184. Wright told this story several times, with some variations, as discussed in the next chapter. The first known account was given during a filmed interview between Wright’s arrival in Chicago on Monday, September 26, and Sunday, October 2. The clip is shown in Beauchamp, Untold Story.
185. Burton, “Old Man Mose,” 1; Poston, “Mose Wright Left Everything,” 5.
Chapter 7
1. B. J. Skelton, “Visiting Newsmen Pack Typewriters, Head for Homes,” Clarksdale (Miss.) Press Register, September 24, 1955, 1; Russell Harris, “4 Worlds of the South Highlighted by Trial,” Detroit News, September 24, 1955, 1; John Herbers, “Cross-Burning at Sumner Went Almost Un-Noticed Yesterday,” Delta Democrat-Times (Greenville, Miss.), September 22, 1955, 1.
2. These descriptions of Boyack come from his son, James Edmund Boyack Jr., email to author, February 8, 2011.
3. Skelton, “Visiting Newsmen Pack,” 1.
4. James E. Boyack, “Courier’s James Boyack Hangs Head in Shame,” Pittsburgh Courier, October 1, 1955, 1.
5. “New Rochelle Demos Ask Action on Mississippi,” Daily Worker (New York), September 27, 1955, 3.
6. Virginia Gardner and Roosevelt Ward Jr., “20,000 in Harlem Flay Till Verdict,” Daily Worker (New York), September 26, 1955, 8.
7. “3 Harlem Street Rallies Hit Terror in Mississippi,” Daily Worker (New York), September 26, 1955, 2; “Mass Meet Crowd Bitter, Mad, Sullen,” New York Amsterdam News, October 1, 1955, 7.
8. “Acquitted Men Stay in Jail,” Jackson State Times, September 24, 1955, 10A; “Leflore Officials Delay Fixing Bond in Till Case,” Jackson Daily News, September 25, 1955, 1.
9. Gardner and Ward, “20,000 in Harlem,” 1; Ted Poston, “‘My Son Didn’t Die in Vain,’ Till’s Mother Tells Rally,” New York Post, September 26, 1955, 5.
10. Poston, “My Son Didn’t Die in Vain,” 5.
11. Poston, “My Son Didn’t Die in Vain,” 5; Mattie Smith Colin, “Till’s Mom, Diggs Both Disappointed,” Tri-State Defender (Memphis, Tenn.), October 1, 1955, 1.
12. Poston, “My Son Didn’t Die in Vain,” 22; Gardner and Ward, “20,000 in Harlem,” 1.
13. Press release by Robert L. Birchman, cochairman, Press and Publicity Committee of the NAACP, titled “NAACP to Stage Mass Protes[t] Meeting on Till Lynching.” The document states that “Mrs. Mamie Bradley, mother of the Till youth will speak at the meeting” scheduled for Sunday, September 25, 1955 at 3:30 P.M. at the Metropolitan Community Church in Chicago. For Huff’s account of her change of plans, see William Henry Huff to B. T. George, December 2, 1955, Papers of the NAACP: Part 18, Special Projects, 1940–1955, Series C, General Office Files, microfilm reel 15 (Bethesda, Md.: University Publications of America, 1955).
14. Carl Hirsch, “10,000 in Detroit, 10,000 in Chicago Call for U.S. Intervention in Mississippi Terror,” Daily Worker (New York), September 27, 1955, 3 (separate articles by two different reporters share this same headline).
15. William Allan, “10,000 in Detroit, 10,000 in Chicago Call for U.S. Intervention in Mississippi Terror,” Daily Worker (New York), September 27, 1955, 3; “Rep. Diggs Blasts Mississippi Trial,” Jackson Clarion-Ledger, September 26, 1955, 8; “Till Trial Acquittal Protested by Rallies,” Delta Democrat-Times (Greenville, Miss.), September 26, 1955, 1; “6000 Here Protest Mississippi Verdict,” Detroit Daily News, September 26, 1955, 8.
16. “6000 Here Protest,” 8; Arthur L. Johnson to Gloster B. Current, September 27, 1955, Papers of the NAACP: Part 18, Series C, reel 14.
17. “2500 Protest in Baltimore,” Daily Worker (New York), September 29, 1955, 1, 3.
18. “NAACP Calls Verdict Rooted in Racist Oppression,” Daily Worker (New York), September 26, 1955, 8.
