertained several at his home during the week. Only after those present threatened to call Sheriff Strider did the deputy explain to Hicks that he had been reported for passing a parked school bus, which violated Mississippi state law. Luckily for Hicks, Lindsey simply took him into a back room, read to him the law, and let him go.151

  Perhaps the strangest incident involving a reporter occurred that same day to Ronald Singleton, covering the trial for the London Express. Singleton had just arrived in Sumner that morning when Town Marshall Audley Downs saw him in the street and, failing to recognize him, told him to stop. Singleton got scared, began to run, and Downs fired three shots over his head. Later, Singleton accidentally walked into the wrong room at a Sumner boardinghouse, where he was run out. He was so traumatized by all of this that he never returned to the courtroom after the Wednesday morning session. On Thursday, he even refused to come out of his room.152 Nearly a month later, the Communist London Daily Expres
s ran a story claiming that Singleton had been kidnapped and abused while in Sumner, but Sheriff Strider denied this, saying Singleton had been drinking when he walked into the wrong room. After the shots were fired, he ran, but was later overtaken. Strider even maintained that Singleton called him from Sumner and told him he had been picked up for drunkenness.153

  Reporter Bill Minor independently recalled this incident fifty-four years later, and although he probably remembers some of the details incorrectly, he added a bizarre climax to the whole story. Minor said that one night during the trial, he and several other reporters were drinking together at the Alcazar Hotel in Clarksdale when “this one British reporter” came in with scratches on his body and his clothes torn. The terrified man explained that he and another journalist had gone into a bar just off Sumner’s town square, not realizing it was for blacks only. When they left, they ran into some white “toughies” who began chasing them. To escape, they crawled through a cotton patch until they were out of sight. “That’s a true story!” said Minor, emphatically.154 The only coverage of the trial to appear in the London Express under Singleton’s name reported Wednesday morning’s testimony, which backs up the claim that Singleton never went back to the courtroom.155 Singleton telegraphed the paper’s New York office and insisted that another reporter be assigned to cover the remainder of the trial. Following that, Singleton left town.156

  The most powerful symbol of hostility, however, was in Sheriff Strider, and if he was hiding it before, he wasn’t by midweek. In fact, on Tuesday, Strider stared at the black reporters as they returned from lunch and greeted them with “Hello niggers.” He went on to address them with this epithet throughout the rest of the week157 It did not help that Strider was still receiving hate mail, and on Wednesday he showed reporters an airmail letter with a Chicago postmark that had arrived that morning. It included a photo of J. W. Milam and Roy and Carolyn Bryant, mutilated by holes and a red substance indicating blood and wounds. A note, which included some “unprintable words,” also threatened: “If the judge don’t find them guilty, look for this to happen to all whites in Money, Miss.”158