May 11, 2004

Till, Then and Now

by Nick Morgan

Remember Emmett Till, the black teenager who was brutally lynched in Mississippi for (apparently) whistling at a white woman in 1955? Although his two murderers have passed away, others may have been involved, possibly in kidnapping him, and the Department of Justice is working with the Mississippi Attorney General to reopen an investigation.

Surely the remaining perpetrators (if any) should be brought to justice, and I support a renewed prosecution for its symbolic value (the "public therapy" view of criminal justice is particularly keen here). Beyond that, what's perhaps most remarkable about this story is the phenomenon of the federal government and a deep-south state cooperating to vindicate the most infamous hate crime in American history. It's worth pausing to note the extraordinary success of the civil rights movement, even if it's still incomplete.

May 11, 2004 09:40 AM | TrackBack
Comments

i cant believe that those me would do something so horrible to Emmett Till! But the thing is...yeah they may not have gotten persicuted here on earth but both of them are dead now and i bet you both of them went to burn in hell!

Posted by: jordan at September 23, 2005 01:33 PM
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