19. “Powell Says Till Stirs All Europe,” Chicago Defender, October 8, 1955.
20. “France Irate Over Till Case,” Jackson Clarion-Ledger, September 26, 1955, 8; “French Hit Verdict in Till Case,” Chicago Defender, October 1, 1955, 43.
21. “A Call for Justice,” New York Post, September 26, 1955, 22; “Rep. Anfuso Asks Brownell Probe Sumner, Miss., Trial,” Daily Worker (New York), September 27, 1955, 3; “Diggs Gives Far Different Appraisal of Trial at Detroit Than at Sumner,” Jackson Daily News, September 26, 1955, 9.
22. “‘Once Proud of the South’ but Renounces Till Verdict,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, September 26, 1955, 4. Hinant sent a follow-up letter to the Commercial Appeal two weeks later in which he apologized for destroying his Confederate flag, and also clarified his views. “I do not believe in social mixing. I do not believe in mixed marriage. I do not believe in mixed education. I do not believe in mixed neighborhoods.” However, regarding the Till case, “I still do not believe it was a fair trial.” After denying that he was out for publicity, was a Communist sympathizer, or was a member of the NAACP, Hinant affirmed that “I am an American and a Christian. I believe in treating others as I would like to be treated. Every man, regardless of color, has a soul. I would not want to face God on that final day and be sent to hell for mistreating a man because his color was not the same as mine” (“Hinant Explains Till Trial Views,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, October 9, 1955, 3).
23. Grand Sheikh F. Turner El to His Excellency, the Governor of the State of Mississippi, September 28, 1955, James P. Coleman Papers, Accn. No. 21877, box 23, fd. 3, Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Archives and Library Division, Special Collections Section, Manuscript Collection, Jackson (hereafter cited as Coleman Papers).
24. Telegram of Ardie A. Halyard to Frank P. Zeidler; Frank P. Zeidler to Walter J. Kohler, September 28, 1955, both in Coleman Papers, box 23, fd. 3.
25. “A Southerner” to John Whitten, September 24, 1955, William Bradford Huie Papers, Cms 84, box 38, fd. 353a, Special Collections, Ohio State University Library, Columbus (hereafter cited as Huie Papers).
26. Mrs. Frank E. Moore to John W. Whitten, September 29, 1955, Huie Papers, box 38, fd. 353a.
27. Dana Wier to John Whitten, September 25, 1955, Huie Papers, box 38, fd. 353a.
28. A. B. Nimitz to John Whitten, September 28, 1955, Huie Papers, box 38, fd. 353a.
29. W. W. Malone to J. J. Breland, September 23, 1955, Huie Papers, box 38, fd. 353a.
30. J. J. Breland to W. W. Malone, September 26, 1955, Huie Papers, box 38, fd. 353a.
31. “Reactions Reverberate Around World on Till Trial’s Outcome,” Delta Democrat-Times (Greenville, Miss.), September 27, 1955, 1; “Thousands at Paris Till Protest Meet,” Delta Democrat-Times (Greenville, Miss.), September 28, 1955, 1.
32. “Till Kidnap Pair May Be Out on Bond Friday,” New York Post, September 28, 1955, 4; “Hearing Set Friday for Bryant, Milam,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, September 28, 1955, 2.
33. Harold Foreman, “Reports Till Boy Alive in Detroit Bring ‘Hoax’ Comment from Mother,” Jackson Daily News, September 29, 1955, 1.
34. Allan, “10,000 in Detroit, 10,000 in Chicago,” 3; “Dixie Verdict Assailed in 24-Hr. Rally,” Detroit News, September 30, 1955, 14.
35. “Strider Believes Till Is Still Alive,” Greenwood (Miss.) Commonwealth, September 29, 1955, 1; “Rumors Flying That Till’s Alive Somewhere in Detroit,” Jackson Clarion-Ledger, September 30, 1955, 1.
36. “Bryant, Milam Released Under $10,000 Bond on Kidnap Charges,” Delta Democrat-Times (Greenville, Miss.), September 30, 1955, 1.
37. “‘A Cruel Hoax’: Till’s Mother,” Memphis Press-Scimitar, September 29, 1955, 4; Foreman, “Reports Till Boy Alive,” 1.
