Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed America
By:
Mamie Till-Mobley Christopher Benson
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Description:
There are many heroes of the civil rights movement—men and women we can look to for inspiration. Each has a unique story, a path that led to a role as leader or activist. Death of Innocence is the heartbreaking and ultimately inspiring story of one such hero: Mamie Till-Mobley, the mother of Emmett Till—an innocent fourteen-year-old African-American boy who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and who paid for it with his life. His outraged mother’s actions galvanized the civil rights movement, leaving an indelible mark on American racial consciousness.
Mamie Carthan was an ordinary African-American woman growing up in 1930s Chicago, living under the strong, steady influence of her mother’s care. She fell in love with and married Louis Till, and while the marriage didn’t last, they did have a beautiful baby boy, Emmett.
In August 1955, Emmett was visiting family in Mississippi when he was kidnapped from his bed in the middle of the night by two white men and brutally murdered. His crime: allegedly whistling at a white woman in a convenience store. His mother began her career of activism when she insisted on an open-casket viewing of her son’s gruesomely disfigured body. More than a hundred thousand people attended the service. The trial of J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant, accused of kidnapping and murdering Emmett (the two were eventually acquitted of the crime), was considered the first full-scale media event of the civil rights movement.
What followed altered the course of this country’s history, and it was all set in motion by the sheer will, determination, and courage of Mamie Till-Mobley—a woman who would pull herself back from the brink of suicide to become a teacher and inspire hundreds of black children throughout the country.
Mamie Till-Mobley, who died in 2003 just as she completed this memoir, has honored us with her full testimony: “I focused on my son while I considered this book. . . . The result is in your hands. . . . I am experienced, but not cynical. . . . I am hopeful that we all can be better than we are. I’ve been brokenhearted, but I still maintain an oversized capacity for love.” Death of Innocence is an essential document in the annals of American civil rights history, and a painful yet beautiful account of a mother’s ability to transform tragedy into boundless courage and hope.
Publisher: Random House
Release Date: 2003-10-07
Customer Review: 5 out of 5
No Words to Describe It! - This book has to rank right up there with the best autobiographies of the last 100 years, next to Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela, and others. Mamie Till and Benson were a perfect team and together her and Emmett's story is so moving because she has made it so real. They come off as such everyday people but then Emmett seemed so extraordinary for a boy of his time as well. The book is many things but one thing it is not is this: Mamie is not asking for your pity, your sympathy, or even your donations. She is simply telling her story. Yet, as she tells her story one cannot help but feel all of those emotions along with it. It is such an enjoyable read about the incredible bond between a mother in son that you will hardly dwell on the awful crime that was committed aganist this young man.
Customer Review: 5 out of 5
GREAT BOOK TO FIND INFO INDEPTH INFO ON WHAT HAPPENED TO EMMETT TILL - WHEN I HEARD ABOUT THE DEATH OF EMMETT TILL IT WAS ABOUT 4 YEARS AGO EVEN THOUGH THE MURDER HAPPENED OVER FORTY YEARS AGO. I READ ABOUT IT IN AN ISSUE OF "JET" MAGAZINE. JUST WITH READING ONE ARTICLE I HAD TO GET THE FULL STORY ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED. THATS WHEN I PURCHASED "DEATH OF INNOCENCE". THE BOOK IS A FIRST HAND LOOK AT WHAT REALLY HAPPENED FROM BEGINNING TO END. IT IS WRITTEN BY EMMETT'S MOTHER MAMIE TILL MOBLEY. SHE SHARES HER HEART FELT STORY. THIS BOOK WILL TUG AT YOUR EMOTIONS, BECAUSE YOU WILL BE ABLE TO FEEL THE ANGER, SADNESS, FRUSTRATION AND MANY OTHER EMOTIONS SHE FELT WHILE GOING THROUGH SUCH A HORRIFIC EVENT . THIS IS A GREAT BOOK THAT I WOULD RECOMMENED TO ANYONE LOOKING TO GET MORE INFO ON THE EMMIT TILL MURDER AND THE CASE THAT FOLLOWED.
Customer Review: 5 out of 5
The murder of a young boy - This is one of the saddest books I have ever read. The fact those two evil beasts got away with it is appalling. The fact they apparently did not bother repenting of the crime is even worse. Had they no remorse at all (one wonders the same of the jury and others involved with the csae, including the odious Sheriff Strider)? I wonder how it was for them on their deathbeds...did they suffer? One would hope they did...at the least, perhaps the spirit of Emmett Till came to them in their last hour of life and frightened the wits out of them the way even God's wrath on Judgment day did not appear to. I have never been to Mississippi and never shall, and am in the middle of writing a novel that concerns this tragic moment in the pitiful history of my people here in these United States of America.
