It was significant because of the boy's age and the fact that his mother chose to show the reality of racism. In the big picture it gets lost because lynchings and violence against blacks in America was going on for a century with virtually no censure.

In 2000 an exhibit of postcards(!!) which displayed lynchings as they were occuring was shown in the Roth Horowitz Gallery in NY. You would think these people were out on a picnic posing and smiling with their kids as a black body swung from a tree or was burned beyond recognition.

Steve

i'm not questioning the significance...i'm questioning the assumption that most of us just didn't even give this the time of day when maybe it was only news broadcast in chicago and not the rest of the world.... it certainly wasn't on news here.

Wasn't there just something in the news where DNA testing proved that the body they buried was his? I guess there was some dispute about who was in the grave...I might be thinking of a different case, but I think it's this one.

It happened in Mississippi. If you don't know about Emmit Till, I find that amazing and sad. I also really like the scene in Ali where he talks about the effect it had on him.

And Steve, props to Robinson, but give credit to Truman for integrating the Armed Forces, and Rickey for bringing in Robinson.

Most definitely. On that note, I recently finished a Robert Parker book about a fictional guy who is hired to be Robinson's bodyguard during the '47 season. Just a quick read for baseball fans.

Steve

It was the 50th anniversary of the murder of Emmitt Till - a 14 year old Chicago boy who was visiting family in Mississippi. He was black and made the fatal mistake of whistling at a white woman.

He was jumped by a pack of white men and brutally beaten to death.
His mother held his funeral as an open-casket affair so that the world could see what those racist bastards had done to her baby (and it was not pretty).

A major catalyst (along with Rosa Parks) in jumpstarting the civil rights movement.

Did any of you take notice?
Say a prayer?
Do more than let the images and words flash by you on the TV screen?

I'm sure that some of you did.


(I'll spared you the funeral photos.)

Taking this thread in a bizarre turn, have you ever read DeLillo's Underworld?

Yup. It was a frustrating read only because DeLillo can't sustain the brilliance of much of the book throughout, but I liked it.

Steve

You're correct, but they recently exhumed it and tested it, and its him.

i don't get the brutal responses to this thread...but whatever. it doesn't hurt to reflect on where we come from as americans and on where we still have to go.

Thanks for paying attention.

I know that I come off as self-righteous sometimes, but this stuff does hit home with me for some reason. And I'm glad to see some serious discussion on the topic.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: The only thing I cannot tollerate is intolerance.

Love to all.