Rev. Wheeler Parker | Reckoning with Remembrance: History, Injustice, and the Murder of Emmett Till
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- čas přidán 22. 08. 2024
- Rev. Wheeler Parker, Civil Rights activist and Till family member, shares his experience growing up with Emmett Till and reflects on America in the 1950s compared to today.
In 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till was brutally lynched on a trip to visit family near Money, Mississippi. More than 60 years later, the anti-Black racism that led to Emmett’s murder continues. Today, historical signs that publicly commemorate Emmett are part of an ongoing fight in the United States over which histories are remembered and which are suppressed.
Reckoning with Remembrance: History, Injustice, and the Murder of Emmett Till is co-curated by the National Museum of American History (NMAH) and the Emmett Till Interpretive Center (ETIC) in Sumner, Mississippi. Both NMAH and ETIC are committed to a long-term partnership that creates sustained public reflection on the enduring legacies of anti-Black violence.
For more information about the exhibition visit: americanhistor...
Rev. Wheeler is my cousin and I'm glad he is finally getting the chance to tell the real story of what happened that day.
I can't believe 😪 how calm and forgiven the family is, they were butcher's to emmett I live in UK I wish I could hug them 😢
I’ve been following this story since 1987. It would be an honor to meet him. This was such a tragedy.
I would love to meet emmett s family 👪 and hug them God bless them all
J goff I work in a primary school in nursery in UK 🇬🇧, I hope that this generation will change 🙏 we teach them all to love one another God rest the remaining family stay strong
@@mandyepthorp7 That's why they have no respect for us,we keep forgiving our enemy,I have no respect for the coward that let them take emmit, without a fight.
The world still grieves from the loss of this wonderful young man. He still has an impact on many peoples lives for the better good. He and his mother both brought the world together. When it happened to 1 it happens to all of us. Blacks, white, asian, Hispanic we all feel your pain and stand with you.
AMEN 🙏🏿
Amen so true our hearts ache 💔
It touches us all because we all care and don't have evil in our hearts
@@mandyepthorp7 Just speak for you,you know darn well a lot of these racist would love to do it now,but we have guns now.
I really hate the word Lynch. Emmett Till was brutally murdered by two grown criminals.
Brutally murdered without a trial is usually considered a lynching. You don't have to be hung. During this time, people were dragged behind cars, etc.
Key: he said they never told grandpa what happened at the store if papa would have known he would have hurried up, and got them boys back to Chicago!! R.I.H ET
Grandpa knew he was told in the cotton field he ignored an didn't do..it its more interviews. I think because it's was cotton season an he need all the hands he needed but I knew even thou they didn't tell him elderly ppl told him them whites guys looking for emmitt
@@stephendavis1936 what??
@@stephendavis1936- Wheeler mentioned in another interview that they weren't aware that Mose Wright had been told.
@@stephendavis1936 Thank you. The Black community looked out for each other in those days. My mother also grew up in a small town, your business always gets told. Trust Mr. Moses knew about the incident in Money. Ruthie Mae Crawford who went to Money with Emmett, Maurice, Wheeler, Simon, and her uncle Rutherford said they told Mr. Moses about the store incident and that Emmett needed to go back to Chicago.
They said they told ,Moses Wright...Maybe it's guilt.. they got out alive, an Emmitt died..
Thank you so much for the real story I am so so sorry for ya loss GOD BLESS YOU AND YOUR FAMILY 🙌🏽 we are all still hurting
Still so sad to hear even after all these years!!
Emmett didn't deserve this brutality. He was only a child. How can some heartless people ever do this.
They are still doing it today Systemically in all areas of living. Life
@@tinapinckney8498 yes mam and it's sad.
@@tinapinckney8498 baby
@@tinapinckney8498 true
I just imagine what fear they all went through, God knows what emmett was thinking, suffering
Crying so much God bless them 🙏
He was Just a 14 year old child
Rest in peace Emmett till 😇📖🙏
Emmit has been with Jesus all these years, Glory Glory Halaluia!
This story already hurts, but to hear that Emmett was so tender-hearted as to be inconsolable when they hit the dog broke my heart. It's also so telling when he asks the question on what churches taught in Mississippi and how they could read God's Word and still be so evil. I'm glad I found this video.
Rev Wheeler Parker, for the archives you need to state the next hours, every single second of the days that follow that you can recall need wrote down. Get it done now. 🙏
Because they never were CHRISTians they never did have a relationship with GOD and walk with JESUS, they were just religious there’s a big difference.
