Emmett Till: The Murder That Shocked the World and Propelled the Civil Rights Movement

Emmett Till: The Murder That Shocked the World and Propelled the Civil Rights Movement offers the first truly comprehensive account of the 1955 murder and its aftermath. It tells the story of 14-year-old Emmett Till, whose brutal murder and the acquittal of his killers by an all-white jury set off a firestorm of protests that reverberated all over the world and spurred on the civil rights movement. Like no other event in modern history, the death of Emmett Till provoked people all over the United States to seek social change. [Publisher’s description]

“You may think, as I did, that you know the totality of this tale, but you will learn much that is new, as I did. That is because Anderson has tracked down every source; read every testimony, description, and transcript; interviewed every living witness; and read the memories of the departed. He has searched every newspaper and magazine story, including the most obscure, and gathered every conflicting version. Where witnesses conflict, he offers the likeliest version and acknowledges the disagreement. He places this horrendous crime where it belongs: centrally in the civil rights movement. . . . This is a book that covers its subject magnificently.” –from the foreword by Julian Bond, SNCC veteran and former NAACP chair

Credit: By Devery D. Anderson. Published by University Press of Mississippi, 2015.