Emmett Till

by Devery S. Anderson

  37. “Mamie Bradley’s Untold Story,” installment four, 5; certificate signed by George W. Williams, dated September 8, 1944, in The United States v. Private Fred A. McMurray and Private Louis Till, copy of trial transcript and related documents in author’s possession; Chesnutt to Huie, November 9, 1956. Louis’s army records do not show a conviction for his AWOL visit to Argo, and the story comes only from Mamie. His surviving records, however, appear to deal only with his overseas service.

  38. Till-Mobley and Benson, Death of Innocence, 17, 98; Tom Gaines death certificate, dated August 29, 1944, Cook County Clerk’s Office, Chicago. In both her 1956 and 2003 memoirs, Mamie erroneously gives 1945 as the year of Tom Gaines’s death. See “Mamie Bradley’s Untold Story,” installment five, 8; Till-Mobley and Benson, Death of Innocence, 44.

  39. “Mamie Bradley’s Untold Story,” installment four, 5; Till-Mobley and Benson, Death of Innocence, 17.

  40. “Mamie Bradley’s Untold Story,” installment four, 5; Till-Mobley and Benson, Death of Innocence, 202; “Mrs. Bradley Raps ‘Expose,’” 10. When Louis first entered the army, he listed his uncle Lee Green as his next of kin because he and Mamie were separated. This was later changed, as army records eventually listed both Green and Mamie as next of kin.

  41. “Mamie Bradley’s Untold Story,” installment four, 5; “Mrs. Bradley Raps ‘Expose,’” 10.

  42. Till-Mobley and Benson, Death of Innocence, 35; Trial Transcript, 207.

  43. “Mamie Bradley’s Untold Story,” installment four, 5; Till-Mobley and Benson, Death of Innocence, 17; James G. Chesnutt to William Bradford Huie, October 18, 1956, Huie Papers, box 38, fd. 349.

  44. United States v. Private Fred A. McMurray and Private Louis Till. I received the trial transcript and other documents related to the Louis Till execution on August 8, 2010, directly from the US Army, despite having received a letter on May 12, 2008, from Qiana Scruggs, archives technician, National Personnel Records Center, stating that any records related to Louis Till were destroyed in a fire that occurred on July 12, 1973. The letter informed me that nearly all records of army military personnel serving between 1912 and 1959 were consumed. William Bradford Huie received a few of these documents in 1956 and reported details of Louis Till’s trial and execution in “Why the Army Hanged Emmett Till’s Father!,” Confidential, May 1956, 8–9, 50, 52, and in Wolf Whistle, and Other Stories (New York: Signet Books, 1959), 48–50.

  45. Lemorse Mallory and Mamie E. Till, marriage certificate, dated August 19, 1946, no. 1925866, filed August 20, 1946, Cook County Clerk’s Office, Chicago.

  46. Although Mamie never publicly acknowledged her marriage to Lemorse Mallory, others close to her or who had interviewed her referred to another husband in addition to Louis Till and Pink Bradley, the man whom she had divorced (or was divorcing) before Emmett Till’s murder. Mamie’s uncle, Mose Wright, speaking to a reporter shortly after Emmett’s death, mentioned that Mamie had “twice remarried” after Louis Till (see Clark Porteous, “Grand Jury to Get Case of Slain Negro Boy Monday,” Memphis Press-Scimitar, September 1, 1955, 4). Reporter William Bradford Huie, writing of his 1955 interview with Mamie (before she married Gene Mobley in 1957), noted that Mamie had married three times (Huie, Wolf Whistle, 39). However, when Rayfield Mooty, Mamie’s cousin, introduced her to the press upon their arrival in the South for the murder trial of her son’s accused killers, he told reporters that Mamie had married only twice (see John Spence, “Till’s Mother Pauses in Memphis on Way to Trial,” Memphis Press-Scimitar, September 20, 1955, 15. It appears that from the moment she became a public figure, Mamie chose to keep her marriage to Mallory from the public.

  47. Mallory’s military information was found in U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938–1946, and in documentation related to his final payment and discharge, photocopies sent to author with a covering letter from Tina Hanson, archives technician, National Personnel Records Center, dated November 20, 2008.

