While
the name Simeon Wright is likely not familiar to you, the name Emmett Till
likely is.
Wright is Till’s younger cousin. On August 28, 1955, he was 12 years old, sleeping in his home in rural Mississippi where Till, a 14-year old from Chicago, also slept when two white men came to the front door in the middle of the night. The men abducted Till at gunpoint, drove him away in their pick up truck, beat him, shot him, tied a stolen 70-pound cotton gin fan around his neck and then threw his body in the Tallahatchie River.
Recently, I had the opportunity to listen to Wright tell his story of what exactly happened that night, now almost 60 years ago. Wright not only was in the home when Till was taken, but he was also at Bryant’s Grocery where Till (in Wright's words) whistled as 21-year-old Carolyn Bryant walked past. Bryant was the wife of the man who murdered Till.
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| Mr. Simeon Wright |
Wright told his story in front of about 70 people at the Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Evanston, Illinois. During his 45-minutes at the pulpit of the 121-year-old church, many thoughts raced through my head. I thought of Roy Bryant and his half-brother J.W. Milam being acquitted of murder by an all-white jury and one then year later, protected from double-jeopardy laws that prevent people from being tried for the same crime twice, selling their murder confession story to Look Magazine for about $4,000.
I thought about how Till’s mother, Mamie, insisted on an open casket funeral for her son in Chicago, and how a photograph of the boy’s bloated, disfigured face was published in the paper and made the international news, sparking the Civil Rights Movement. Rosa Parks did not give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus on December 1, 1955 because as she later said, “I thought of Emmett Till, and when the bus driver ordered me to the back, I just couldn’t move.”
Wright has written his account in his book titled, “Simeon’s Story: An Eyewitness Account of the Kidnapping of Emmett Till,” which he wrote with noted journalist, writer and educator Herb Boyd. As I listened to Wright, many images raced through my head. But the one word that kept coming into my head over and over, however, was “video.”
Much has changed over the past 60 years. Over 200 million Americans carry a smart phone today. Most of these devices have a camera and/or video capability. In 1955 movie cameras in homes were extremely rare, but I kept thinking what would have happened back then if a video had been taken of Emmett Till, like we do today of so many violent incidents.
Wright disagrees with many facts assembled that describe what happened with Till in the grocery story and what happened the night he was killed. Police did not interview Wright. Listening to him at the church, I found myself thinking about:
- Eric Garner – choked to death by police in Staten Island, New York in July 2014
- Michael Brown – shot and killed by police in Ferguson, Missouri in August 2014
- Anthony Scott – murdered by a police officer in North Charleston, South Carolina in April 2015
- Freddie Gray – given a fatal “rough ride” by police in Baltimore, Maryland in April 2015
We have all these these videos -- of Gray, Scott, Garner and Brown. What
if that August night in 1955 a neighbor had videotaped Bryant and Milam as they
approached Mose Wright’s house in rural Mississippi? After that ride in their pick up, the men beat
and tortured Till in a shed out back of Milam’s house. They drove to Bryant’s
store with Till’s body rolled up in a tarp in the back. What if video of any of
their violent acts surfaced like we see more and more today in our social media,
mobile internet, cell phone world? Would it have made a difference in the
outcome of the trial? Would it have touched off riots?
Each of today’s situations listed above is different. But each is with white police and black suspects and then victims. The one that stands out to me is the story that North Charleston Police Officer Michael Slager would have told if that video of him shooting Anthony Scott had not been taken and made public.
The video shows Slager shooting Scott multiple times in the back while Scott fled. It then shows him handcuffing Scott – who was likely taking his last breaths. It shows Slager walk about 20 feet, pick up his taser from the ground, walk back to Scott’s body and toss it down next to Scott – setting up the story he would have told about the violent struggle with Scott. Sadly, it likely would have been a story enough people believed to exonerate him. But there was video.
As the congregation at Mt. Zion and Simeon Wright -- the son of a preacher -- know well, John chapter 8 verse 32 says that “...the truth shall set you free.” It's also worth noting that video has an uncanny ability to capture the truth, presenting us the facts (or as much of them as possible). As we know, it’s guilty people who tend to lie.
