In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday yesterday, me and some friends attended a free screening of Keith Beauchamp's documentary, "The Untold Story of Emmitt Louis Till," at The Brooklyn Academy of Music's BAM Rose Theaters.
This is a remarkable filmmaking achievement because it prompted the re-opening of this remarkably brutal murder case of 14 year-old Emmett Till in 1955 Mississippi, when viewed by federal prosecutors in 1994.
Unfortunately, Till's mother, Mamie Till Mobely, died in 1993 and never saw justice for her son's murder. The two white men, who kidnapped and brutalized the young teen who was visiting relatives in Mississippi from Chicago for whistling at the white wife of a local shopkeeper, were acquitted by an all white jury who deliberated for 67 minutes. After their acquittal, the men later sold their story for $4,000 to Look magazine in January 1956, knowing they could not be tried twice for the murder and speaking freely about how they killed Till.
However, there is still an ongoing investigation of others who were allegedly involved in helping the two murderers kidnap and restrain Till while he was being tortured.
This case sparked the Civil Rights Movement and continues to speak to the the inequities of the American justice system when it comes to trying and convicting people of color and the financially disadvantaged, i.e., New York State's Rockerfeller Drug Laws.
No comments:
Post a Comment