Lynching of Emmett Till: A Documentary Narrative

The Emmett Till story is one of the most unpleasant and gruesome in American history, but this book is one of the best I've read on the subject. It is a compilation of contemporary news articles, poems, songs, essays, and remembrances of the Till case (one is a 1955 interview with Mrs. Mamie Till, Emmett's mom). The side of the bigots is also given, as well as a disgusting interview with one of the murderers, but it helps the book to become a more complete anthology showing the sickness of the murderers (and others who thought like them) as well as the good guys in the case. As a historian, I'll admit that this does not make pleasant reading, but it is a fascinating look at what racism could cause and is a worthy read.

This is an excellent collection of documents relating to the lynching of Emmett Till. However, it should be noted that Metress does not provide any real commentary on the documents which he has selected. This is a good book for those interested in writing on the Till or the southern press, and for those with the background knowledge to put the documents presented in a contextual backgound.

Earlier I gave a lukewarm review of this book. In hindsight, the book just was not what I expected. I expected a more narrative history and was disappointed when I did not get it. But that was not the author's intent. What is done here, is done exceptionally well. Truly fascinating. I'm so glad I picked it back up so I can correct the record.

Some might say the 1950s should provide the history, while we in the 21st century provide the analysis -- particularly in matters of race, where the discourse of fifty years ago might be thought too embryonic to add anything to today's sophisticated discussions. Think again. More than half the pages of Chris Metress's `The Lynching of Emmett Till' are devoted to writings contemporary with the famous case. These pieces display not only the passion and immediacy you would expect -- and which are invaluable for the modern reader -- but also great shrewdness, subtlety, and eloquence, as they report on what one writer calls a "total, unavenged obliteration." (Not every contributor is sympathetic to Till, by the way; just one example is an announcement from the American Anti-Communist Militia claiming that Till is alive and well in California!)The rest of the book, made up of pieces written in the years since, shows how the Till tragedy has lingered in the American imagination and conscience. Metress collects remarkable meditations on the Till case by Anne Moody, John Edgar Wideman, Langston Hughes, among others. It is quite incredible how Till has loomed in these writers' thoughts. (The book even includes a really awful - and, fortunately, disowned -- song by Bob Dylan.) Metress's commentary fully situates the reader in all the various contexts but is never overbearing. This is a book of voices; Metress is a superb listener.