August 28, 1955 "The Murder Of Emmitt Till" Timothy Tyson's Book The Blood Of Emmitt Till

The Blackman Who Reads Aloud reads chapter 18 The Murder Till from Timothy Tyson's epic book The Blood Of Emmitt Till on the 64th anniversary of Emmitt Till's murder in Mississippi. Emmitt Till was tortured, maimed, then brutally murdered for supposedly whistling at Carolyn Bryant in a grocery store in Money, Mississippi. Listen closely as I read Tyson words describing​ how these white savages took Emmitt Till's life. So descriptive, graphic and terrible was the beating it was truly hard for me to read this chapter today.

On the 8th Anniversary of Emmitt Till’s kidnapping and murder over 200,000 Americans met on the Washington Mall to pronounce to this nation that serving African Americans injustice on the plate of inequality was no longer acceptable. 65 years later many African Americans are still being served injustice on that plate of inequality. It is time to eat a full meal of justice from the plate of equality and that can only happen in this nation by righting the wrongs inflicted on African Americans for over 4 centuries. Yes 65 years and black lives are still snatched by murderous white thugs. They no longer are wearing coveralls. Now those thugs are authorized and sworn to protect and serve everyone except African Americans and they wear blue.

“The black novelist Chester Himes wrote a letter to the editor of the New York Post the day he heard the news of Milam’s and Bryant’s acquittals: “The real horror comes when your dead brain must face the fact that we as a nation don’t want it to stop. If we wanted to, we would.”

Chester Himes (1956)