60 years on, I do remember Emmett Till

Emmett Till should be alive today.  He should be spending his twilight years surround by children, grandchildren (even great-grandchildren) enjoying a life well lived.  But Emmett Till is not alive today.  60 years ago on this day the Chicago native was gruesomely killed while on a visit to relatives in Mississippi.  The fourteen year old was beat, eye-gouged, shot in the head, tied by the neck with barbed wire to a cotton gin fan and thrown in the Tallahatchie River.  It was an attack that sent ripples across the country for its sheer brutality.  His offense?  Speaking to a lady.  The subsequent trial captured the attention of the nation and ended with two suspects acquitted of any crime (this despite the fact that they later admitted in a magazine interview to murdering Till but were protected against double jeopardy and therefore suffered no legal punishment).  The result was a young, promising life destroyed while the confessing perpetrators walked away free.  American folk singer/poet/historian Bob Dylan captures well the events of six decades ago in his song “The Death of Emmett Till.”

I am haunted by Emmett Till.  I remember hearing about his death as a grade-school student and it blazed in my mind a vivid realization of the scars of hatred and violence that my country regrettably bears.  As I grow older I see the narrative in different ways.  I realize that Emmett Till was not killed because his skin happened to be black and the skin of the girl he spoke to happened to be white.  He did not die because he found himself in a state with a rather terrifying history of lynchings.   He did not suffer because he lived in a time when skin pigmentation determined an individual’s rights, protections and access to legal justice.  Emmett Till died because some individuals were so uncomfortable with themselves, so unsettled in their understanding of who they are, that they acted out humanity’s tendency to violently strike down something different.  It is the same propensity that I see acted out time and time again in my home country, adopted country and every other context known to man.  The problem never is race, religion, culture, or “the way of times.”  These are invariably mixed into the problems, but they do not take away life.  The problem is that, ever since Cain struck down Abel, we continue to strike down our fellow man when he exposes what we do not like about ourselves. 

How incredible it is then to remember Jesus who suffered the absolute worst of man’s violence while never striking out in any way.  He taught a pure message that called for the enduring of violence (even unto death) but never its administration.  In the end, Jesus demonstrated that even the worst of human violence can be turned by God into something glorious.  We see it in the cross where a vile and disgraceful death was turned into the ultimate act of triumph, hope and life.  We see it in Emmett Till, where a tragic death catalyzed one of the greatest social movements of our times in the American Civil Rights Movement.  It may have been a cold, heartless murder but it was not a loss in vain. 

As someone who spends his occupation working with children and youth, I can find only little solace in the thought that one boy’s death was required to help elevate and liberate countless other lives.  I feel the lament of Mamie Till, Emmett’s mother, when she writes in her memoirs, “I realized that Emmett had achieved the significant impact in death that he had been denied in life. Even so, I had never wanted Emmett to be a martyr. I only wanted him to be a good son. Although I realized all the great things that had been accomplished largely because of the sacrifices made by so many people, I found myself wishing that somehow we could have done it another way.”

In midst of the violence, war and death rampant in our times, there are too many people who, like Emmett Till, have been sacrificed to death when all they desire is life.  Yet I do thank God that He has shown us “another way” in Jesus.  The one who ultimately suffered declares that the suffering of those past and present will not be ultimate; he compels us to be people of peace to bring a future of healing and hope to this world.  

I conclude with Emmylou Harris's touching tribute song "My Name is Emmett Till," a fitting call for this day and every day to remember the past and build for a future.