  48. This, and information about Mamie’s marriage to Lemorse Mallory, initially became known to me during my interview of Parker, Smith, and Wright. All three of these men, cousins of Mamie, remember her marriage to Mallory but could not explain why she failed to mention it in her 2003 memoir. Mallory died on February 9, 2013. He was the grandfather of Aja Evans, American bobsledder who won a silver medal at the World Cup in Sochi, Russia, just days after Mallory’s death. An article mentioning her win noted: “Evans was mourning her maternal grandfather, Lemorse Mallory, who died last Saturday at age 95 and had been instrumental in supporting her track and field career. Her mother, Sequocoria Mallory, insisted she stay in Russia to compete” (Philip Hersh, “Ligety Has a Record Day,” Chicago Tribune, February 16, 2013, 8). The article made no mention of Mallory’s connection to Mamie and Emmett Till, and Evans refused to discuss it with me after I twice contacted her. Upon my second inquiry, she asked that I not contact her again (Aja Evans to author, April 28, 2013).

  49. Till-Mobley and Benson, Death of Innocence, 36; Parker, Wright, and Smith, author interview, comments by Parker and Smith.

  50. Wheeler Parker, author interview, July 6, 2013, Argo, Ill.

  51. “Mamie Bradley’s Untold Story,” installment three, 5; Till-Mobley and Benson, Death of Innocence, 36–37; Parker, Smith, and Wright, author interview, comments by Parker.

  52. “Mamie Bradley’s Untold Story,” installment three, 5; Till-Mobley and Benson, Death of Innocence, 37–38.

  53. “Mamie Bradley’s Untold Story,” installment three, 5; Till-Mobley and Benson, Death of Innocence, 38–39.

  54. Parker, Smith, and Wright, author interview, comments by all three.

  55. Till-Mobley and Benson, Death of Innocence, 38–39.

  56. Till-Mobley and Benson, Death of Innocence, 39–40; “Mamie Bradley’s Untold Story,” installment three, 5.

  57. Till-Mobley and Benson, Death of Innocence, 40; “Mamie Bradley’s Untold Story,” installment three, 5.

  58. John Barrow, “Here’s a Picture of Emmett Till Painted by Those Who Knew Him,” Chicago Defender, September 24, 1955, 5; Strafford, “When I Find Time I’ll Cry,” 2.

  59. Parker, Wright, and Smith, author interview, comments by Parker.

  60. “Mamie Bradley’s Untold Story,” installment five, 8.

  61. In her 2003 autobiography, Mamie mistakenly says that Alma married Henry Spearman in 1947 (Till-Mobley and Benson, Death of Innocence, 44). For the official source, see Henry Spearman and Alma Gaines marriage record, June 4, 1949, file no. 2085599, Cook County, Illinois Marriage Index, 1930–1960. The possibility that Mamie and Lemorse were still married at this point comes from Simeon Wright, who visited Argo for Christmas in 1949 and believes that they were still together (Parker, Smith, and Wright, author interview, comments by Wright).

  62. Strafford, “When I Find Time I’ll Cry,” 2; Trial Transcript, 207. In 2003, Mamie said that the hammer incident occurred during Emmett’s second trip to Mississippi, having forgotten that this was actually his third. She also said that it was her mother, Alma, who witnessed the incident. Additionally, she makes no mention at all of an aunt taking Emmett to the South. See Till-Mobley and Benson, Death of Innocence, 35. Simeon Wright recalled this 1950 visit but was sure that Emmett went with his aunt Mamie Hall, sister of Alma Spearman (Parker, Smith, and Wright, author interview, comments by Wright). I am assuming that Simeon Wright’s memory is the most accurate here, but this is not conclusive.

  63. Strafford, “When I Find Time I’ll Cry,” 2; Parker, Smith, and Wright, author interview, comments by Wright; Simeon Wright, with Herb Boyd, Simeon’s Story: An Eyewitness Account of the Kidnapping of Emmett Till (Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 2010), 38.

  64. Till-Mobley and Benson, Death of Innocence, 44–46, 49; “Mamie Bradley’s Untold Story,” installment five, 8. It is not known why Nash Carthan changed his name to John, especially since he had a sibling named John Carthan who was still living. A Detroit newspaper article published less than two weeks after Em
mett Till’s murder quoted Samuel Gibbons, an acquaintance of Mamie’s father, who said that Mamie and Emmett had moved to Detroit in 1948 and stayed until 1952. These dates differ from those that Mamie provided in her book and may or may not be accurate. See “Lynched Boy Lived Here, Early Days on Vinewood Recalled,” Michigan Chronicle (Detroit), September 10, 1955, 1, 6.

  65. Lemorse married Bessie Dixon on August 5, 1957 (file no. 2453272, Cook County, Illinois Marriage Index, 1930–1960).

  66. “Mamie Bradley’s Untold Story,” installment five, 8; Till-Mobley and Benson, Death of Innocence, 49–52.

  67. “Mamie Bradley’s Untold Story,” installment five, 8; Till-Mobley and Benson, Death of Innocence, 52–53; information on Pink Bradley found in U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938–1946; Randall Bradley, author telephone interview, February 27, 2011.

