Emmett Louis Till, Emmett Louis Till. You may vaguely recall the name from a past history class, or maybe not at all. Yet over twenty years ago, a ten-year-old Keith Beauchamp was told about the Emmett Louis Till story, and from that point forward, Keith has never forgotten.
With the start of Black History Month this past Thursday, February 3, the Black Students’ Alliance invited filmmaker Keith Beauchamp, 33, to speak in DCC 308. He produced the recently completed documentary film The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till. This RPI event consisted of a showing of his not yet released 90-minute documentary, followed by a question and answer section with Beauchamp.
Through the interviews, pictures, and footage from the 1950s, Beauchamp’s ‘labor of love’ wove the events together that led up to and pertained to what happened to Emmett Louis Till.
And just who is Emmett Louis Till? Before there was a Martin Luther King Jr. or even a Rosa Parks, there was a 14-year-old boy named Emmett Till in 1955.
Till was an African American from Chicago who was visiting family in the southern state of Mississippi. When in Money, Mississippi, Till, who did not fully understand that he was breaking an unwritten Jim Crow law, whistled at a caucasian Mrs. Bryant.
A few days later at night, Till was taken from his home by two armed men, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, never to return home again. He was later found in the Tallahatchie River barb wired to a cotton-machine fan. He had been axed and shot in the head. The kidnappers were arrest and tried for the murder of Till, but were quickly acquitted by an all-white-male jury. The two men later confessed to killing Till to a reporter from Look Magazine for $4000.
The story could have ended there, but Mamie Till-Mobley, Till’s mother, had his coffin open at his funeral. As explained in the documentary, Till-Mobley wanted Till to die a hero and show that words could not describe the crushing effects of the racism of those times. Till’s death was the catalyst that mobilized the civil rights movement. Within three months of Till’s death, the Montgomery bus boycott had begun.
During the question and answer section, Beauchamp explained to the audience how he promised the late Till-Mobley that he would reopen the Till case. Indeed, he was a catalyst to something far greater than he expected.
After being stopped by an undercover police officer in high school for dancing with a caucasian girl and having the Till case resurface in his life, Beauchamp passionately spent nine years of his life obtaining information about the Emmett Louis Till case. Through Beauchamp’s reinvestigation of all the evidence from the murder and related trial, in May 2004, the US Department of Justice finally reopened the 50-year-old murder case.
Sadly, Till-Mobley, who passed away in January 2004, was not there to see the result of her and Beauchamp’s efforts. However, Beauchamp admits he has fulfilled the promise he gave to Till-Mobley.
Fast forwarding to the present, the main topic of Beauchamp’s presentation was “The Importance of the Civil Rights: Where Does It Stand Today?” As he spoke of Mississippi now and then, he admitted there has not been much change. African Americans are still working the cotton fields of that time, and schools are still segregated. He has even been confronted by those who wanted to “let the sleeping dogs lie” and have this story be forgotten, and those still in Mississippi that are scared to tell him what they know about the case.
“We must never forget those who paved the way and our history, otherwise I am positive history will repeat itself. We are still fighting, and the Civil Rights movement is still continuing to this day,” Beauchamp said. As one person, Beauchamp was able to easily get information from state governments and documents from the FBI.
As an individual, he has made a significant impact to correct the wrongs of the past. “It was amazing—from the moment I picked him up at the airport, I could sense he will become synonymous to other civil rights leaders from the past,” commented Cameron McLean, coordinator of student activities of the Union.
Beauchamp has been given the chance to speak at many universities, the FBI, and even in front of world leaders at the United Nations. Through his documentary of the life of Till and Till-Mobley, Beauchamp is on a mission to enlighten the coming generations. He wants to bring awareness to young people today through knowing their past, as well as help them bring improvements in the future.
As the Till case resumes, Beauchamp’s work will prosecute the people involved in Till’s murder.
To learn more about Keith Beauchamp, you can go to his website, http://www.humanarts.org.
