‘Till’ Does the Best It Can With One of History’s Saddest Stories
Few non-activist figures from the civil rights era have latched onto the American consciousness like Emmett Till. In 1955, the 14-year-old Chicagoan was brutally killed by two white men while visiting Mississippi; he had been accused of whistling at one of their wives, Carolyn Bryant, at a grocery store.
The U.S. Congress passing the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act in March, 67 years after his death. And Hollywood has taken on the task of honoring Emmett’s (and his mother Mamie Till-Mabley’s) memory as well, with two separate projects this year. First was an ABC scripted miniseries titled Women of the Movement that premiered in January, and now there’s the movie Till, debuting at New York Film Festival and in theaters nationwide on October 21.
Like the television adaptation, Till attempts to center the perspective of Mamie Till-Mobley, Emmett’s single mother. It was her decision to hold an open-casket funeral for her son so that the press could capture his mangled body, which became one of the news stories to propel the Civil Rights Movement. Emmett’s death also prompted the previously politically apathetic Mamie to join the movement as an educator and activist. She soon embarked upon a nationwide speaking tour about the 1955 tragedy, advocating for education. Before her death in 2003, she penned a memoir about her experience called Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed America.