38. Jack Stapleton, “Query Lingers: Is Till Dead?,” Clarksdale (Miss.) Press Register, September 30, 1955, 1.
39. “Yarn About Till Being in City Is Denied by Negro,” Delta Democrat-Times (Greenville, Miss.), September 30, 1955, 1.
40. “2 Negro ‘Whistling Killing’ Witnesses Still Missing and Are Feared Slain,” New York Post, September 29, 1955, 5; “Fate of 2 Witnesses Remains a Mystery,” Daily Worker (New York), October 3, 1955, 2.
41. “Till Witness Under
Guard,” Memphis Press-Scimitar, September 29, 1955, 4; “Willie Reed, Till Witness, Starting Life Anew, Chicago,” Delta Democrat-Times (Greenville, Miss.), September 29, 1955, 2.
42. Bill Spell, “Daily News Readers Offer Help to Send Willie Reed’s Girl Friend to Chicago,” Jackson Daily News, September 29, 1955, 1.
43. “Ella Mae Shuns Willie,” Jackson Daily News, September 30, 1955, 1; Willie Reed, author interview, February 6, 2007, Chicago.
44. “Reed Boy, Bradley Woman Fled State for ‘Safety’ but Police Guard Homes,” Jackson Daily News, September 30, 1955, 1.
45. Reed, author interview.
46. “Reed Boy, Bradley Woman Fled State,” 1.
47. “Bryant and Milam Released on $10,000 Bonds for Appearance Before Grand Jury November 7,” Greenwood (Miss.) Commonwealth, September 30, 1955, 1; Helen Shearon, “Bryant and Milam Freed Under Bond,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, October 1, 1955, 1.
48. Shearon, “Bryant and Milam Freed,” 1; “Till Kidnap Suspects Free on $10,000 Bond,” Jackson State Times, September 30, 1955, 1A.
49. “Bryant and Milam Released on $10,000 Bonds,” 1; William Middlebrooks, “Milam and Bryant Freed on $10,000 Bond at Hearing,” Greenwood (Miss.) Morning Star, October 1, 1955, 1; “Till Kidnap Suspects Free on $10,000 Bond,” 1A; “Bryant, Milam Released Under $10,000 Bond,” 1.
50. “Milwaukee Rally Asks Intervention,” Daily Worker (New York), September 29, 1955, 3; “U.S. Intervention in Till Case Urged in Many Cities,” Daily Worker (New York), September 30, 1955, 3; “Powell Urges Special Session to Adopt Anti-Lynch Law,” Daily Worker (New York), September 30, 1955, 3; “Community Leaders Protest in Buffalo,” Daily Worker (New York), September 29, 1955, 3; “Reactions Reverberate,” 1.
51. “U.S. Intervention in Till Case Urged,” 1, 3.
52. Jamie L. Whitten to J. J. Breland, John Whitten, Sidney Carlton, Harvey Henderson, and J. W. Kellum, September 27, 1955, Huie Papers, box 38, fd. 353a.
53. “The Verdict at Sumner,” Jackson Daily News, September 25, 1955, 8.
54. The Civil Rights Statute is explained in Jonathan L. Entin, “Emmett Till and Federal Enforcement of Civil Rights,” paper presented on September 16, 2005, at Stillman College, Tuscaloosa, Ala., copy in author’s possession.
55. The FBI probe is summarized in a memorandum from F. L. Price to Mr. [Alex] Rosen, February 29, 1956, FBI FOIA release to Devery S. Anderson, 2006, re Emmett Till (hereafter cited as FBI file on Emmett Till). Decades later, Herbert Brownell, Eisenhower’s attorney general, recalled that his office entered into the matter briefly but quickly decided it had no jurisdiction. See Herbert Brownell Jr., interview, conducted by Blackside, Inc., November 15, 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/; Herbert Brownell and John P. Burke, Advising Ike: The Memoirs of Attorney General Herbert Brownell (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1993), 204.
56. “Missing Till Witnesses Flight Told,” Chicago American, October 1, 1955, 11; L. Alex Wilson, “Wilson Tells How He Found, Got Collins to Chicago,” Chicago Defender, October 8, 1955, 1, and Tri-State Defender (Memphis, Tenn.), October 8, 1955, 1, reprinted in Christopher Metress, ed., The Lynching of Emmett Till: A Documentary Narrative (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2002), 180.
