Civil Rights Study…
Recently in class we started our civil rights unit… It’s actually really interesting we are learning about Rosa Parks, the KKK, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and so many other things. We are asked to choose three things that we are interested in over the time of this course and do a reflection on it. For my first reflection I chose to do it on Emmett Till. At first I didn’t know how I wanted to present my reflection, a few of my friends did a poem, a few did an explain everything, but I didn’t want to do either of those things. I choose to do a news broadcast as if I were in the time of when the horrible tragedy happened. I created this video with the help of my very best friend Gabi!
First I made a script for the news broadcast, which didn’t take too long…
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Script
Anatolia- Good Morning America, and welcome to ZXY Morning News. The news station that gives you all the updated stories you need to know! I’m Eliza James, and this is Annie Brookes.
Gabi- This morning we received breaking news that arrived to our studio from Money, Mississippi.
Anatolia- That’s right Annie. An young African American boy, who goes by the name of Emmett Till, was lynched and violently beaten after reportedly flirting with a white woman.
Gabi- Young Emmett Till was a Chicago citizen visiting relatives in Money. After making a few remarks to 21-year old Carolyn Bryant in a local corner store, he was abducted from his Great Uncle’s small home, and was reported missing for three days.
Anatolia- Our colleagues Robert Forbes and George Erics are reporting live from Money, Mississippi. Over to you gentlemen…
Gabi- thanks Eliza. Here we are in Money, right after fourteen year old Emmett Till was discovered in the Tallahatchie River.
Anatolia- It was settled that Mrs Bryant’s husband, Roy Bryant, and his half brother J.W Milam, were the kidnappers of the young African-American, when they took him away and beat and mutilated him before shooting him and sinking his body in the River.
Gabi- I am so glad I don’t live down there with all those Negroes, they are just a pain in your butt, can’t they just accept that they will never be treated equal as us. They are filthy and like animals. They need to stay where they belong.
Anatolia- Uh… Ok well…that’s all from us. This is George Erics and Robert Forbes, reporting to you from Mississippi. Back to you Ladies in the studio…
Anatolia- Till’s mother insisted on a public funeral service with an open casket to show the world the harshness of the killing. Her decision focused attention on racism and discrimination towards African Americans in the south. It displayed the extremely inhuman behavior of lynching and other tortious acts that take place.
Gabi- Tens of thousands attended Emmett’s funeral or viewed his casket. Many images of his mutated body were published in magazines or newspapers. At first the public felt sympathy for Emmet and his family but that soon transitioned into giving excuses to Mississippians and the killers.
Anatolia- Mr. Bryant and Mr. Milam were taken to court and were acquitted of the kidnapping and murder after the all white jury deliberated for less than an hour. Soon later Bryant and Milam publicly admitted in an interview with Look magazine that they had killed Till, but we’re not pressed with any charge.
Gabi- Thanks to everyone who tuned into another broadcast from ZXY news, up hope to see you again tomorrow 7am. This is Eliza Jones and Annie Brookes signing off.
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Next I brainstormed what we were going to do during the video, for example, how we were going to make it interesting. And finally we filmed it, which took a long time… Because we all know that when you are with you best friend, you laugh…a lot… Finally we filmed all of it without laughing. Then I edited all the clips to kinda look like it was from the 1950’s.
I chose to answer the question “What did the reactions to the brief interaction between Emmett Till and Carolyn Bryant, the white woman in the store, expose about the social system that supported segregation? Why do you think Till’s actions sparked such violence?” in my video but it was kind of hard to straight up answer the question and still be in character. So I am going to summarize what I was trying to say in my video right here if it wasn’t clear.
I think that what Emmett Till said to Carolyn Bryant really exposed how far people were willing to go to, to keep segregation in their communities. Emmett’s mother had a public funeral to show the world the harshness of the killing, and that is exactly what it did. The news went outside of just Money, Mississippi, and showed other places what terrible things were happening in their neighboring states. I think that the open casket also could have made people feel bad about not doing anything to help this, it might make them look bad if they either didn’t know what was happening around them or they knew what was happening but not to this extent. I think that Tills actions sparked all this violence because every in the town knew that that was bad to stay what Till said to the lady, and then there’s this young boy who comes into town knowing nothing or very little about what is going on in Money, Mississippi, and makes the remark and walks out like nothing is wrong. And the men probably thought that it was just a smartass kid trying to get away with doing something that seemed so wrong to all the whites in the town, and they thought they would just show the kid that what he did is wrong. I definitely don’t think that any of the violence was necessary at all, but i think that what Till’s mother did by having an open casket funeral was the right thing to do.
Enough said… Here is the news broadcast that I made, hope you enjoy!
https://youtu.be/o45EMEw3FPI