JUST WHISTLE
The Untold
Story of Emmett Louis Till
Daniel Stefan Dowdy
You know how to whistle don’t you? So did Emmett Till a fourteen year old African American kid who was visiting relatives in rural Mississippi during 1956. Emmett Till made the mistake of walking into a little general store while whistling. The woman who owned the store with her husband was working there at the time. Apparently she believed that Emmett Till’s whistle was directed toward herself. Whether or not that is true is not something that I know. It also is not something that I care about. Nothing that Emmett Till did or might have done that day could have merited the punishment that was brutally meted out to him.
It was later that same evening when Emmett Till was lured from the home in which he was staying and ostensibly then identified as the person whom earlier, had made an inappropriate advance toward her inside the store. The people outside the home then spirited the youngster away and those who loved him never saw him alive again.
Emmett Till was abducted, then beaten, tormented, mutilated and tortured for hours. Finally, a millstone was secured around his neck and he was thrown into the dark and muddy waters of the Tallahootchee river where he sank beneath the black water and died.
There was an
investigation of sorts into the Emmett Till case. After all, quite a few people perhaps as many as nine, perhaps even more were involved in what happened to him. Two men both Caucasian were finally charged with the abduction and murder of Emmett Till. One was the husband of the woman from the store the other was his associate. They were tried at home in Mississippi before an all White and all male jury.
There was no
justice for Emmett Till or the people who loved him in Mississippi almost fifty
years ago. However justice is a very funny and tenacious thing sometimes. Sometimes it will not be denied. Eight long years ago a young man named Keith Beauchamp began to investigate the Emmett Till case. After all of those years, after conducting the most thorough and intensive investigation into the case, Keith Beauchamp an alumni of the prestigous graduate film school at NYU has made a film, The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Tell which tells the story of Emmett Till's short time in our world and documents the investigation that Beauchamp conducted into the facts and circumstances surrounding his tragic death.
The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till, is a dark tragedy. A journey into the evil of some who live among us. It is also a search for truth and a plea for whatever small measure of justice that might still be attainable nearly Fifty years since those terrible events in the summer of 1956. Keith Beauchamp was successful in discovering the relevent facts and circumstances of the crime as well as the identities and roles of those who perpetrated it. He did so almost singlehandedly despite the handicap of well over Forty years of time having passed, where the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and, collectively the entire weight and power of the Federal government, the State of Mississippi and local authorities as well, either could not or would not.
One of the most horrifying and abhorrent of Beauchamp's discoveries was that as many as six African American men participated in the abduction, beating, torture and murder of Emmett Till. In fact it was one of those men whom some witnesses have specifically identified as being responsible not only for helping to abduct, beat and torture Emmett Till but also, as having secured the heavy millstone around his neck and helping to then throw the helpless, battered and terribly injured youth into the river to drown beneath its cold, dark waters. How can any of us today know, understand or even imagine the pressures that might have compelled or coerced these men to actt as they did? Furthermore, their involvement in the crime fails to absolve the Caucasian criminals who instigated it, conceived it and managed it from start to finish.
Nonetheless, justice, even justice delayed remains superior to justice denied. Some of the key participants in the brutal crime committed against Emmett Till are still alive, still enjoying the pleasure, the treasure and the inherant joy of life, including the woman who initially instigated and then encouraged and maybe participated in, the brutal crime. Several of the African American men who acted as accomplices, co-conspirators and even executioners remain among the living as well.
There may be an opportunity somewhere within the critical mass of this tragedy, unresolved and festering for almost Fifty years now, for our country's justice system to finally get this right and, in doing so, excise the lingering remnants of an evil that has haunted this great country for far too many years and generations. It is within the authority of the Federal government to reopen the investigation into the Emmett Till case. Keith Beauchamp has asked that it be done. I have too. A link is provided below to facilitate contact with the United States Department of Justice should any of you wish to ask as well.
DSD 6.June, 2005
U.S. Department of Justice
HAA humanarts.org Emmett Till
WNYC Interview with Keith Beauchamp
More summaries about the THE UNTOLD STORY OF EMMETT LOUIS TILL