DVD Review - The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till

I was a very young child when Emmett Till, a fourteen year old black boy, was lynched in Mississippi in 1955 so I was really not aware of his story until much later on. I remember that Bob Dylan wrote a song about the murder in the early 60s.

Keith Beauchamp decided to go back and investigate the case and he has made a terrific film documenting what happened that fateful day that helped to ignite the Civil Right's movement in the United States.

Beauchamp interviews some of Emmett's relatives and friends. Some of these people were with him the day that he allegedly whistled at Carolyn Bryant, who was white. All of the interviews are thought provoking. The center of the film is Emmett's mother Mamie Till Bradley. Her words just tear at your heart. I felt totally drained after she described what the murderers did to Emmett. And, I couldn't look at the photos of that poor, mangled boy. I cannot believe that these sub-humans could do something like this to a fourteen year old boy but that is what white people did to black people in the south at that time (and once in a while it still happens today - James Byrd is an example of this).

Bryant's husband Roy and J.W. Milam were put on trial and there was sufficient evidence to convict them. But, (big surprise) an all white, all male jury found them not guilty. Beauchamp's film moved the U.S. Department of Justice to reopen the case. Although Bryant and Milam are dead there is proof that others were involved. Sadly, Emmett's mother passed away in 2003 and she did not see her son's killers brought to justice. Hopefully, the rest of us will. I highly recommend that everyone see this film and I think that it is a film that should be shown in schools throughout the US in the hopes that something this hateful will never happen again.