Dear Race / Answer Man,
Who was Emmett Till's father and what happened to him and why don't we ever hear anything about him in all the hooray about Emmett's murder and his mother's recent death?
Herbert / Wanna' know
Dear Wanna,
If you'd have asked me this question a few years ago, I would have been hard pressed to come up with an answer.
Even though the heinous murder and mutilation of fellow my Chicagoan Emmett was a pivotal event in my 7 year old mind, Emmett's father never entered it. His mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, was well-known here because of her heroic fight to keep her son's memory alive. She even co-wrote a book " "The Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed America" with lawyer/writer Christopher Benson. It was published the year she died (2003).
I just read the first few chapters and Mrs. Till-Mobley seems to be pretty honest about Louis Till.
But another book, "The Interpreter" by Duke University professor Alice Kaplan, was published in 2005. Although I haven't actually read the book, after seeing it reviewed, my Googling came up with a few interesting facts:
1. Emmett Till's father, Louis Till, was Court Marshalled in World War ll and executed for raping and killing at least 2 Italian women.
2. A much greater percentage of Afrimerican soldiers than Euromerican ones met the same fate in that war. The factoid I've heard is that although only 8.5% of American soldiers in World War ll were Black, almost 80% of those executed for war crimes like rape or murder were of that melanous hue.
Interestingly, lots of the info I've found on the web about Louis Till is on extreme right-wing or racist websites. I guess they think the fact Emmett Till's father was executed for raping "White" Italian women in Italy, justifies brutally lynching his 14 year-old son in Mississippi. That kind of "logic" and "morality" seems to be rampant on such sites.
I don't have the time, energy, space or patience to debate them here. Besides, somehow I don't think they're amenable to my insights. But if you'd like to see how alive and well racism is in this 6th year of the third millennium, check out:
www.americanrenaissance.com. It will probably lead you to a whole world that our so-called news media will happily ignore until the next Emmett Till moment reminds us that the legacy of 400 years of racist propaganda (first spewed and sanctioned by our sainted "forefathers" like Jefferson) wasn't ended with a handful of still largely unenforced "civil rights" laws. Please, don't get ol' RaceMan started. I'll never complete this post.
For more Information on these subjects:
White Supremacist site: www.americanrenaissance.com
Emmett Till: The Death of Innocence by Mamie Till-Mobley and Christopher Benson (I'm reading it now. So far, so good).
Black soldier executions in World War ll: The Interpreter by Alice Kaplan
Wikipedia has a good compilation of info on Emmett Till. Below is a list of references from their page on Emmett Till:
* The Emmett Till Murder, definitive site on the case by Devery S. Anderson
* The Murder of Emmett Till. American Experience - Transcript and additional materials for PBS film. Accessed May 10, 2004.
* Maria Newman (May 10, 2004). U.S. to Reopen Investigation of Emmett Till's Murder in 1955. The New York Times. Accessed May 10, 2004.
* Gary Younge, The Guardian, 6 June 2005, "Justice at last?"
* Stephen Whitfield, A Death in the Delta (1988 book)
* Keith Beauchamp, "The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till" (2004 documentary)
* M. Susan Orr-Klopfer, The Emmett Till Book (2005) ISBN 1-4116-3843-3
* M. Susan Orr-Klopfer, Where Rebels Roost: Mississippi Civil Rights Revisited (2005) ISBN 1-4116-4102-7
* Body identified as Emmett Till, science .// AAA111111daily.com press release, August 26, 2005.
* David T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito, *Why It's Unlikely the Emmett Till Murder Will Ever Be Solved, History News Network
* David T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito, *Why the '60 Minutes' Story on Emmett Till Was a Disappointment, History News Network
* Christopher Metress, The Lynching of Emmett Till: A Documentary Narrative (2002 book)
* Mamie Till-Mobley and Christopher Benson, The Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed America (2003 book)
Dear Wanna,
If you'd have asked me this question a few years ago, I would have been hard pressed to come up with an answer.
Even though the heinous murder and mutilation of fellow my Chicagoan Emmett was a pivotal event in my 7 year old mind, Emmett's father never entered it. His mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, was well-known here because of her heroic fight to keep her son's memory alive. She even co-wrote a book " "The Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed America" with lawyer/writer Christopher Benson. It was published the year she died (2003).
I just read the first few chapters and Mrs. Till-Mobley seems to be pretty honest about Louis Till.
