[cure-news] Decades later, an apology for Emmett Till slaying

[Ida Hakim]

Decades later, an apology for Emmett Till slaying
Once an icon of racism, town plans to say it's sorry near where killers 
were freed.

By DREW JUBERA
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 10/02/07

Only a handful of storefronts in this tidy Delta town of about 400 are 
occupied ? two pharmacies, three lawyers' offices, no place to eat. So 
Sumner comes by its slow-motion, passed-by atmosphere honestly. Downtown 
is bordered at one end by railroad tracks, the other end by a bayou. 
Beyond that, bean and cotton fields stretch like great lakes.

Yet Sumner's century-old courthouse, with its four-story clock tower, 
still looms over Tallahatchie County's past, present and future. It's 
where two white men were tried and found not guilty by an all-white jury 
of brutally slaying Emmett Till, a husky 14-year-old black kid visiting 
from Chicago.

The 1955 murder trial, after which the defendants confessed in a 
magazine, became an iconic marker of the civil rights movement. Covered 
by the nation's press, it also secured a place for Sumner in the Jim 
Crow South's notorious landscape.

Now more than five decades later, driven both by conscience and 
commerce, an interracial group of locals in this desperately poor, 
majority black region is ready to apologize, and perhaps even 
capitalize, on this remote soil's dark history.

An official apology from the county-appointed Emmett Till Memorial 
Commission will be read Tuesday in front of the courthouse. A historical 
marker also will be unveiled ? just steps from the Civil War monument 
planted there at the beginning of the last century.

The makeup of the 17-member Till Commission makes its own kind of 
statement. It includes blacks who grew up on white members' plantations, 
a black woman who moved to Mississippi three years ago from Chicago, and 
the wife of the white Republican mayor, whose own roots in Sumner go 
back five generations.

The current sheriff, who is white, also is expected to speak. The 
sheriff during the Till trial testified for the defense.

"All I can say is that if everything happened today like they say it 
happened back then, I'd be ashamed," said Sheriff William Brewer, Jr., 
47. "I'm sure it'll help the families' feelings."

Till's few remaining relatives were to travel from Chicago to attend. 
Wheeler Parker, 68, who rode with Till on that fateful trip to 
Mississippi, said of the plan for today's ceremony, "They're doing what 
they should be doing. I think it makes a statement that people can change."

Afterward, there'll be a driving tour of the murder's landmarks, 
including the now-ramshackle grocery store in Money, where Till is said 
to have whistled at a white woman and set the tragic events in motion.

The tourist trail's centerpiece will be the courthouse. Funds are being 
raised to restore it to its 1955 design and include a museum.

"Everybody in the country has spoken out about this. But this community 
hasn't visited it," says Jerome Little, chairman of the county board of 
supervisors and the first African-American elected to that board.

"This is our chance to speak."

Witness to history

Betty Pearson attended all five days of the trial ? sat in the 
whites-only section ? and saw something inside the courthouse she'd 
never seen before, even growing up in perhaps the most segregated region 
of the segregated South.

"I looked at the expression on the people's faces on that jury and saw 
absolute hatred. I never saw that kind of hatred before," says Pearson, 
85, of the all-white jury that sat on cane-bottomed chairs and returned 
its verdict in about an hour.

"I realized then how vicious racism was," adds Pearson, a Till 
Commission member. "It wasn't the paternalism [toward blacks] of my 
father. This was much lower and more violent."

Few folks here still remember the trial like Pearson does. So the 
relevance of a 52-year-old apology has been questioned here much the 
same way racial reconciliations for decades-old crimes have been 
questioned in other parts of the South, including Wilmington, N.C., 
Philadelphia, Miss., and Moore's Ford, in Walton County east of Atlanta.

But in cases where killers were never convicted ? an FBI reinvestigation 
of Till's murder resulted in a grand jury returning no indictments in 
February against others who might have been involved ? an apology is 
about all that's left.

The two men found not guilty in Sumner, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, are dead.

"The apology "expresses a deep regret that justice was not done," says 
Susan Glisson, director of the William Winter Institute for Racial 
Reconciliation, at the University of Mississippi, and advisor to the 
Till Commission. "It's restorative justice, rather than retributive 
justice."

Still, an undercurrent of disapproval runs through the county, among 
both blacks and whites.

Many believe Till's killing is better left in the past, that any renewed 
hubbub only reinforces old racist stereotypes. Locals frequently mention 
that Sumner was drawn into the drama unfairly: the case was tried there 
only because Till's body was found on the Tallahatchie County side of 
the river. Neither killer was from the county.

John Taylor, who pastors at the all-white Sumner Presbyterian Church and 
works with the Till Commission, said his congregation includes adult 
children and grandchildren of Till case participants, such as the grand 
jury foreman and one of the defense lawyers.

Many members are wary of apologies made on behalf of the town. One 
wanted to be assured that Taylor's signature on the commission's apology 
didn't represent the entire church.