One day they’re going to answer for what they did all of them and who knows it may cost them their souls.
Not Christians, synagogue of satan is what they are/were.
I know cannot change what happen but I wish they had told his grandfather what happen and he probably could have sent Emmett back home to his mom but this just what I wish could had happen
Their grandfather knew by Friday. There was alot of talk.
@@blakewilson6252 And what’s even more sad, it didn’t come from Carolyn. It came from the black males who were playing checkers. They sold him out.
@@kmoore5215 Maurice Wright
@@mark9531 Why would Maurice sell his own cousin out? What an anomaly. Especially after he agreed for everyone to remain quiet about it.
@@kmoore5215 Good evening K Moore. This is a long answer. But it is not my words. This is a reporter's interview from 1955
~Crosby Smith was Mose Wright's brother in-law. He lived beside Mose.
~Crosby Smith drove Mose to the Sheriff of Leflore county to report Emmett's abduction.
~Crosby Smith helped get Emmett's body to Chicago
~Crosby Smith was Mamie Till's aunt's husband
Crosby Smith
Forgotten Witness To A Mississippi Nightmare
By David A. Showstak
These are Crosby Smith's words:
Crosby Smith said; "Carolyn did not tell Roy about the incident the following Friday, when he returned from a trip out of town. Perhaps she was fearful of what he might do If he found out, or maybe she thought nothing about It and felt that the whole affair was not worth mentioning"
"Friday afternoon at the store, Maurice Wright, eldest of the youngsters who had been with Emmett Wednesday evening asked Bryant if he had heard what had happened in his store that night. Bryant stated that he hadn't."
"Maurice told Bryant how Emmett had told his wife what a good-looking woman she was,"
"But, he also added a whole lot more to it than there actually was."
"You see. Here was this Chicago boy, dressed in fine clothes and carrying a little money in his pocket. Wearing a ring. I don't think Maurice liked Emmett much, but I don't guess he figured what was going to happen to him, either”
"Mamie Bradley told me that Emmett's Advances toward a white lady had been fabricated. The press never heard the true side of that story"
Mamie Bradley told me "But that youngster who agitated that story to Roy Bryant did It for a half dollar credit at his store."
Thank you so much for the real story
If emmitt would have told his uncle what happened at the store, they could have sent him back to Chicago before the murderers did anything
This was such a horrible and horrific thing that happened to this child all behind her white lie. Yes bring her to justice ⚖️ let her spend the rest of life behind bars and if not God will definitely deal with her accordingly. She's supposed to be living in Raleigh North Carolina
Keep THIS STORY EVENT …. ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hi I grew up in that area of Mississippi from Lambert and when he said they hung two people down the street I said oh my God I have a old 1934 news paper clipping with the two guys that got hung which the two guy was lynched It happen in Quitman county for attempting to rape a plantation wife in sledge Mississippi but they was arrested in Greenwood Mississippi and was to be transported back to Clarksdale Mississippi but instead they was carried to a railroad trestle and was hanged .smh I grew up in these places and always wonder why my dad would get very mad when we would go play when i was in my early childhood. I really which somebody could shine some light on the monsters!!!!Rest in peace Mr. Joe Love and Mr. Isaac Thomas just one day shall be served.
Probably not the same people that Wheeler mentioned. That was 20 years earlier. If I'm not mistaken, the author of "The Blood of Emmett Till" mentioned that two boys had been lynched not too long before Emmett.
The men you're talking about lynched for trying to rape a plantation owner's wife? It's doubtful that they tried to rape her. So many innocent looks, gestures, maybe touching her by mistake may warrant that accusation during that time.
I grew up in Clarksdale!! I am familiar with all of the places you mentioned in your post. My mother was only 5 when Emmett was murdered and she says she vividly remembers when it happened because it was all that people were talking about
Good afternoon lannie. You said; "carried to a railroad trestle and was hanged"
That was June of 1934. The two men were Isaac Thomas and Joe Love. A mob of about 125 overtook the Sheriff of Quitman County and 2 deputies.
They didn't want to let him go because of what they thought could happen to him. 💔 😢
My guess it was because he had personality and was likeable around his Chicago neighborhood. Also liked to joke around a lot where he was from. In the 50’s you couldn’t have a same confidence and swag in the SOUTH like u could up north. It could get you killed. Poor Emmett just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. 🤦🏾♀️😭
@@dejstoney it deeply saddens me when I think of how everything happened. I've been thinking about him for 30 years now. I hope and pray nothing like this ever happens to someone's child ever again.
