Blogcritics Comments on Revisiting the not so strange case of Emmett Till

Comment by Rodney Welch on Revisiting the not so strange case of Emmett Till

Mon, 10 Nov 2003 14:21:57 EST

The defendants are dead; the wife is still around.

Comment by Phillip Winn on Revisiting the not so strange case of Emmett Till

Thu, 6 Nov 2003 18:08:37 EST

I'm with you 100% on this one, MD. Even the tinyiest amount of justice is better than none at all. In fact, knowing how to practice justice and choosing not to, as in the Till case, is such an active act of injustice that simply ending that results in a huge net gain for justice. Ack, too many uses of the root word "justice," I'll stop now.

Comment by Mac Diva on Revisiting the not so strange case of Emmett Till

Thu, 6 Nov 2003 17:47:20 EST

I fear you are right, Rodney. A related issue I've been thinking about is prosecutions of elderly people who got away with murder. Some folks think we should leave them alone. But, knowing the Bryants are likely still alive and unpunished somewhere irks me. I would be in favor of reopening the case. Would it be complete justice? No. Too much time has passed. But, at least it would be a step in the right direction.

Comment by Rodney Welch on Revisiting the not so strange case of Emmett Till

Thu, 6 Nov 2003 11:55:35 EST

All the truthful information in the world wouldn't have changed the verdict of a jury of crackers, in my opinion. They knew who killed Till; they just didn't want to prosecute them -- it was Mississippi in the 1950s and that's the way the white ruling class thought. In the long view, this may have helped more than it hurt. Would there have been Civil Rights legislation without that verdict?

Comment by Dew on Revisiting the not so strange case of Emmett Till

Wed, 5 Nov 2003 02:43:08 EST

My parents grew up not far away from Money, MS. My mother is adamant about my sister and I understanding the affects of what they went thru in the Mississippi Delta during that time. I was almost 18 when I first saw the picture of Emmett Till in his casket, blotted and disfigured. I couldn't sleep for weeks. I can only imagine what it was like for his mother. It pisses me off that my parents or anyone for that matter had to go thru such brutality for something so trivial as color. I'm not sure whether rehashing this case will do any good. People in the Delta normally speak low and act loud. If the culprits are still living, you can believe they still have the right people in their corner. In the very least though, it will bring light to the harshness that can not be excused by renaming the South.