A Mother's heart and strength

In memory of Mamie Till-Mobley ( Nov. 23rd 1921- Jan 6th 2003) and Emmett Till ( July 25th 1941- Aug 28th 1955)

We all know the details: Emmett Till was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. During the month of august 1955, He was visiting relatives near Money, Mississippi. One day on a trip into town with his cousins, he allegedly spoke to 21-year-old Carolyn Bryant, the wife of the store owner. Bryant took offense and accused Emmett of disrespecting her, which during those times was a violation of the laws in the Jim Crow era. Several nights later, Roy Bryant and his half-brother J.W. Miliam tracked Emmett down at the home of Mose Wright ( Emmett’s great uncle) and forced Emmett to go with them. After Emmett was forced to go with them , he was beaten and mutilated before they shot him in the head and used a cotton gin to weigh down his body in the river.

Three days later, Emmett’s body was found and retrieved from the Tallahatchie River. Despite the local officials trying to allegedly cover up the condition of Emmett’s body, it was returned to his mother in Chicago for burial. When Mrs Till-Bradley saw the state of her boy’s body she insisted on giving Emmett an open casket funeral saying “Let the world see what they did to my son. ” The media at the time covered the funeral but reactions differed depending on who covered it. On September 19th 1955, the kidnapping and murder trial began but on September 23rd, Roy Bryant and J.W. Miliam were acquitted by an all-white all-male jury that had deliberated a mere hour. On January 24th 1956, in a interview with Look magazine the two men admitted to the kidnapping and murder of Till knowing that they were protected against double jeopardy.

Following the death of her only child, Mrs. Till-Mobley became a teacher graduating in 1960 from Chicago Teachers College. Later in 1976, she obtained her Master’s degree in educational administration from Loyola University in Chicago. She was an educator and a activist fighting for justice not just for her son but also for other people that had been lynched in the south. She became a sought after speaker speaking around the country. Mrs Till-Mobley also co-authored her memoir “ Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime that Changed America” with Christopher Benson. The book was published in 2003 by Random House months after she had passed on.

At the time of her death, Mamie was preceded by : Mother, Alma Spearman ( Jan. 24th 1902-Nov 11th 1981) Father, John Wiley Nash Carthan (Mar 23rd 1902-Jan 1969) her husbands Louis Till ( Feb 7th 1922- July 2nd 1945<m. 1940>), and Gene Mobley<m.1957> (Mar 26th 1923-Mar 18th 2000) as well as her only child Emmett Louis Till ( July 25th 1941- Aug 28th 1955).

The story of Emmett Till was one in which I didn’t truly understand as a child ( why would they murder a child) , but as a young woman and later as a mother, I often wondered if there was pieces to the story that we were not privy to in terms of what was made pertinent to his mother, Mrs. Mamie Till-Mobley and also if his female accuser Carolyn Bryant told the full truth. In recent years, new and what some might call conflicting evidence came out when she(Carolyn) admitted to lying to her husband and to others on that fateful night as to the true nature of the conversation that took place between Mizz Bryant and Emmett till in her husband’s store.

My reaction to hearing that they were doing a scripted series based on women of the civil rights movement was one of..... finally what took them so long. I have always believed that the women of the Civil Rights Era (1950s- 1970s) were seriously overlooked. I was excited to watch and see how they handled the story of Mamie Till- Mobley who some consider of be the mother of the civil rights movement.

I found the first 4 episodes of the series hard to watch showing a variety of emotions ranging from joy of new life to the tears of grief and pain knowing how short that life came to be. I found the last two episodes which focused on the trial and the difficulties of the case were the ones i liked better. All history tells us about the trial on the surface is that the men were tried and acquitted but nothing about the real meat of the trial. I was disgusted watching the testimony of the Carolyn Bryant character on the stand knowing now that she admitted to lying about what she said during the trial in 2004. My heart pounded watching as I wondered how can such a person lie about another person, a child even and manage to keep sticking to that lie for the next almost 50 years.

They say that if history is not learned the first time around then it will repeat it self. History has taught us that when it comes to justice the Emmett Tills of today are still not getting their justice and the Mamie Till-Mobleys of today are the mother's of the Black Lives Movement fighting for justice. I believe that when Mrs. Mamie passed she was reunited with her beloved son and that when both J.W.Miliam and Roy Bryant died they were sent to the hell for murdering a child. As for Carolyn Bryant well I will leave her to the Lord on Judgement Day