57. Wilson, “Wilson Tells How He Found,” 1; Metress, Lynching of Emmett Till, 178–79; “Henry Loggins Looms in Case as Vital Link,” St. Louis Argus, October 14, 1955, 1; Howard B. Woods, “Witness in Till Case Vanishes,” and Steve Duncan, “Relatives of Loggins Are Worried,” both St. Louis Argus, October 28, 1955, 1.
58. Wilson, “Wilson Tells How He Found,” 1; Metress, Lynching of Emmett Till, 179–81.
59. Wilson, “Wilson Tells How He Found,” 1; Metress, Lynching of Emmett Till, 181.
60. “Till’s Mother Hits ‘Bungling’ by Prosecutor,” Chicago American, October 4, 1955, 4. According to Bradley, “The prosecutor did not visit the places which testimony brought out at the trial were the scenes of the crime. He did not look over the truck on which my son Emmett was supposed to have been seen riding with white men, and he did not follow up many leads his office received.” Bradley was not correct in most of her criticisms. As discussed in earlier chapters, state investigators did go to the shed in Drew where Willie Reed said he heard sounds of a beating, although they did not conduct scientific tests. Highway inspector Gwin Cole announced on the fourth day of the trial that he did find the truck, but because neither he nor the press said anything further about it, he may have discovered it was the wrong vehicle. It is also true that Chatham did not allow for the black press to check out the Charleston jail after it was rumored Collins and Loggins were incarcerated there, but this was done, he said, because prosecutors had already visited the jail and the men were not there. Robert Smith said Cole visited two jails, which clearly upset the sheriffs in charge of each of these jails. See Clark Porteous, “Officers Work All Night on Searches,” Memphis Press-Scimitar, September 21, 1955, 7; Ralph Hutto, “NAACP Leader Says Two Witnesses Disappeared,” Jackson State Times, September 23, 1955, 6A; L. Alex Wilson, “Reveals Two Key Witnesses Jailed,” Tri-State Defender (Memphis, Tenn.), October 1, 1955, 2; Murray Kempton, “They Didn’t Forget,” New York Post, September 26, 1955, 22; Clark Porteous, “Mrs. Bryant on Stand,” Memphis Press-Scimitar, September 22, 1955, 4.
61. “Till’s Mother in Seclusion,” Memphis Press-Scimitar, October 5, 1955, 7.
62. L. Alex Wilson, “Here Is What ‘Too Tight’ Told the Defender,” Chicago Defender, October 8, 1955, 35; Metress, Lynching of Emmett Till, 182–83, 191.
63. “‘Missing’ Witness Denied He Saw Till Slaying,” Memphis Press-Scimitar, October 4, 1955, 19; L. Alex Wilson, “Collins Denies Any Link to Till,” Chicago Defender, October 8, 1955, 1, and Tri-State Defender (Memphis, Tenn.), October 8, 1955, 1; Wilson, “Here Is What ‘Too Tight’ Told the Defender,” 35; Metress, Lynching of Emmett Till, 182–94.
64. Wilson, “Here Is what ‘Too Tight’ Told the Defender,” 35; Metress, Lynching of Emmett Till, 187–89.
65. Ted Poston, “‘Missing’ Till Witness Admits Milam Took Him Out of Town,” New York Post, October 4, 1955, 5.
66. L. Alex Wilson, “‘Too Tight’ Collins Missing,” Chicago Defender, November 12, 1955, 1, 2.
67. Wilson, “Here Is What ‘Too Tight’ Told the Defender,” 35; Metress, Lynching of Emmett Till, 186, 189–90.
68. “Reporter Dares Miss. Death,” New York Age Defender, October 8, 1955, 1, 2; Poston, “‘Missing’ Till Witness,” 5.
69. Poston, “‘Missing’ Till Witness,” 5.
70. Bill Spell, “A Daily News Newspaperman Dared to Penetrate Chicago’s South Side: State Negroes Held ‘Captive’ in Chicago,” Jackson Daily News, October 5, 1955, 1. In 2010, Spell said the investigation was his idea, and that his immediate supervisor, Jimmy Ward, approved it and gave him the go-ahead (Bill Spell, author telephone interview, August 20, 2010).