  68. “Mamie Bradley’s Untold Story,” installment five, 8; Till-Mobley and Benson, Death of Innocence, 54.

  69. Till-Mobley and Benson, Death of Innocence, 54–56; “Mamie Bradley’s Untold Story,” installment five, 8; “Mrs. Mamie Bradley Routs False Reports,” 21.

  70. Timuel D. Black Jr., Bridges of Memory: Chicago’s First Wave of Black Migration (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 2003), 306; Barrow, “Here’s a Picture of Emmett Till,” 5.

  71. Till-Mobley and Benson, Death of Innocence, 57.

  72. “Mamie Bradley’s Untold Story,” installment five, 8.

  73. Till-Mobley and Benson, Death of Innocence, 59–60.

  74. “Mamie Bradley’s Untold Story,” installment five, 8.

  75. Till-Mobley and Benson, Death of Innocence, 70.

  76. “Till’s Mother Sues Magazine; Reveals Marriage,” Jet 13, no. 14 (February 6, 1958): 17; Chester Higgins, “Mrs. Bradley Becomes a Teacher,” Jet 17, no. 18 (September 1, 1960): 15–16; Till-Mobley and Benson, Death of Innocence, 73–77.

  77. Clenora Hudson-Weems, Emmett Till: The Sacrificial Lamb of the Civil Rights Movement, 4th ed. (Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, 2006), 141; Till-Mobley and Benson, Death of Innocence, 75.

  78. Till-Mobley and Benson, Death of Innocence, 84–87.

  79. Trial Transcript, 197; Till-Mobley and Benson, Death of Innocence, 87.

  80. Till-Mobley and Benson, Death of Innocence, 88–89.

  81. Mamie Till-Mobley, author telephone interview, December 3, 1996.

  82. A description of Emmett Till was provided by his uncle Mose Wright in court. See Trial Transcript, 49; Eric Stringfellow, “Memories Sketch Varied Portraits of Emmett Till,” Jackson Clarion-Ledger, August 25, 1985, 1H.

  83. Till-Mobley and Benson, Death of Innocence, 66–67; Mamie Till-Mobley, interview, in Keith A. Beauchamp, prod., The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till (Till Freedom Come Productions, 2005).

  84. Barrow, “Here’s a Picture of Emmett Till,” 5.

  85. “Mamie Bradley’s Untold Story,” installment five, 8; Till-Mobley and Benson, Death of Innocence, 71–72, 80.

  86. Barrow, “Here’s a Picture of Emmett Till,” 5.

  87. Strafford, “When I Find Time I’ll Cry,” 2.

  88. Barrow, “Here’s a Picture of Emmett Till,” 5; Till-Mobley and Benson, Death of Innocence, 78–79; “Father of Young Till Died,” 7.

  89. Till-Mobley and Benson, Death of Innocence, 92–93; Hudson-Weems, Emmett Till, 149–50; Argo Temple Church of God in Christ 80-Year Celebration, program distributed for event held October 8, 2006, 6.

  90. Parker, Smith, and Wright, author interview, comments by Parker.

  91. Stringfellow, “Memories Sketch Varied Portraits,” 1H; Parker, Smith, and Wright, author interview, comments by Parker and Wright.

  92. Till-Mobley and Benson, Death of Innocence, 81; Wheeler Parker interviews, in Nancy Button, prod., The Fifties, vol. 6, The Rage Within (History Channel, 1997); Stanley Nelson, prod., The Murder of Emmett Till (Firelight Media, 2002); Beauchamp, Untold Story.

  93. Till-Mobley and Benson, Death of Innocence, 94–95.

  94. Stringfellow, “Memories Sketch Varied Portraits,” 1H.

  95. “Mamie Bradley’s Untold Story,” installment six, Daily Defender (Chicago), March 6, 1956, 8; Till-Mobley and Benson, Death of Innocence, 98–99.

  96. Hudson-Weems, Emmett Till, 235.

  97. “Mamie Bradley’s Untold Story,” installment six, 8; Trial Transcript, 192. Mamie later insisted that both she and Alma were initially against the idea of Emmett going down to Mississippi unless he went with one of them, as he had in the past. This may have been partly true due to the fact that Mamie and Gene were planning a road trip in Mamie’s new 1955 Plymouth, and they wanted Emmett to go with them. See “Mamie Bradley’s Untold Story,” installment six, 8; Till-Mobley and Benson, Death of Innocence, 98–99.

  98. Parker and Till-Mobley interviews, in Nelson, Murder of Emmett Till, and Beauchamp, Untold Story; “Mamie Bradley’s Untold Story,” installment six, 8; Hudson-Weems, Emmett Till, 235.

