Emmett Till

by Devery S. Anderson

  “Emmett Till: Blacks React to Reopening of Tragic Case.” Jet 105, no. 22 (May 31, 2004): 6–10, 60–62.

  “Emmett Till’s Legacy 50 Years Later.” Jet 108, no. 12 (September 19, 2005): 20–25.

  Fairfield, James. “Deadly Discourses: Examining the Roles of Language and Silence in the Lynching of Emmett Till and Wright’s Native Son.” Arizona Quarterly: A Journal of American Literature, Culture, and Theory 63, no. 4 (Winter 2007): 63–82.

  Feldstein, Ruth. “‘I Wanted the Whole World to See’: Race, Gender, and Constructions of Motherhood in the Death of Emmett Till.” In Not June Cleaver: Women and Gender in Postwar America, 1945–1960, ed. Joanne Meyerowitz, 263–303. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994.

  “GI Buddies Say Till’s Dad Was ‘Railroaded’ in Italy.” Jet 8, no. 26 (November 3, 1955): 4–5.

  Goldsby, Jacqueline. “The High and Low Tech of It: The Meaning of Lynching and the Death of Emmett Till.” Yale Journal of Criticism 9, no. 2 (Fall 1996): 245–82.

  “Grand Jury Ignores Confession.” Jet 8, no. 29 (November 24, 1955): 6–7.

  Grindy, Matthew A. “Mississippi Terror, Red Pressure: The Daily Worker’s Coverage of the Emmett Till Murder.” Controversia: An International Journal of Debate and Democratic Renewal 6, no. 1 (2008): 39–66.

  Halberstam, David. “Tallahatchie County Acquits a Peckerwood.” Reporter 14, no. 8 (April 19, 1956): 26–30.

  Harold, Christine, and Kevin Michael DeLuca. “Behold the Corpse: Violent Images and the Case of Emmett Till.” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 8, no. 2 (Summer 2005): 263–86.

  Hendrickson, Paul. “Mississippi Haunting.” Washington Post Magazine, February 27, 2000, 12–18, 26–27; reprinted in Rhetoric & Public Affairs 8, no. 2 (Summer 2005): 177–88.

  Higgins, Chester. “Mrs. Bradley Becomes a Teacher.” Jet 17, no. 18 (September 1, 1960): 15–16.

  Hollowell, Annette. “Tallahatchie County Group Commemorates Emmett Till.” Wellspring, March 2008, 2.

  “Holmberg Replies.” Nation 276, no. 9 (March 10, 2003): 26.

  Houck, Davis W. “Killing Emmett.” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 8, no. 2 (Summer 2005): 225–62.

  Hudson, Clenora. “The Unearthing of Emmett Till: A Compelling Process.” Iowa Alumni Review 41, no. 5 (October 1988): 18–23.

  Hudson-Weems, Clenora. “Resurrecting Emmett Till: The Catalyst of the Modern Civil Rights Movement.” Journal of Black Studies 29, no. 2 (November 1998): 179–88.

  Huie, William Bradford. “The Shocking Story of Approved Killing in Mississippi.” Look, January 24, 1956, 46–48, 50.

  ———. “What’s Happened to the Emmett Till Killers.” Look, January 22, 1957, 63–66, 68.

  ———. “Why the Army Hanged Emmett Till’s Father!” Confidential, May 1956, 8–9, 50, 52.

  “In Memoriam, Emmett Till.” Life, October 10, 1955, 48.

  Jackson, Donald W., and James W. Riddlesperger Jr. “The Eisenhower Administration and the 1957 Civil Rights Act.” In Reexamining the Eisenhower Presidency, ed. Shirley Anne Warsaw, 85–101. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1993.

  Jones, Chris. “Chronicle of a Life Untold: Emmett Till’s Mother Speaks.” BET Weekend, October 1999, 4.

  “J. W. Milam Denies Reports He Stood in Miss. Bread Line.” Jet 13, no. 18 (March 6, 1958): 6–7.

  Katz, Milton S. “E. Frederick Morrow and Civil Rights in the Eisenhower Administration.” Phylon 42, no. 2 (2nd Quarter, 1981): 133–44.

  Kolin, Philip C. “Forgotten Manuscripts: ‘Blues for Emmett Till’: The Earliest Extant Song about the Murder of Emmett Till.” African American Review 42, nos. 3–4 (Fall–Winter 2008): 455–60.

