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A review by lmjones
Mississippi Trial, 1955 by Chris Crowe
4.0
I just read this for a bookclub and before picking it up had never heard of Emmett Till. I was engrossed. It is well written YA and timely. Crowe depicted the racism, hate, and depravities of the South along with the region's beauties. The teenage main character, Hiram, finds himself struggling to reconcile the love he has for his grandfather and all that is good about Greenwood, Mississippi with the contempt and cruelty their "way of life" holds toward Black Americans. As I read through the justifications for such cruelty and contempt made by various characters and even written in the news papers of the times, I couldn't help but see strong ties to the arguments still being made that seek to completely discredit the current dialogue on police brutality: "Sure, it's a shame that he died, but if Emmett Till hadn't flirted with a white woman in the first place..." As if mutilation and murder are the natural consequence to a 14 year old boys's cockiness and lack of judgement. (If that were true, I don't know how many 14 year old boys we'd have left in the world.)
The telling of this critical moment in history and the candor of the protagonist as he seeks to do what is right when the equilibrium of his life is lost are resonant and relatable. One of the central messages is that telling the truth is always the right thing, even in the face of disrupting everything, life as he knew it (because for them in the South, it was), even in the face of potentially ruining family reputations and chances at love. But that's obvious to every well intended human, isn't it? Maybe not. In this book I saw justifications about doing the wrong thing or at least failing to do the right thing for "the greater good" that could have come straight out of the month of friends and loved ones of my own today and that probably have come out of my own mouth at some point or another. And maybe the most valuable thing about this book is that it isn't political (in spite of the fact that Till's death served as a catalyst for the Civil Rights movement); it's human, it's personal.
As of now, I'm not throwing up 5 stars because I still can't decide how satisfied I am with the ending.
But all in all, I'd recommend it.
The telling of this critical moment in history and the candor of the protagonist as he seeks to do what is right when the equilibrium of his life is lost are resonant and relatable. One of the central messages is that telling the truth is always the right thing, even in the face of disrupting everything, life as he knew it (because for them in the South, it was), even in the face of potentially ruining family reputations and chances at love. But that's obvious to every well intended human, isn't it? Maybe not. In this book I saw justifications about doing the wrong thing or at least failing to do the right thing for "the greater good" that could have come straight out of the month of friends and loved ones of my own today and that probably have come out of my own mouth at some point or another. And maybe the most valuable thing about this book is that it isn't political (in spite of the fact that Till's death served as a catalyst for the Civil Rights movement); it's human, it's personal.
As of now, I'm not throwing up 5 stars because I still can't decide how satisfied I am with the ending.
Spoiler
It's an ending that works, but it did feel anticlimactic as the focus shifted from the horrifying "not guilty" verdict to other things that Hiram had been preoccupied with namely, Naomi, his parentally abused love interest.But all in all, I'd recommend it.