  99. Hudson-Weems, Emmett Till, 235.

  100. Trial Transcript, 188; Till-Mobley and Benson, Death of Innocence, 102–3. One author, seeing significant symbolism in Emmett receiving his father’s ring, writes, “By giving Emmett his father’s ring [Mamie] thus acknowledges his growing independence and maturity. Furthermore, she binds him symbolically to his paternity and his patrimony, despite the fact that irreconcilable differences had torn his parents’ marriage apart” (Valerie Smith, “Emmett Till’s Ring,” Women’s Studies Quarterly 36, nos. 1/2 [Spring/Summer 2008]: 152).

  101. Strafford, “When I Find Time I’ll Cry,” 2.

  102. Till-Mobley and Benson, Death of Innocence, 103–4; Hudson-Weems, Emmett Till, 129. In 2007, Parker said that two women accompanied himself, Mose Wright, and Emmett Till on the train to Mississippi (Parker, Smith, and Wright, author interview, comments by Parker). I have assumed his earlier remembrance in Hudson-Weems, in which he states that only one woman went along, to be the most accurate. Complicating things further, Simeon Wright wrote in 2010 that Curtis Jones also traveled on the train with Wright, Parker, and Till, but stayed the first week with his aunt in Greenwood. In 1985, Jones said that he drove down with an uncle. Parker, as noted in Hudson-Weems, said in 1986 that it was Wright, Parker, Till, and the female cousin who traveled together that day, making no mention of Jones. See Curtis Jones, interview, conducted by Blackside, Inc., November 12, 1985, for Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years (1954–1965), Henry Hampton Collection, Washington University, St. Louis, http://digital.wustl.edu/eyesontheprize/; Wright and Boyd, Simeon’s Story, 37.

  103. Arthur Everett, “Till Nearly Missed His Fatal Journey to Land of Cotton,” Jackson Clarion-Ledger, September 19, 1955, 1.

  104. Till-Mobley and Benson, Death of Innocence, 104–5; Till-Mobley interviews in Nelson, Murder of Emmett Till, and Beauchamp, Untold Story.

  105. Strafford, “When I Find Time I’ll Cry,” 2; “Mamie Bradley’s Untold Story,” installment six, 8.

  Chapter 2

  1. “Resume of Interview with Mose Wright,” William Bradford Huie Papers, Cms 84, box 85, fd. 346, Ohio State University Library, Columbus (hereafter cited as Huie Papers); Wheeler Parker Jr., Crosby Smith Jr., and Simeon Wright, author interview, February 7, 2007, Argo, Ill., comments by Parker.

  2. Mamie Bradley and Elizabeth Wright, interview, in Mary Strafford, “‘When I Find Time I’ll Cry,’ Till’s Mother Tells Afro,” Baltimore Afro-American, October 29, 1955, 2.

  3. Mamie Till-Mobley and Christopher Benson, Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed America (New York: Random House, 2003), 106; “Resume of Interview with Mose Wright”; “Leflore County Communities and Their History,” unpublished typescript, 5, located at the Greenwood Leflore Library, Greenwood, Miss. Hernando Desoto Money (1839–1912), a Democrat, represented Mississippi in the US Senate from 1897 to 1911. He, like Mose Wright, was born in Holmes County.

  4. Information about Grover Frederick comes from US Selective Service System, World War I Select
ive Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917–1918 (Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration), M1509, 4,582 rolls, Mississippi, Leflore County, roll 1682936; Parker, Smith, and Wright, author interview, comments by Wright; 1940 US Census, Leflore County, Mississippi, Beat 2, Enumeration District 42, sheet 9B, https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VBSH=GYR; Simeon Wright, author interview, February 4, 2013, Ogden, Utah.

  5. Parker, Smith, and Wright, author interview, comments by Wright; Paul Holmes, “Uncle Tells How 3 Kidnapers Invaded Home and Seized Till,” Chicago Daily Tribune, September 19, 1955, part 1, 2; Arthur Everett, “Till Nearly Missed His Fatal Journey to Land of Cotton,” Jackson Clarion-Ledger, September 19, 1955, 12; Simeon Wright, with Herb Boyd, Simeon’s Story: An Eyewitness Account of the Kidnapping of Emmett Till (Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 2010), 6–7, 25.

  6. 1900 US Census, Holmes County, Mississippi, Enumeration District 47, sheet 10A, microfilm no. 1240811, Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah (hereafter cited as FHL); Simeon Wright, author telephone interview, August 31, 2005; Wright and Boyd, Simeon’s Story, 15.