  ———. “Haunting America: Emmett Till in Music and Song.” Southern Cultures (Fall 2009): 118–21.

  Larsson, Clotye Murdock. “Land of the Till Murder Revisited.” Ebony 41, no. 5 (March 1986): 53–54, 56–58.

  Loftus, Elizabeth. “Make-Believe Memories.” American Psychologist 58, no. 11 (November 2003): 867–73.

  Lorde, Audre. “Afterimages.” Cream City Review 17, no. 2 (Fall 1981): 119–23. Reprinted in The Lynching of Emmett Till: A Documentary Narrative, ed. Christopher Metress, 323–27. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2002.

  “Mamie Till-Mobley, Civil Rights Heroine, Eulogized in Chicago.” Jet 103, no. 5 (January 27, 2003): 12–18, 52.

  Mark, Rebecca. “Mourning Emmett: ‘One Long Expansive Moment.’” Southern Literary Journal, 40, no. 2 (Spring 2008): 121–37.

  May, Vivian M. “Maids Mild and Dark Villains, Sweet Magnolias and Sleeping Blood.” In Emmett Till in Literary Memory and Imagination, ed. Harriet Pollack and Christopher Metress, 98–111. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2008.

  McKibbin, Molly Littlewood. “Southern Patriarchy and the Figure of the White Woman in Gwendolyn Brooks’s ‘A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. Meanwhile, a Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon.’” African American Review 44, no. 4 (Winter 2011): 667–85.

  Metress, Christopher. “‘No Justice, No Peace’: The Figure of Emmett Till in African American Literature.” MELUS 28, no. 1 (Spring 2003): 87–103.

  ———. “Submitted for Their Approval: Rod Serling and the Lynching of Emmett Till.” Mississippi Quarterly 61, nos. 1–2 (Winter/Spring 2008): 143–72.

  ———. “Truth Be Told: William Bradford Huie’s Emmett Till Cycle.” Southern Quarterly: A Journal of Arts & Letters in the South 45, no. 4 (Summer 2008): 48–75.

  “Mississippi: Shooter’s Chance.” Time 55, no. 4 (January 23, 1950): 17.

  Monteith, Sharon. “The Murder of Emmett Till in the Melodramatic Imagination: William Bradford Huie and Vin Packer in the 1990s.” In Emmett Till in Literary Memory and Imagination, ed. Harriet Pollack and Christopher Metress, 31–52. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2008.

  “Nation Horrified by Murder of Kidnaped Chicago Youth.” Jet 8, no. 19 (September 15, 1955): 6–9.

  Norman, Brian. “James Baldwin’s Unifying Polemic: Racial Segregation, Moral Integration, and the Polarizing Figure of Emmett Till.” In Emmett Till in Literary Memory and Imagination, ed. Harriet Pollack and Christopher Metress, 75–97. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2008.

  Priest, Myisha. “‘The Nightmare Is Not Cured’: Emmett Till and American Healing.” American Quarterly 62, no. 1 (March 2010): 1–24.

  Segall, Rebecca, and David Holmberg. “Who Killed Emmett Till?” Nation 276, no. 4 (February 3, 2003): 37–40.

  “Sex Slayer Confesses.” Jet 8, no. 14 (August 11, 1955): 48.

  Shostak, David A. “Crosby Smith: Forgotten Witness to a Mississippi Nightmare.” Negro History Bulletin 38 (December 1974–January 1975): 320–25.

  Simpson, William M. “Reflections on a Murder: The Emmett Till Case.” In Southern Miscellany: Essays in History in Honor of Glover Moore, ed. Frank Allen Dennis, 177–200. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1981.

  Smith, Valerie. “Emmett Till’s Ring.” Women’s Studies Quarterly 36, nos. 1–2 (Spring/Summer 2008): 151–61.

  Spratt, Margaret, et al. “News, Race, and the Status Quo: The Case of Emmett Louis Till.” Howard Journal of Communications 18, no. 2 (2007): 169–92.

  “The Strange Trial of the Till Kidnapers.” Jet 8, no. 22 (October 6, 1955): 6–11.

