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brighteyes1178's review against another edition
5.0
This is an outstanding and educational book that gets deeply and specifically into what happened not just to Emmett Till but to Mississippi and the country in the late summer of 1955. Really it's an excellent book for anyone, but specifically if you're interested in the birth of the civil rights movement and the catalysts for actual change, this book does an exceptional job of contextualizing every piece of both history and the present day. It's a fast and engaging read and I guarantee you will learn quite a bit.
johndiconsiglio's review against another edition
3.0
A documentary-style examination of the notorious Emmett Till case, the 14-yr-old from Chicago who was savagely lynched in 1950s Mississippi after he may have whistled at a white woman. This is well-covered ground, but the author has a news hook: Till’s accuser admitted to him that she lied. The details are familiar but still shocking, from the inhuman beating to the gruesome condition of Till's corpse. (His mother’s decision to display his open casket is a civil rights milestone. Curiously, the Jet mag photo & other iconic images aren’t included.) Fine reporting.
logansqd's review against another edition
5.0
The struggle of humanity against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting. - Milan Kundera
sassyporcupine's review against another edition
5.0
A book that reallys makes you think. I can't fathom how my in-laws grew up in Mississippi during this time period.
nevclue's review against another edition
4.0
Detailed and contextualized history of the lynching and trial of Emmett Till. Perhaps the most compelling aspect of the book is how Tyson lays out the extraordinary determination and courage and confluence of events that it took to make Emmett Till's death the turning point that it was. Because it was far from a given that the brutal murder of a black child in Mississippi in the 50s by white men would result in national outrage. Tyson ties the complicity of the entire populace, and particularly the structures of power in the legal and justice system, in the Emmett Till case to the present and the ways in which black lives are still the site of state-sanctioned and community-accepted violence.
lewzor's review against another edition
4.0
A must-read for anti-racist activists. Tyson's well-researched coverage of Emmett Till's horrific lynching is told so matter-of-factly that each revelation packs a punch. Tyson delves deep, revealing the intelligence and cunning required for civil rights activists to make progress. Too often history remembers these activists as wholesome, inherently good, or simple. Tyson takes readers behind the scenes to show the machinations of those fighting for and against racism. It's a staggering story that serves as a reminder of how little, and how much, things have changed.
sassyporcupine's review against another edition
5.0
A book that reallys makes you think. I can't fathom how my in-laws grew up in Mississippi during this time period.
brightshiny's review against another edition
4.0
This book is painful to read. I like thinking of racism as a point in our history, not a line that runs right through today. I keep reading SPLC recommendations and they're all like this, disabusing me of my point-in-time perspective. Consider me informed.