Not Enough People Know About Emmett Till; New eBook Could Help Solve the Problem, Author Hopes

June 23, 2011 - PRLog -- How can you get more people to learn about Emmett Till and his role in the  modern civil rights movement? This question bothered the author of several civil rights books for years, and as the 56th anniversary of such a pivotal historical event grows near, Susan Klopfer thinks she might have the answer.

Today she announced a significant price reduction, from $7.99 to 99 cents(USD), for her eBook version of Who Killed Emmett Till, and Klopfer said she hopes people will take her up on her offer.

"This is an important eBook for teachers, students, and for anyone who does not know this critical story," Klopfer said, "because the 14-year-old Chicago school boy's 1955 murder became a rallying point for the modern civil rights movement in the United States and was a key factor in moving Rosa Parks to take her stand to sit at the front of a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama later in December.

"Some call Till's murder the spark that ignited the modern civil rights movement. Parks had been considering her action, and when she heard Till's murderers got off free, she decided to go forward. We know this, because Parks told Till's mother, years later," Klopfer said.

The 56th anniversary of young Till's death who was born July 25, 1941 in Chicago, Ill. and murdered on Aug. 28, 1955 in Money, Miss. is the major reason behind the decision, Klopfer said.

"Too many people still do not know this story. Now they can easily download it on their computers, digital book readers and other devices and learn what happened, why and how this relates to the modern civil rights movement."

The eBook is available for 99 cents on the Smashwords.com website specifically at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/8175. A new eBook by Klopfer,  "a true story about the murder of a civil rights lawyer who grew up in the same town where Till was murdered," is set for fall publication, Klopfer said.

Meanwhile, Who Killed Emmett Till? is available in print format  through Amazon and most other major online bookstores. A recorded edition will soon be available online, Klopfer said.

Till was born to working-class parents on the South Side of Chicago. "When he was only 14 years old, he went by train into rural Mississippi to visit with relatives. His mother knew he didn't always mind and liked to play tricks, so she warned him not to do so in Mississippi, that white people were less acustomed to black people speaking out, and that such behavior could be dangerous.

"Emmett's mother told him that he would need to keep his mouth closed and not speak to white people, first. She had not been into the South for some time; she was actually born there and had some clashes herself with Jim Crow. These were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965 that mandated de jure (or rightful) racial segregation in all public facilities.

"Further, some of Emmett's friends had been back to the region to visit their relatives and had not had problems. So Mrs. Till did not anticipate there would be many problems the relatives could not handle."

But what Till's mother did not factor in, was that the South was in an uproar over the U.S. Supreme Court's 1954 decision (in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka), which overturned the “separate but equal” doctrine established in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) that allowed racial segregation in public facilities.

"Then in 1955, the real push came to integrate schools when the second decision came from the Court, known as Brown II. This decision delegated the task of carrying out school desegregation to district courts with orders that desegregation occur 'with all deliberate speed,' and this was the straw that broke the camel's back, especially in Mississippi."

Klopfer explains a critical murder of a Mississippi minister, Rev. George Lee, took place on May 17, just three months before Till arrived. Lee had been a staunch supporter of civil rights and a local NAACP official who was openly outspoken on voting rights and other issues.

"Till was accompanied to Mississippi on the train with his great-uncle, Moses Wright, only months after Lee's murder. His grandfather was a sharecropper, and Till spent his first days helping with the cotton harvest and household chores.

"He wasn't used to hard labor, so after the first day in the cotton fields, he was sent back to the Wright home to help his aunt tend the family garden and do household chores."

Then on August 24, Till and a group of other teens went to a local grocery store after a day of working in the fields. Some witnesses stated that one of the other boys dared Till to talk to the store's cashier, Carolyn Bryant, a white woman. Reportedly, Till then whistled at, touched the hand or waist of, or flirted with the woman as he was leaving the store.

Klopfer said that when researching the Till story she met one of Till's cousins who confirmed that Till really whistled at Carolyn Bryant. Yet, other relatives have disagreed.

"Whatever the truth, no one told his great-uncle about the incident, and in the early morning hours of August 28, Roy Bryant, the cashier's husband, and J.W. Milam, Bryant's half brother, forced their way into Wright's home and kidnapped Till at gunpoint."

Emmett Till was severely beaten and taken to the banks of the Tallahatchie River, near Glendora, upriver from the village of Money, where he was killed with a single gunshot to the head, according to official accounts. The two men tied the teen's body to a large metal fan with a length of barbed wire before dumping the corpse into the river.

"When his body arrived back home in Chicago, there were photographs in the pages of Jet magazine and the Chicago Defender, and his murder became a rallying point for the civil rights movement," Klopfer said. "Even foreign journalists wrote about this murder. This was a key point in the world-wide coverage of civil rights issues in the United States."

The trial of Till's killers began on Sept. 19, 1955, and from the witness stand Rev. Wright identified the men who had kidnapped Till. "It was significant that a black man would take the stand to identify white men as murderers. Wright's life was in danger at that point."

After four days of testimony and a little more than an hour of deliberation, an all-white, all-male jury (at the time, blacks and women were not allowed to serve as jurors in Mississippi) acquitted Bryant and Milam of all charges.

Protected from further prosecution by double jeopardy statutes, the men were paid for the story by Look magazine and admitted to Till's kidnapping and murder.

Klopfer said her eBook, Who Killed Emmett Till? brings a fresh look to the story.

"I lived in the Mississippi Delta when I wrote this book, very near to where it took place. This gave me a unique opportunity to visit important sites and speak to people who were living there at the time.

"I was able to track down the funeral home employee who cared for Till's body before it was sent home, for instance, and even his story was riveting. He shared with me some facts that had never been published."

Klopfer said she remains amazed at how many people simply don't know about this story, despite its significance in the civil rights movement.

"The story of Emmett Till is still not being taught in many schools, and it is a real shame. It is so important to know about this child, since the story truly represents the violence of what went on in this country before and during the great changes that have come. This was a violence that affected not only adults, but even innocent children.

"So many people died as we went through this period. It is history that must not be forgotten or hidden. Their stories are too important."

Klopfer adds that she likes the idea of putting out 99 cent eBooks. "We are going through a true reading revolution when we can put a book in someone's hands for under a dollar. These are exciting times."

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About Susan Klopfer: Susan moved to the Mississippi Delta in 2003 as the Emmett Till cold case was re-opened by the FBI. Living on the grounds of Parchman Penitentiary due to her husband's employment, a notorious compound with a fascinating history, she had a unique opportunity to take a fresh look at this civil rights ground-breaking event and to meet some of the people who still had the story fresh in their hearts and minds. Susan is an award-winning journalist who was an editor for Prentice Hall. She holds degrees from Hanover College and Indiana Wesleyan University.