Robert Grayson, African-American mayor of nearby Tutwiler and commission 
board member, said he's heard similar sentiments at his all-black church.

"A lot of people don't say anything, but when I mention it, you can look 
at their expressions and know they're thinking, 'I don't know why you 
have to go back and dig up the past,'" Grayson said. "I call it 'under 
the hat' talk."

Some in the community have been more outspoken. Retired preacher G.A. 
Johnson, who is African-American, denounced the commission at public 
meetings, and calls the funds being raised to restore the courthouse 
"blood money."

"They slaughtered this boy and now they want to come back and raise 
money off the death of that child ? God forbid," Johnson said.

Little, the Till Commission chair, dismisses the sentiment. "It's bigger 
than that," he says, noting that beyond an apology, the commission wants 
to incorporate lessons from the Till case in local school curricula, and 
build a recreation facility for kids in a county that doesn't have one.

Tourism will lead to jobs and more businesses moving in, he says. The 
county unemployment rate is more than 9 percent. The biggest employer is 
a private prison.

Says Little: "We've got to play the hand that's dealt to us."

Economic development

As the Till case recedes from the daily lives of most folks here, the 
urgency to memorialize it grows.

History here seems to occupy a more modern racial landscape, one located 
at the intersection of reconciliation and economic development.

"It's almost like if reconciliation is achieved through this, so be it," 
says Taylor, the Presbyterian minister. "But everyone has some primary 
motivation."

Many whites on the Till commission got involved initially to save the 
courthouse, which is in need of costly repairs the county can't afford.

Sumner is one of two seats in the county, and there are frequent threats 
to close the courthouse to save money. But its tie to the Till trial 
gives it the significance needed to lure restoration grants and private 
donations. It was placed this year on the National Register of Historic 
Places.

"I'm interested in our little town surviving," said Frank Mitchener, 73, 
the commission's chief fund-raiser and a cotton farmer on whose land 
Little grew up.

Yet whites and blacks coming together over a shared, if painful history 
could have benefits beyond today's ceremony.

"This builds trust and good will and a feeling that we've got to 
cooperate if we're going to keep our little town," added Mitchner, who 
attended one day of the Till trial. "Everything is an evolution. For 
most white people ? and I'm one of 'em ? it's not pleasant to think 
about what happened. But it is our history."

Most black commission members got involved when they saw the possibility 
of jobs and tourists breathing new life into an economy once dominated 
by agriculture.

Talk of reconciliation only came up when the commission, which met 
monthly, began to stall. Whites and blacks often seemed to work off 
different pages. Glisson, who'd done similar work in Philadelphia, told 
the group that the Till case had to be addressed directly before 
anything else could be accomplished. It took about eight months for an 
apology to be crafted to everyone's liking.

Nobody knows what's next.

"I'm really curious what affect this will have, if any," Pearson said. 
"But I think what we're doing is important. A bi-racial group sitting 
down every month and talking ? that's never been done before."
>From hakimida at reparationsthecure.org  Tue Oct  2 11:33:50 2007
From: hakimida at reparationsthecure.org (Ida Hakim)
Date: Tue Oct  2 10:33:55 2007
Subject: [cure-news] Update from Deadria Farmer-Paellmann
Message-ID: <470280FE.9060407 at reparationsthecure.org>

Deadria Farmer-Paellmann, J.D., M.A.
Executive Director
Restitution Study Group

Dear All,
 
We just learned that on October 1, 2007, the Supreme Court of the United 
States denied our petition to hear arguments in the reparations case 
filed against corporations.  The part of the case presented to them 
related to our historical arguments.  In particular, we were requesting 
a hearing to determine the earliest date information about corporations 
complicit in slavery was available to former slaves and their progeny.  
This information is needed to determine the proper deadline for filing 
the lawsuit (the statute of limitations).
 
The Supreme Court denial does not end this aspect of the case.  We are 
free to file actions in state court and will begin that effort in the 
near future.  At that time, we will move forward with requests for this 
hearing again.
 
Other aspects of this case are still being battled in Federal Court and 
Appeals court.  In the coming months we will learn their outcomes.
 
We thank you all for your ongoing support and particular appreciation is 
extended to Caucasians United for Reparations and Emancipation (CURE) 
for their true dedication to slavery justice exemplified in many ways, 
but most recently by filing an Amicus Brief with the Supreme Court to 
support descendants of enslaved Africans.
 
Our consumer fraud victory from December 2006 against slave-money 
corporations still stands.   Those who believe they were victimized by 
corporations lying about their role in slavery may pursue claims 
utilizing this precedence.  To learn more about that decision and for a 
link to purchase a copy of the Supreme Court petition, please visit our 
website at: www.rsgincorp.com.
 
We are developing new cases to continue educating and chipping away at 
the massive injustice of slavery, and will keep you informed of this 
critical work.
 
Thank you all.
 
Be well,
Deadria Farmer-Paellmann, J.D., M.A.