  Tell, Dave. “The ‘Shocking Story’ of Emmett Till and the Politics of Public Confession.” Quarterly Journal of Speech 94, no. 2 (May 2008): 156–78.

  Thompson, Julius. “Till.” In Blues Said: Walk On, 9–11. Houston: Energy Blacksouth Press, 1977. Reprinted in Christopher Metress, ed., The Lynching of Emmett Till: A Documentary Narrative, 321–23. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2002.

  Thornton, Brian. “The Murder of Emmett Till: Myth, Memory, and National Magazine Response.” Journalism History 36, no. 2 (Summer 2010): 96–104.

  “3 Who Refused to Testify Have Dropped Out of Sight.” Jet 13, no. 25 (April 24, 1958): 11, 13.

  “Ticker Tape U.S.A.” Jet 9, no. 11 (January
19, 1956): 13.

  “The Till Case People One Year Later.” Ebony 5, no. 11 (October 1956): 68–70, 72, 74.

  “Till Protest Meetings.” Crisis, November 1955, 547.

  “Till’s Mother Marches.” Jet 39, no. 4 (October 29, 1970): 33.

  “Till’s Mother Sues Magazine.” Jet 13, no. 4 (February 6, 1958): 17.

  Tisdale, John R. “Different Assignments, Different Perspectives: How Reporters Reconstruct the Emmett Till Civil Rights Murder Trial.” Oral History Review 29, no. 1 (Winter/Spring 2002): 39–58.

  “Trial by Jury.” Time 66, no. 14 (October 3, 1955): 18–19.

  Tyler, Pamela. “‘Blood on Your Hands’: White Southerners’ Criticisms of Eleanor Roosevelt during World Ward II.” In Before Brown: Civil Rights and White Backlash in the Modern South, ed. Glen Feldman, 96–115. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2004.

  Wagner, Terry. “America’s Civil Rights Revolution: Three Documentaries About Emmett Till’s Murder in Mississippi (1955).” Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television 30, no. 2 (June 2010): 187–201.

  Wakefield, Dan. “Justice in Sumner, Land of the Free.” Nation, 181, no. 14 (October 1, 1955): 284–85.

  Walker, Anders. “The Violent Bear It Away: Emmett Till and the Modernization of Law Enforcement in Mississippi.” San Diego Law Review 46 (2009): 459–503.

  Ward, Bob. “William Bradford Huie Paid for Their Sins.” Writer’s Digest 54, no. 9 (September 1974): 16–22.

  Weill, Susan M. “Mississippi’s Daily Press in Three Crises.” In The Press and Race: Mississippi Journalists Confront the Movement, ed. David R. Davies, 17–53. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2001.

  “What the Public Didn’t Know About the Till Trial.” Jet 8, no. 23 (October 13, 1955): 14–15.

  Whitaker, Hugh Stephen. “A Case Study in Southern Justice: The Murder and Trial of Emmett Till.” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 8, no. 2 (Summer 2005): 189–224.

  “Witnesses Say Slain Negro Didn’t Gun-Duel White Man.” Jet 9, no. 7 (December 22, 1955): 6–8.

  Wood, Amy Louise, and Susan V. Donaldson. “Lynching’s Legacy in American Culture.” Mississippi Quarterly 61, nos. 1–2 (Winter/Spring 2008): 5–25.

  Wright, Moses. “How I Escaped from Mississippi.” Jet 8, no. 23 (October 13, 1955): 6–11.

  ———. “I Saw Them Take Emmett Till.” Front Page Detective, February 1956, 26–29, 69.

  Newspaper Articles

  “Abe Stark Asks Anti-Lynch Law.” Daily Worker (New York), October 19, 1955, 1.

  “About Till’s Father (an editorial).” Jackson Daily News, October 15, 1955, 1.

  “Accused White Men Plead Innocent of Murder and Kidnap.” Greenwood (Miss.) Morning Star, September 7, 1955, 1.

  “Acquitted Men Stay in Jail.” Jackson State Times, September 24, 1955, 1A, 10A.

  Adams, Virgil. “A New Wrinkle in the Vilification of Mississippi.” Greenwood (Miss.) Morning Star, September 27, 1955, 6.

  ———. “Resentment Rising against Radicals at Trial.” Greenwood (Miss.) Morning Star, September 22, 1955, 6.