Customer Review: 5 out of 5
A Story Poignantly Told In The Voice of A Loving Mother - Mother Mamie Till-Mobley will forever be remembered as a paragon of love, forgiveness, and indomitable strength. This moving memoir was told as only a mother could tell it with both tenderness and the maternal fervor that is so distinctly and universally "Mother." She paints for the reader a portrait of who Emmett was from the time of his birth up to his brutal death, and beyond. For the manner in which this 14-year-old boy was murdered so affected the consciousness of this nation that Emmett became a symbol of how hatred and racism in America not only doesn't exempt Black children, but demonstrates that they are so disposible as human beings that crimes against them go unpunished. The Emmett Till tragedy will forever serve as a shameful commentary on race relations in America, and how the sin of racism has left a permanent stain on the very flag that we say represents "liberty and justice for all."
Mother Mobley gives the reader delicious slices of her own backstory: her close relationship with her mother, her religious upbringing, and the demise of her first marriage (to Louis Till, Emmett's father), and subsequent marriage to Gene Mobley. The book draws you into the life of Mamie Till-Mobley and her family; the love and dedication shown to her by her own mother is almost tangible. The essence of who she was comes off the page. Throughout the pages you can sense her warmth, gentleness, and her strength. From the very beginning of the book, the reader gets to know Mamie as a woman of great strength and stoicism for early on her husband, Louis Till, was lynched while on a tour of duty in the U.S. Army. She goes on to raise her son alone for a season, teaching him responsibility and strict moral values. He turns out to be an obedient and responsible son who loves and respects his mother and grandmother.
The most moving passage was when Emmett's body is shipped back to Chicago. Mother Mobley along with members of the Black clergy, go to Union Station to retrieve her son's remains. She describes in detail the look of the ghastly box that held her 14-year-old baby; the awful stench that emanated from the box; and the emotion that she felt during this horrible juncture. You could feel the wrenching agony of this mother's soul when she describes her screams at the sight of the terrifying box that held her child. She, the funeral director, and her other relatives were ordered by Mississippi law officials not to open the box or there would be consequences. Naturally, this mother ignores this insane command vowing to pry the box open herself if need be. Once Emmett's body arrives at A.A. Raynor Funeral Parlour, Mother Mobley (against the strict admonition of law authorities)meticulously examines the body of her son. So grotesque were his remains, the funeral director suggested a closed casket service. However, Mother Mobley insists that her son's battered and monstrously bloated body be put on display for the world to see. She decribes how she started the examination of Emmett at his toes, and inch by inch she painstakingly worked her way up his thighs, middle, chest, ears one of which had been cut off, his pertruding tongue, and eventually to his enormously swollen head. She decribes his knees with reminisces of how they had been when he was an infant. She decribes her relief that his manhood hadn't been severed for castration was the all-too-familiar calling card of a lynch mob. She exercises grace and modesty when she examines his private parts, explaining how "Emmett would have a fit if he knew [she] was looking at him like this." She had such a connection to her son that even while examining his corpse, she respected his privacy as would any other mother of her adolescent son.
Mamie Till-Mobley's story takes the reader on a journey of love, tragedy, and forgiveness. This woman's faith is evident in the pages of this book. She relies on her faith and is able to forgive the vicious beasts who mutilated her boy. She forgives a country and a justice system that not only acquitted these killers, but reprehensibly subjected her to ridicule and various indignities during that farce they called a trial. And she forgives a president who shows cold indifference when she turns to him for help after having exhausted all legal channels trying to get justice for Emmett. Her strength knew no boundaries. In her later years she dedicated herself to mothering the children of others by first becoming a public school teacher, serving as a church mother in her local church, and establishing a drama group for children. She traveled the country speaking out against hatred and violence. Her healing came through the avenue of giving and not allowing this tragedy, painful as it was, to cause her to withhold her love. She never gave up the fight to get justice for her son; she was in her eighties when she departed this life in January 2003, and she fought for Emmett until the very end. She showed the tenacity and the depth of a mother's love--a love so great, only God's is greater. She was a remarkable woman--a remarkable mother. This was a remarkable story.
Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Heartbreaking but wonderfully written. - Mamie Till Mobley is the mother of the Civil Rights Movement. I wish I had been able to give her a hug. This book should be required reading in every History class. I hope that the recent exhumation of Emmett's body will find evidence to bring some kind of justice to this most horrific tragedy.
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