The Blood of Emmett Till

By Timothy B. Tyson

The Blood of Emmett Till - Timothy B. Tyson
  • Release Date: 2017-01-31
  • Genre: Social Science
Score: 4.5
4.5
From 111 Ratings

Description

This extraordinary New York Times bestseller reexamines a pivotal event of the civil rights movement—the 1955 lynching of Emmett Till—“and demands that we do the one vital thing we aren’t often enough asked to do with history: learn from it” (The Atlantic).

* A New York Times Notable Book * A Washington Post Notable Book * Longlisted for the National Book Award * Winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award *An NPR, Los Angeles Times, and Atlanta Journal-Constitution Best Book of the Year *

In 1955, white men in the Mississippi Delta lynched a fourteen-year-old from Chicago named Emmett Till. His murder was part of a wave of white terrorism in the wake of the 1954 Supreme Court decision that declared public school segregation unconstitutional. Only weeks later, Rosa Parks thought about young Emmett as she refused to move to the back of a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Five years later, Black students who called themselves “the Emmett Till generation” launched sit-in campaigns that turned the struggle for civil rights into a mass movement. Till’s lynching became the most notorious hate crime in American history.

But what actually happened to Emmett Till—not the icon of injustice, but the flesh-and-blood boy? Part detective story, part political history, The Blood of Emmett Till “unfolds like a movie” (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution), drawing on a wealth of new evidence, including a shocking admission of Till’s innocence from the woman in whose name he was killed. “Jolting and powerful” (The Washington Post), the book “provides fresh insight into the way race has informed and deformed our democratic institutions” (Diane McWhorter, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Carry Me Home) and “calls us to the cause of justice today” (Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, president of the North Carolina NAACP).

Reviews

  • Once again

    5
    By Obama is yo momma
    Well written piece of literature . It’s very sad this woman waited until she’s about to die to confess the truth . Till was and will continue to be cemented in the minds of many. I highly recommend this book
  • Knowing the whole story

    5
    By LindaAlamo
    In this age of a resurgence of white supremacy, this beautifully written and incredibly sourced book is a must read for all baby boomers and their children. I never knew the details of this landmark event and how it galvanized the civil rights movement. I feel our country has gone backward and we cannot allow that to happen.
  • Love this !

    5
    By Kittybitesyou
    I love this book already and I'm only on the first couple of chapters . This can show the world what needs . Details in this book is mind blowing .