@@dejstoney Thank you. You said it perfectly. Emmett had confidence and swag and racists HATE a confident Black person.
My question: Who told Roy Bryant and his brother who Emmitt was and where he lived? It had to be someone who knew Emmitt.
Nobody ever reveals this part of the story.
Exactly
Look at the comment from Ethel Hughes-Wynn
a year ago.
Maybe the blacks who worked for Carolyn's husband
First of all, his name was "Emmett", not "Emmitt". Roy found out about Emmett sexually assaulting Carolyn, when he overheard the boys Emmett had been with bragging about it in town. Carolyn refused to identify Emmett to Roy, because she knew Roy was a racist Democrat, and she didn't want anything to happen to Emmett. Roy and J.W. drove out to the house where Emmett was staying, and Emmett identified HIMSELF to Roy.
EMMITT did not sexually molest anybody. Some people say he whisled at Carolyn Bryant, some say he didn't even do that. Whatever the case, he didn't deserve to be tortured and murdered.
I cannot even begin to wrap my mind around killing a child for any reason but for something like this? You would think something in their mind or soul would have said wait a second here
I’m mad many people actually considered 14 as old as 18 back then especially when they thought u were sexually active or coercive with females. Regardless, Emmett was innocent and didn’t hurt a fly!!!
Your family are so pure,God bless you all
Bryant and milam thought they were God, I’m glad they had misery after that
UNBELIEVABLE TRAGEDY...How could people be so cruel?? The woman,and ANYONE remotely involved should be jailed! I cannot believe that this travesty has taken this many years to resurface!
Democrats founded the KKK. Emmett Till was murdered by two Democrats. You support the Democrats. Does that mean YOU should be jailed?
Think about this : if there is no Emmett till death there is no Rosa Parks. If there is no Rosa Parks there is no Martin Luther King. For the very reason Rosa Parks didn't give up her seat on the bus was because she was thinking about Emmett Till...... God is in control.
God is the one who sat by and let him be tortured. I'll pass on him. If he's so powerful, he doesn't have to allow any of this type of stuff to happen. If he is the author and the finisher, he could use that same authority to make the world a better place. I don't want to hear that his ways are not our ways bs either. If he did exist, he's a terrible entity.
Ma’am or sir, I don’t blame you for your remarks, you’re only being honest. However, God allowed his only begotten son Jesus to be murdered in the most horrific way possible that you and I can have an opportunity to live. It’s about believing. We’ve all been where you are now. Ignorant to the truth. I’m praying for you my brother/sister!!
@@bizeebee98- There is evil in the world. That's why God says "Man ought to always pray..." He allows evil acts sometimes to get our attention or for good to ultimately prevail. I can't say for sure why Emmett suffered as he did, but I do know that Rosa Parks thought about Emmett when she refused to give up her seat on the bus. That ignited the civil rights movement and the rest is history. You see, God doesn't cause evil, but he can use it (for the good).
@@tbwms3243 what, exactly, does prayer accomplish? His mom and whole family prayed for his safety before he left and what good did that do?
@@cewmusicman1836 the irony of a Christian calling someone ignorant.
They were NOT good Christian people. That's the point.
The white man not Christian nothing point blank.
@@hitman9723 exactly
Im in my 40’s and im still in shock and awe about how my people were treated during those heinous and atrocious times. We are walking miracles because truth be told, there’s no way our ancestors were meant to survive such physical, emotional, psychological, financial, mental, sexual and spiritual trauma and perversion but for the will of God. What he said about those folks are supposed to Christians… That (as well as others devious things about the faith) is the exact reason I abandoned the religion. No way in hell i was gonna continue to be apart of a religion that was forced on my ancestors and espoused by my oppressors. Caucasian never gave us anything for our good so why would them giving us their version of Christianity be any different. God blees this man and his family for all their days
I'm in my 40s, grew up in Clarksdale, Mississippi, about a 30 minute drive from Money, MS. I heard about Emmett Till all of my life. My mother was 5 when Emmett was murdered and she says she vividly remembers when it happened because it was like black people in the area were on high alert. She says when he was found, they were picking cotton and someone came and got my grandfather and then everyone left the fields. She said my grandfather was so angry and upset and my grandmother was trying to calm him down. Times were really bad for black people back then. So fast forward about 16-17 years later, my mother is a brand new nurse, working in the hospital in Clarksdale. She has a patient, a white man, and my mother said this guy was so racist and hateful you could almost feel the hate radiating from him. He didn't want a black nurse to touch him, so my mom left his room. A lady from the housekeeping department asked my mom did she know who her patient was. She replied, Mr. Bryant". The housekeeper told her that is Roy Bryant, one of the men who killed Emmett Till!! My mother said she was stunned!! This man was sick and dying with cancer and he was just as mean and hateful as ever!! He was knocking on death's door and and his heart was so cold, you could put it in your cup and have ice water!!! RIP Emmett!! We will NEVER FORGET YOU!!
