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impossiblegirlem's review against another edition
5.0
This book made me so damn angry. Obviously it’s based on historical events. Events that have barely been taught to me when I was young. Some of the details like Emmett’s body being on display in Chicago I never learned until I watched Lovecraft Country. Now reading about the whole event from start of Emmett’s life to his murder and the unfair trial has my blood boiling. The blatant threats towards black witnesses and how the jury knew that they better find the murderers not guilty unless they want to be killed too. My god. Why aren’t schools teaching this?! Why am I learning about the absolute horror black people and other poc have gone through as a 30 year old woman! I’ll have a better review after I cool down but right now I just want to scream. It’s so fucked up because shit may have “gotten better” for poc but that’s a damn lie. I need to go calm down.
karinapplesauce's review against another edition
"Ask yourself whether America's predicament is really so different now."
I'll be honest--this book has been on my to do list for a while, but I kept going past it with a certain feeling of dread. Even with my basic understanding of events I knew that it would be a heavy read. However, I was due for another audiobook so I told myself I would listen to the first non-fiction book that was available that had been on my list for the longest. And this won.
It was about as intense as I thought, but in an eye-opening, heart-pounding, get-yourself-out-of-complicity sort of way. As much as I had been avoiding it, this was very very good. Also, I think the first time I had heard about Emmett Till was either in passing or during an internet search probably in my late teens/early twenties. (It's possible it was in school, but I'm feeling doubtful about this.) It's very easy to judge in your teens about how "long ago" the 50's and 60's were and how we've come so far since then. But...now that I'm older (30's) and time passes so much more quickly for me, I am very keenly aware about how very CLOSE and recent history this is. This is a (sheltered) white woman talking, of course, so that may seem obvious to others. Remember when 10 years was long? And now it seems like just a couple of years ago? This is super recent.
But one of my takeaways from this book was the author pointing out that this lynching wasn't really all that special, but they made it special. The mother, Mamie, pushed to make it all happen (along with others). I didn't really think much about her role in the past, but reading this was very aware about how instrumental she was to MAKE PEOPLE SEE.
Of course, we are all still blind.
I'll be honest--this book has been on my to do list for a while, but I kept going past it with a certain feeling of dread. Even with my basic understanding of events I knew that it would be a heavy read. However, I was due for another audiobook so I told myself I would listen to the first non-fiction book that was available that had been on my list for the longest. And this won.
It was about as intense as I thought, but in an eye-opening, heart-pounding, get-yourself-out-of-complicity sort of way. As much as I had been avoiding it, this was very very good. Also, I think the first time I had heard about Emmett Till was either in passing or during an internet search probably in my late teens/early twenties. (It's possible it was in school, but I'm feeling doubtful about this.) It's very easy to judge in your teens about how "long ago" the 50's and 60's were and how we've come so far since then. But...now that I'm older (30's) and time passes so much more quickly for me, I am very keenly aware about how very CLOSE and recent history this is. This is a (sheltered) white woman talking, of course, so that may seem obvious to others. Remember when 10 years was long? And now it seems like just a couple of years ago? This is super recent.
But one of my takeaways from this book was the author pointing out that this lynching wasn't really all that special, but they made it special. The mother, Mamie, pushed to make it all happen (along with others). I didn't really think much about her role in the past, but reading this was very aware about how instrumental she was to MAKE PEOPLE SEE.
Of course, we are all still blind.
jenikki's review against another edition
5.0
This one took a while for me to read because it was so gut-wrenching on every page—not just for the horrific things that befell a 14-year-old boy who dared to show his Chicago face in a Mississippi backwoods convenience store, but because Tyson constantly provides statistics and stories of mob mentality that could have been set in 2016 around the last election. If I'd read this book 10 years ago I'd have still read it with horror, appalled that these very things were happening when my parents were children, but now I read it with a new heartbreak: that we've changed very little in the 60 years since Emmett Till was tortured and murdered by a bunch of racist rednecks, who were set free by a jury of Mississippians who bought into the "we're not gonna let those uppity Northerners tell US how to live our lives, no SIR!" This racial and cultural divide, as prominent now as it was in 1955, makes you wonder if America will ever fully be whole. An excellent book.
nancyadelman's review against another edition
3.0
This book is an examination of the murder of Emmett Till, a fourteen year old black boy who was killed while visiting family in Mississippi in 1955. He was lynched by white farmers for allegedly making a pass (likely not) at a white woman in a grocery store. The book is meant to be read like a true-crime book, with the unfortunate victim's life prior to Mississippi being outlined, the eventful last day of his life, followed by the trial of his murderers. Only this book is part true-crime and part about civil rights. The author goes on for some time (perhaps too long? I got bored) about black people trying to get the rights they deserve under the laws of our country. Apparently Mississippians seem to think that they are above the laws of the land and threatened, beat, or even killed black people who tried to register to vote or who actually turned out to vote.
I thought the subject matter was handled well and is very timely (he ties Emmett's death into the deaths that are still occurring, most of whom at the hands of police, Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, for example). The way in which he wrote parts of this book were very dry and similar to textbook-writing which was unfortunate because it made an interesting book boring. I had only a cursory idea of who Emmett Till was before reading this, but after reading it, I understand his story and why it is as relevant today as it was sixty years ago.
I thought the subject matter was handled well and is very timely (he ties Emmett's death into the deaths that are still occurring, most of whom at the hands of police, Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, for example). The way in which he wrote parts of this book were very dry and similar to textbook-writing which was unfortunate because it made an interesting book boring. I had only a cursory idea of who Emmett Till was before reading this, but after reading it, I understand his story and why it is as relevant today as it was sixty years ago.
maddischro's review against another edition
5.0
one of the most impactful books I’ve read. definitely one of the best epilogues I’ve read. history repeats itself
liroa15's review against another edition
4.0
A lot more of this was about the general history of the era and Mississippi in particular which was good because the trial chapters made my blood boil.
Nearly 70 years and we haven’t done a damn thing. Not a damn thing
Nearly 70 years and we haven’t done a damn thing. Not a damn thing
medr363's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
4.0