Langston Hughes
(To the Memory of Emmett Till)
Oh what sorrow!
oh, what pity!
Oh, what pain
That tears and blood
Should mix like rain
And terror come again
To Mississippi.
Come again?
Where has terror been?
On vacation? Up North?
In some other section
Of the nation,
Lying low, unpublicized?
Masked—with only
Jaundiced eyes
Showing through the mask?
Oh, what sorrow,
Pity, pain,
That tears and blood
Should mix like rain
In Mississippi!
And terror, fetid hot,
Yet clammy cold
Remain.
In 1955, 14 year old Emmett Till was brutally murdered bringing attention to the racial violence and injustice in Mississippi. While visiting relatives, till went to the Bryant store and was accused of whistling at a white woman. He was kidnapped, tortured and brutally murdered, his body dumped in the Tallahatchie River. The two individuals who murdered Emmett were acquitted, outraging the African American community. This began mass sit ins, meetings, and marches demanding equal treatment under the law. in 2023 President Biden created the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument. It was his mother that insisted on an open casket, showing the world the cruelty and injustice of Mississippi. This stands at the shocking cruelty and injustice perpetuated on a young boy of fourteen. His murder galvanized the civil rights movement and will always be a reminder of the dangers of racism, and what happens when a society allows racism to fester and grow. Read more below
Emmett Till and amie Till Mobley Memorial
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