Mississippi Trial, 1955: Chapters 8–11

He got me a man’s job unloadin’ freight barges that come down the Yazoo.

From what I hear lately, it’ll do R.C. some good going fishing with a nice boy like you. If nothing else, it’ll keep him out of mischief.

I backed out the driveway and turned onto Cotton Street just as Ronnie Remington was crossing in front of us on his way to the courthouse. He moved slowly, his head down, oblivious to us.

Ronnie looked terrified when he recognized R.C., and he wobbled as quickly as he could to the sidewalk while R.C. whooped and catcalled.

A couple years ago, every time I’d catch me a carp, I’d slice its gut open and leave it in their mailbox.

Some sappy old farmer probably picked him up and give him a feedbag or something to cover up with.

The lush green of the Delta and the heavy damp smell from the fields helped me get my mind on something other than R.C’s bullying.

All my serious thinking ended when a rock ricocheted off the tree just above my head.

“Woo-ee, Hiram boy! You in a trance or what? I coulda snuck up on you, slit your throat, swiped your lunch, and drove away in your truck without you even knowin’ it.”

He slogged through the shallow water and onto the riverbank.

Emmett staggered back a step but didn’t shut up.

“I’ve had enough of your uppityness.”

Emmett thrashed and twisted his head from side to side, and R.C. threw the fish carcass into the river so he could use one hand to hold Emmett’s head still and the other to hold the guts over Emmett’s mouth and nose.

Grampa could tell I was upset, and before I could slip upstairs to sulk in my room, he said, “Hiram, let’s go set in the living room and you can tell me what’s eating you. Ever since you got home from fishing, you’ve looked more miserable than a crawdad in a stew pot.”

But one thing’s sure: He doesn’t have the brains or the gumption to do anything much worse than what he did today.

For one, it was an ocean away, foreigners hurting and killing other foreigners, and the Nazis weren’t Americans; they didn’t have the principles of freedom and democracy that we had.

Greenwood’s dead quiet at night, and as I walked along River Road, the only thing I heard except for the buzz of the summer locusts and the sound of an occasional car or truck, was the soft flow of the Yazoo River down below the sidewalk.

He used to be just ornery, but lately he’s been worse than that, almost like he’s trying to get into trouble or trying to prove something.

We weren’t talking, but I could feel his love and acceptance. More than anything, more than even my next breath, I wanted to stay there at his side, to bask in the warmth of the morning sun and the security of his affection.

On the way home Grampa said, “You’re still looking glummer than a lost puppy, son. Tell you what. We’ll have dinner tonight at the Crystal Grill to cheer us up. No better place in the Delta for a good meal and good company.”

He’d badger me all week to take him fishing on Saturday morning.

“I’ll tell you, son, that’s one family trait I wish hadn’t been passed on. There’s lots in you that you, your daddy, or I can’t do a thing about, but this is something you can change. And believe me, a good relationship between a father and his son is worth it. It’s worth more than you can know.”

Splashed across the front page was the headline: “Chicago Negro Youth Abducted by Three White Men at Money.”

Deputy Sheriff John Edd Cothran and Deputy Sheriff Ed Weber went to the scene and carried Mose Wright, uncle of the youth, along in order to make identification of the body. It was brought back to Greenwood and turned over to the Century Burial Association, local Negro undertakers.

Three white men and a woman took the boy from his uncle’s home early Sunday after the boy allegedly made “ugly remarks” to a white woman.

The State of Mississippi, and Leflore and Tallahatchie counties in particular, have been brought into the focus of national attention within the past few days as a result of the brutal murder of Emmett Louis Till, a 14-year-old Chicago Negro boy. This deplorable incident has made our section the target of unjustifiable criticism, thoughtless accusations, and avenging threats.

The NAACP has only revealed again its blindness and injustice in charging that “Mississippi has decided to maintain white supremacy by murdering children,” and that “the killers of the boy felt free to lynch him because there is in the entire state no restraining influence, not in the state capital, among the daily newspapers, the clergy, nor any segment of the so-called better citizens.”

From its headquarters in New York it has charged every citizen of the state with being an accomplice in the crime.

On the basis of one murder it has judged the character, honor, and integrity of the entire population.

The citizens of this area are determined that the guilty parties shall be punished to the full extent of the law and that justice shall be administered irrespective of the color of the victim or the criminals.

The greatest enemies of this justice are the outside groups and individuals who chill the flames of indignation aroused by such crimes by wholesale and indiscriminate accusations against the law-abiding and justice-loving people of our state.

The greatest enemies of this justice are the outside groups and individuals who chill the flames of indignation aroused by such crimes by wholesale and indiscriminate accusations against the law-abiding and justice-loving people of our state.

If they’re as concerned about this matter as they claim, then let them judge the evidence in the case and cease using the case as manufactured evidence to wage war against segregation.

The people of Mississippi are no more responsible for this tragic murder and no more condone it than the people of New York, or any other state, are responsible for and condone murders committed there, but every decent and respectable citizen of this state will assume his or her responsibility for seeing that justice is administered through the courts of law and that guilty parties shall pay for their crime.

We can’t be blamed for the sorry actions of a couple local hotheads who haven’t got an ounce of common sense between them. Those boys being from Mississippi shouldn’t condemn the whole lot of us.