He had a cat 🐱. He cried over a dead dog 🐕. How could they murder and torture such a sweet little boy?!
He did have feelings for animals i respect him for that
Mutilated and tortured for just making a funny sound as a kid?
So frustrating THEY ARE NOT CHRISTIANS!!!!! What's wrong with my ppl?? They still don't get it we continue to parish for the lack of knowledge 🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️
What I don't understand is if the uncle knew how bad Mississippi was why did he invite those young boys to visit him? It makes no sense to me.
No one would understand cause I know my parents would not let us go that far they had a problem with us going across the street
@John T I second that
Black people can endure alot !!!!
Guess what Derrick. What I don’t understand IS WHY THE WHITES IN MISSISSIPPI WERE SO DERANGED THAT THEY THOUGHT FOR EVEN A SECOND THAT ANY IF THIS IS OK?!
Wheeler (the man speaking) was from there. So he knew how to conduct himself. Also, the south was livable for blacks back then. They just wouldn’t do certain things that were considered disrespectful to their white counterparts.
Lord Jesus .... They were horrible
I agree with Reverend Wheeler. It’s hard to believe that this was the United States. It’s still pretty backwards in Mississippi in my experience.
They never told their grandfather. But other people did..
Exactly. That’s how it got back to Roy Bryant. A lot of ppl assumed Carolyn instigated all of this over the years but she really hadn’t.
@@kmoore5215 it's true, Carolyn didn't tell Roy about the incident, someone else at the store that day told. However Carolyn lied on the stand when she said Emmett grabbed her hand, asked her for a date, told her she didn't have to be afraid of him because he had effed white women before. That was all made up to try to justify what was done to poor Emmett!! He did whistle, but all of that other stuff was a filthy lie and over 50 years later, she admitted that she made it up!!
@@rucianapollard4057 Yea, she was forced by her estranged husband. She knew her account was more like a character witness statement and couldn’t be used against her especially with her not being under oath and testifying without a jury present
🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾
I don't think anyone will get it right. Carolyn Bryant Donham keeps changing her story, depending upon her disposition, and the boys who accompanied Emmett either didn't hear or observe everything because they weren't around him 100 percent of the time; otherwise, the boys would have said it in 1955.
Ruthie Crawford, who was looking in the window when Emmett went into the store says that the only thing she saw that was a problem was that Emmett placed his money in Carolyn Bryant hand and not on the counter as was customary in the south between black and white people. She said he did not speak to her, simply paid for his bubble gum and left. After he came outside was when someone said she was going to get a gun out of her car, that Emmett whistled then all of the kids ran to the car and they drove off. Everyone at the store that day all said that he DID whistle at Carolyn Bryant and they didn't know why, no one dared him to do so, he was trying to make everyone laugh, not realizing how serious things were. Even though the events of that day are over 50 years ago, I think everyone there that day vividly remembers what happened. It was a "watershed moment" for them, like, where were you when Kennedy was assassinated, or where were you on 9/11. That's something you don't forget!
@@rucianapollard4057 Everything you have said is correct.
why are we hated so much and we where the ones beat killed my God this world is evil
all I can say is God knows and I doint believe we go through this for nothing God will take care of it because it has to be a reason one race atleast the African Americans are hated every where so 💔
@@angelacrutcher2308 - You're right; God does know. He allows everything for a reason. Sometimes we don't immediately understand it.
God will avenge any wrongs in His own time. You can count on it.
What happened to Emmett was a generational curse operating in his blood line. His father also died the same way.
Esau vs Jacob
If there were two boys from Chicago in the house, how did they know it was Emmett who did the "talking"?
Rick cause Emmitt spoke up n said it was him.
@@derricknregina No he didn't.
Carolyn Bryant confirmed it was him when they got outside. The uncle heard it and has told that story a few times.
He was described as the fat kid from Chicago. Emmit apparently was the only 1 overweight between the 2 of them.