But another book, "The Interpreter" by Duke University professor Alice Kaplan, was published in 2005. Although I haven't actually read the book, after seeing it reviewed, my Googling came up with a few interesting facts:
1. Emmett Till's father, Louis Till, was Court Marshalled in World War ll and executed for raping and killing at least 2 Italian women.
2. A much greater percentage of Afrimerican soldiers than Euromerican ones met the same fate in that war. The factoid I've heard is that although only 8.5% of American soldiers in World War ll were Black, almost 80% of those executed for war crimes like rape or murder were of that melanous hue.
Interestingly, lots of the info I've found on the web about Louis Till is on extreme right-wing or racist websites. I guess they think the fact Emmett Till's father was executed for raping "White" Italian women in Italy, justifies brutally lynching his 14 year-old son in Mississippi. That kind of "logic" and "morality" seems to be rampant on such sites.
I don't have the time, energy, space or patience to debate them here. Besides, somehow I don't think they're amenable to my insights. But if you'd like to see how alive and well racism is in this 6th year of the third millennium, check out:
www.americanrenaissance.com. It will probably lead you to a whole world that our so-called news media will happily ignore until the next Emmett Till moment reminds us that the legacy of 400 years of racist propaganda (first spewed and sanctioned by our sainted "forefathers" like Jefferson) wasn't ended with a handful of still largely unenforced "civil rights" laws. Please, don't get ol' RaceMan started. I'll never complete this post.
For more Information on these subjects:
White Supremacist site: www.americanrenaissance.com
Emmett Till: The Death of Innocence by Mamie Till-Mobley and Christopher Benson (I'm reading it now. So far, so good).
Black soldier executions in World War ll: The Interpreter by Alice Kaplan
Wikipedia has a good compilation of info on Emmett Till. Below is a list of references from their page on Emmett Till:
* The Emmett Till Murder, definitive site on the case by Devery S. Anderson
* The Murder of Emmett Till. American Experience - Transcript and additional materials for PBS film. Accessed May 10, 2004.
* Maria Newman (May 10, 2004). U.S. to Reopen Investigation of Emmett Till's Murder in 1955. The New York Times. Accessed May 10, 2004.
* Gary Younge, The Guardian, 6 June 2005, "Justice at last?"
* Stephen Whitfield, A Death in the Delta (1988 book)
* Keith Beauchamp, "The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till" (2004 documentary)
* M. Susan Orr-Klopfer, The Emmett Till Book (2005) ISBN 1-4116-3843-3
* M. Susan Orr-Klopfer, Where Rebels Roost: Mississippi Civil Rights Revisited (2005) ISBN 1-4116-4102-7
* Body identified as Emmett Till, science .// AAA111111daily.com press release, August 26, 2005.
* David T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito, *Why It's Unlikely the Emmett Till Murder Will Ever Be Solved, History News Network
* David T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito, *Why the '60 Minutes' Story on Emmett Till Was a Disappointment, History News Network
* Christopher Metress, The Lynching of Emmett Till: A Documentary Narrative (2002 book)
* Mamie Till-Mobley and Christopher Benson, The Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed America (2003 book)
5 comments:
I enjoyed the fact you were willing to talk about both sides of the race issue.
I enjoyed seeing your blog... I like to see that someone is willing to talk openly so the truth about both sides can come out. As far as what you wrote about Till's dad...it brings up more questions...and a lot of undercurrents...Does black societal pressures cause such stress to cause more violent tendencies--especially in Till's dad's case or was it a case of bad genes where young Till did have a tendency that was a bit too aggressive with women? Or was it just 100% innocent and was his dad and he just misunderstood in their overly friendliness.
In either case, Till should not have been killed and mutilated that way. The men should have told his family of his over-- friendliness and inappropriateness and let them handle it.
But reports do tend to just say he "whistled" and that was it...but it sounds as if many witnesses say he was a bit crude acting that day.
Again, it should have been just told to family members and they should have handled it.
Again, I like all the facts to come out. But yes, many people can't handle all the facts becasue they misinterpret and abuse people with the facts...
That is very sad.
That was a bad thing done to Emmett Till.
emmet till was truly a trayvon martin of the time. the msm back then even ignored black aggression and made martyrs of victims of "racism" where is the grieving for the tens of thousands of whites killed by blacks in their own countries?
Emmett just happened to be in the wrong State to try his crude sexual advances on a married White woman!
He did not deserve to die for it but for every action there will be a reaction.
White man from Mississippi!
I was born and raised a few miles from Money Mississippi where Till met his fate for trying to show other youths how tough he was. After Till was killed for assaulting a white woman the blacks were especially reserved in their interactions with whites and as a whole both races were better off for it.
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