  ———. “State Granted Recess to Produce New Witnesses in Till Case.” Greenwood (Miss.) Morning Star, September 21, 1955, 1.

  “Adjourn in Honor of Gerald Chatham.” Delta Democrat-Times (Greenville, Miss.), October 11, 1956, 3.

  Advertisement. National Beauty Salon Week. Delta Democrat-Times (Greenville, Miss.), February 13, 1972, 17.

  Ainsworth, A. B. “To All White Mississippians.” Greenwood (Miss.) Commonwealth, September 8, 1955, 8.

  Allan, William. “10,000 in Detroit, 10,000 in Chicago Call for U.S. Intervention in Mississippi Terror.” Daily Worker (New York), September 27, 1955, 3.

  Anderson, John. “‘Till’ Reviews Social History Lesson, 30 Years Later.” Chicago Tribune, July 11, 1985, D1.

  “Appeal Till Case to High Court.” Daily Defender (Chicago), October 4, 1960, 2.

  “Armed Trio Seizes Visitor in Mississippi.” Chicago Daily Tribune, August 29, 1955, 1.

  “Arrival of Victim’s Mother Causes Stir.” Jackson State Times, September 20, 1955, 1.

  “Ask Ike to Act in Dixie Death of Chicago Boy.” Chicago Daily Tribune, September 2, 1955, 2.

  “Ask Mississippi Governor to Denounce Killing of Boy.” Chicago Daily Tribune, September 1, 1955, 1.

  “Ask New Indictment in Till Kidnap Case.” Baltimore Afro-American, January 21, 1956, 2.

  “Ask New Till Probe.” Birmingham (Ala.) World, January 21, 1956.

  “Asks FBI Guard Mother of Slain Boy.” New York Post, September 13, 1955, 8.

  Atkins, Joe. “Slain Chicago Youth Was a ‘Sacrificial Lamb.’” Jackson Clarion-Ledger/Jackson Daily News, August 25, 1985, 20A.

  Atkins, Joe, and Tom Brennan. “Bryant Wants the Past to ‘Stay Dead.’” Jackson Clarion-Ledger/Jackson Daily News, August 25, 1985, 1H, 3H.

  “Attala Court Judge Overrules Mistrial Motion by Defense.” Jackson Clarion-Ledger, March 21, 1950, 1, 10.

  “Attala Desperadoes Captured after Killing 3 Negro Children.” Kosciusko (Miss.) Star-Herald, January 12, 1950, 1, 6.

  “Attorney J. W. Kellum Dies.” Charleston (Miss.) Sun-Sentinel, July 25, 1996, 1.

  “Audience Donates to Till Witness.” Chicago Defender, March 17, 1956, 10.

  “Autopsy Done, Emmett Till Is Reburied.” New York Times, June 5, 2005, 34.

  Babwin, Don. “Civil Rights Advocates Seek Historical Status for Church.” Sunday Gazette-Mail (Charleston, W.Va.), November 20, 2005, 5A.

  ———. “Till Casket Found in Rusty Shed.” Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette, July 14, 2009, B10.

  “Backer Says Bryant-Milam Fund Is Growing Rapidly.” Clarksdale (Miss.) Press Register, September 13, 1955, 1.

  Barrow, John. “Here’s a Picture of Emmett Till Painted by Those Who Knew Him.” Chicago Defender, September 24, 1955, 5.

  Barry, Ellen. “Son Hopes Aging Father Talks About Till Murder.” Los Angeles Times, August 14, 2005, 7A.

  “Bill Spell Answers the American.” Jackson Daily News, October 7, 1955, 1.

  Binder, David. “Jamie Whitten, Who Served 53 Years in House, Dies at 85.” New York Times, September 11, 1995, D13.

  Blackwell, Lee. “2 Who Fled Mississippi Tell Stories.” Chicago Defender, October 1, 1955, 1, 2.

  Blake, Dan. “Cook County Board to Sue Cemetery Owners.” Chicago Tribune, July 22, 2009, 8.

  Bloom, Connie. “Filmmaker Delivers Message on Injustice.” McClatchy-Tribune Business News, February 23, 2007, 1.

  Bludeau, Glen. “10,000 View Casket of Slain Negro Boy.” Jackson State Times, September 4, 1955, 1A, 16A.

