If you can’t speak out against this kind of thing, a crime that’s so unjust,
Your eyes are filled with dead men’s dirt, your mind is filled with dust.
Your arms and legs they must be in shackles and chains,
And your blood it must refuse to flow,
For you let this human race fall down so God-awful low!
— Bob Dylan, The Murder of Emmett Till
The long weekend (thank you, dead presidents) got me to thinking. Over the MLK holiday last month, I went looking for a documentary on Dr. King and the civil rights movement. While there are a few in existence, no local rental shops had any available. I was a little surprised at first, but as I continued to think it over I became more and more disheartened.
This small instance only helped to inform a long-standing opinion that national holidays have lost all significance in the lives of those across the American landscape. Looking back on my childhood, I begin to wonder if such breaks in our calendar ever held any gravity at all. In all actuality, they are celebrations of monumental historical people and events. They have the potential to manifest at least mildly positive societal shifts in our culture. But I barely remember attending such a holiday’s corresponding parade, let alone ever learning anything. Given the many of days off that Dr. King (and others) give us in a year, can it be too much to ask that we should be educated as to why?
During my disappointing search for a MLK documentary, I heard tell of another, The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till . One of at least two documentaries on the subject (the second by PBS), I finally saw it the other night—and why it has taken me all these years to merely hear his name is beyond me.
Emmett’s story began in Mississippi, 1955. Blood-soaked and appalling, it tells of a 16 year old boy from Chicago who was mauled and murdered after whistling at a white woman on a lazy afternoon. It is a landmark story which ended with the boy’s two self-admitted killers walking free. According to the documentary, Till’s story sparked the American Civil Rights Movement and still continues, unresolved, today.
The fact of the matter is that it is both a sad and gruesome tale. It does not, however, hide its poignant reality. If ever there were a person on whom ample attention should be lavished, Emmett Till is the man. Bob Dylan knew this. Two documentaries have attempted to propagate the truth. And while there may be poor circulation of information—the Encyclopedia Brittanica shy to promote such a paramount historical incident*—the information is out there, and it won’t stop at me.
*Encyclopedia Brittanica’s free online iPhone application had no entry for the name of Emmett Till.
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