The Barn

The murder of Emmett Till was the beginning of the civil rights movement, the incident that Rosa Parks said was on her mind when she decided not to give up her seat on that bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955. Thompson's unique perspective, which he presents by carefully stating the facts of the murder, pulling back the camera, and putting on multiple lenses — sociological, anthropological, and economic — enables the reader to see this as a perfect storm at the crossroads of the American South. The murder of a child was not only a failure of the few who were at the scene of the crime with blood on their hands but also the doing of a society that was so terrified of integration (Brown v. Board of Education is at the epicenter) that the players not only allowed and protected the murder but immediately rewrote history so the legacy of Emmett Till could not be honored.

A book about one of the most shameful incidents in our history is hard to read, but Wright Thompson's book is worth your time and incredibly important. Why? As you will read in the book, "Responsibility for the status quo falls on the heads of every single person living inside that status quo." This book makes me want to refocus my efforts, requiring me (and hopefully others) to chase our past, generations before, and say: "OK, this is what happened; now, how can we own it, apologize for it, and not silently continue to allow the everyday murders of inequality to continue?

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