Mose (Emmett’s uncle) pointed him out
Leslie Milam was jw Milam brother...
Leslie Milam participated in Emmett's murder and confessed on his deathbed that he had been involved in the murder and that it had been eating away at his heart for years.
Why did the family let those intruders leave with Emmett?? They knew once Emmett left that house it was a good chance that he wouldn’t be back. The family should have fought them off regardless if they had a gun or not. I’m sure the grandfather had a gun too.
"The family should have fought them off"
The "family" consisted of teenaged boys from 12-16 years old. The wife, Elizabeth 64 year old. And Mose Wright, 64 year old, 5 feet 3 inches tall.
___________________________
"I’m sure the grandfather had a gun too."
Yes. A single shot shot gun. And birdshot shells. They would have had to find the shotgun. And then find the shells. Birdshot would not even go through the windshield of a car.
_________________________________
The lynch mob was 6 grown young men with two .45 automatics and a shotgun.
are you really that lost? they were a differant kind of black folks in 1950 no more though they were not that far removed from being slaves please read your history on racist america
His great aunt and uncle tried talking them out of taking Emmett, offered them money, and tried to compromise. They were also concerned about the safety of their other children and nephews. They had little to no time to think clearly, but did all they could at the time.
And who would they tell? The sheriff? How’s gonna help. They were petrified. Poor things.
U hit a dog and u didn't even stop what kind of religous people are u. Emmett was the only one who cared
We pass thousand of laws in this country just to enforce 10 Commandments.
EMETT. SECOND CUSIN Said. THE.
BISHOP. SON. Bought. EMET. TO.
THE. LORD. BE. FORE. .HE. WENT. TO
MISSISSIPPI. HE. Except. THE. LORD
AND. THA TS. A. BLESS ING
I don't see how things have changed much, the cops (the bad ones) does about the same.
Today.
Pardoned my English I’m a native woman
" people have been killed for reckless eyeball." What foolishness.
Psalm 7:11 God is a righteous judge, And God is angry with the wicked every day.
We must never forget what happened.
O
Rev. Wheeler Parker knows more than he's telling...was it Emmett or Wheeler that the husband was looking for...⁉️
You think Emmett was covering for Wheeler?
@@bizeebee98 I think Wheeler threw Emmett under the bus, because they went to his bedroom first...
@@drummajor but everyone in the family, including other eye witnesses, said it was Emmett who had the interaction with Carolyn?
@@bizeebee98 that's the story Rev. Wheeler and his Uncle Simeon tell. But they also say that the husband was looking for the boy from Chicago who was doing " all of that talking". They said nothing about whistling...🙃
@@drummajor correct. That still doesn't confirm it wasn't Emmett. Others who were there (not family) said it was him too. Also, they took him out to the car to be identified and the person confirmed he was the right one. Other boys in town were accosted but then let go once it was determined they weren't the "right boy."
I mean Roy was defending his wife honor I think everybody has blame to go around they should have just rough him up a little bit to let him know what he did was wrong but they did go a bit too far
Defending his wife honor over a whistle stop it from a harmless 14 little boy really
@@lauratriplett1841 he tried to rape her he grabbed her arm you just got to understand reality you just didn't do that if you were black in Mississippi in 1955 it was suicide he was old enough to know better but they did go a bit too far they should have just roughed him up a little bit to let him know what he did was wrong they did go a bit too far by killing him I'm white I have a beautiful white wife I put her on a pedestal I would be pretty upset if someone whistled at her can't say what I would do but I would be upset I would probably rough him up pretty bad and plus Roy had to do something it was a black man that worked for him and Carolyn if he would have kept his stupid mouth shut nothing would have ever came of it Carolyn didn't even tell Roy about it the whole thing would have died because stupid black man had to run his mouth he is really the one that got him killed
@@johnwest7463 sir, you should be absolutely ashamed of yourself for the asinine comment you just posted!
@@rucianapollard4057 well the story I got it probably wouldn't have went this far if that black man that work for the Bryant's had not run his stupid mouth and kept things going Carolyn Bryant just dismissed it and when her husband heard about her he wasn't really going to do anything about it but then the black man run his mouth his brother got wind of it and it just went from there happens all the time not to just black people one answer that I knew about happened when I was growing up guy got something started ended up three people dead
Its so crazy this was all caused by a whistle, all these peoples lives were changed and history was made due to one bad decision on Emmetts part. Its just amazing to me that one small thing can change history.