  Bock, Frederick. “A Prize Winning Poet Fails to Measure Up.” Chicago Daily Tribune, June 5, 1960, C12.

  “Body of Negro Found in River.” Jackson Clarion-Ledger, September 1, 1955, 1, 5.

  “Bombshell in the Till Case.” New York Post, January 11, 1956, 1.

  Bowean, Lolly. “Burr Oak Director Gets 12 Years.” Chicago Tribune, July 9, 2011, 4.

  Boyack, James E. “Courier’s James Boyack Hangs Head in Shame.” Pittsburgh Courier, October 1, 1955, 1, 4.

  Boyd, Herb. “Emmett Till Bill Stalled in Senate.” New York Amsterdam News, July 31, 2008, 4.

  ———. “Louima: ‘God Is Good.’” New York Amsterdam News, August 16, 2007, 1.

  ———. “The Lynching of Emmett Till.” New York Amsterdam News, November 21, 2002, 4.

  ———. “No Indictments in Till Case.” New York Amsterdam News, March 8, 2007, 4.

  ———. “The Real Deal on Emmett Till.” New York Amsterdam News, May 20, 2004, 3.

  ———. “Till Case Reopened.” New York Amsterdam News, May 13, 2004, 1.

  ———. “The Untold Story of Emmett Till on Court TV.” New York Amsterdam News, September 28, 2006, 22.

  “Boy’s Slaying Held Murder by Gov. White.” Chicago Daily Tribune, September 2, 1955, 1, 2.

  Bradley, Mamie. “I Want You to Know What They Did to My B
oy.” Washington Afro-American, November 5, 1955, 20, 21, and Baltimore Afro-American, November 12, 1955, 6, 7.

  ———. “Mamie Bradley’s Untold Story.” 8 parts. Daily Defender (Chicago), February 27, 1956–March 8, 1956.

  “Breach of Trust.” Chicago Tribune, July 10, 2009, 7.

  Brennan, Ray. “Till’s Uncle Sticks to Guns, Says He’ll Relate Kidnapping.” Chicago Sun-Times, September 19, 1955, 3.

  ———. “2 on Trial in Till Slaying.” Chicago Sun-Times, September 18, 1955, 3.

  Brennan, Tom. “World Watched Drama Unfold in Rural County Courtroom.” Jackson Clarion-Ledger/Jackson Daily News, August 25, 1985, 2H.

  Briggs, Jimmie. “Emmett Till Story at Film Forum.” New York Amsterdam News, August 18, 2005, 20.

  “Brilliant Defense Counsel Named for Three Men Accused of Massacre.” Kosciusko (Miss.) Star-Herald, January 26, 1950, 1, 3.

  “Brooklyn Audience Told How Till Died in Miss.” Baltimore Afro-American, January 14, 1956, 17.

  Brown, David. “Sumner Revisited: How Several Lives Altered by Till Trial.” Delta Democrat-Times (Greenville, Miss.), August 19, 1956, 7.

  Brown, Dwight. “Film: The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till.” New York Beacon, August 11, 2005, 25.

  Brown, Timothy R. “Till Film up for Emmy Tonight.” Jackson Clarion-Ledger, September 13, 2003, 2B.

  “Brownell Rejects Request for Action in Emmett Till Case.” Clarksdale (Miss.) Press Register, December 6, 1955, 7.

  Browning, William. “Till Jury Talks: Grand Jury Says Evidence Wasn’t There to Indict.” Greenwood (Miss.) Commonwealth, September 30, 2007, 1A, 10A.

  Bryant, Eula. Obituary. Delta Democrat-Times (Greenville, Miss.), August 27, 1974, 2.

  “Bryant, Milam Released Under $10,000 Bond on Kidnap Charges.” Delta Democrat-Times (Greenville, Miss.), September 30, 1955, 1.

  Bryant, Roy. Obituary. Bolivar Commercial (Cleveland, Miss.), September 6, 1994, 12.

  Bryant, Roy. Obituary. Memphis Commercial Appeal, September 3, 1994, A14.

  Bryant, Vera Jo. Obituary. Bolivar Commercial (Cleveland, Miss.), May 3, 2012, 3.

  “Bryant and Milam Released on $10,000 Bonds for Appearance Before Grand Jury November 7.” Greenwood (Miss.) Commonwealth, September 30, 1955, 1.