71. “Ignore Doctor, 2 Grill Young Reed,” Chicago Defender, October 15, 1955, 1; Spell, author telephone interview. William Chrisler (1922–2010) later served in Korea and Vietnam, retiring as a major general in 1978 (William Julius Chrisler obituary, published by Wright and Ferguson Funeral Home, Jackson, Miss., http://obits.dignitymemorial.com).
72. Spell, “Daily News Newspaperman Dared,” 1; Mort Edelstein, “Witnesses Called ‘Prisoners,’” Chicago American, October 7, 1955, 1.
73. Spell, “Daily News Newspaperman Dared,” 1.
74. Bill Spell, “Mandy Bradley Refutes NAACP Claim Her Life Was in Danger, Then,” Jackson Daily News, October 6, 1955, 1.
75. Spell, “Mandy Bradley Refutes NAACP,” 1, 7.
76. “Till Witness Threats Probed,” Chicago Defender, October 8, 1955, 34; Spell, author telephone interview.
77. Spell, “Mandy Bradley Refutes NAACP,” 7.
78. Bill Spell, “Mose Wright Couldn’
t Be Reached without a ‘Middle Man’,” Jackson Daily News, October 7, 1955, 1.
79. Spell, “Mose Wright Couldn’t Be Reached,” 1. Spell recalled in 2010 that “word got around fast that we were there,” and remembers the notes under his door as being, for the most part, from the local press (Spell, author telephone interview).
80. Spell, “Mose Wright Couldn’t Be Reached,” 1.
81. Spell, “Mose Wright Couldn’t Be Reached,” 1; Charles C. Diggs Jr., “Emmett Till Trial Over but Negros Should Never Forget Its Meaning,” Pittsburgh Courier, October 8, 1955, 4.
82. Edelstein, “Witnesses Called ‘Prisoners,’” 1; Bill Spell and W. C. Shoemaker, “Alonzo Refutes Charges Made by Congressman Diggs,” Jackson Daily News, October 6, 1955, 1; “Witness to Get Free Glasses,” Chicago Defender, October 8, 1955, 34.
83. Spell and Shoemaker, “Alonzo Refutes Charges,” 1; James L. Hicks, open letter to US Attorney General Herbert Brownell and FBI Chief J. Edgar Hoover, in “Hicks Digs into Till Case,” Washington Afro-American, November 19, 1955, 14, reprinted in Metress, Lynching of Emmett Till, 198.
84. Bill Spell, “Effort to Tell Mandy of Her Husband Fails as Phone Connection Was Cut,” Jackson Daily News, October 8, 1955, 1.
85. “Negro ‘Captive’ Articles Doubted, Mandy Bradley Says Her Husband Missing,” Jackson Daily News, October 6, 1955, 7.
86. Edleston, “Witnesses Called ‘Prisoners,’” 1.
87. Edleston, “Witnesses Called ‘Prisoners,’” 1, 2.
88. Edleston, “Witnesses Called ‘Prisoners,’” 2.
89. To be sure, Wright’s story was somewhat problematic. Shortly after the trial, he gave several speeches and interviews, and sometimes the cemetery story came up. Some details would be expected to vary in multiple accounts, but one important aspect seemed to change drastically. In at least three accounts, Wright stated or implied that he heard from a neighbor that two men went to his house, but that they did nothing more than look around outside (Mose Wright interview, archival clip shown in Keith Beauchamp, prod., The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till [Till Freedom Come Productions, 2005], and Felix Wold, “Mose Tells of Sleeping in Cemetery but ‘Middle Man’ Attended Interview,” Jackson Daily News, October 8, 1955, 1). In a tape-recorded account, Wright said specifically that the trespassers were spotted “flashing a light all around, but they didn’t go in” (Moses Wright, “I Saw Them Take Emmett Till,” Front Page Detective, February 1956, 28). However, on several other occasions, he said that when he came home from the cemetery in the morning, a neighbor told him the men were yelling “Preacher, Uncle Mose, come on out here.” Then Wright noticed that his screen door was broken, that beds were overturned, and that his home had been “ransacked.” In a telephone interview with a New York Post reporter published on October 3, Wright described those who vandalized his home as “three carloads of white men,” similar to the version from Diggs that caught Bill Spell’s eye days earlier (Ted Poston, “Mose Wright Left Everything to Flee for Life,” New York Post, October 3, 1955, 1. See also Moses Wright, “How I Escaped from Mississippi,” Jet 8, no. 23 [October 13, 1955]: 10).
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