Review of "Getting Away With Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case," by Chris Rowe

 Review of

Getting Away With Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case, by Chris Rowe, ISBN 0803728042

Five out of five stars

The murder of a young black that changed things

 Over the years of segregation in the southern states, there were many brutal murders of black people at the hands of whites. The goal of course was that of terror. By maintaining a state of fear in blacks and any whites that showed sympathy for their plight, the forces of segregation were able to maintain their oppressive system. While the murder of Emmett Till was no more brutal than many other killings of blacks, it had a positive effect for change.

 Till was raised in Chicago and was fourteen years old when he traveled to Mississippi to stay with relatives in the summer of 1955. Till was unfamiliar with the extremely repressive culture of no contact between black men and white women in the south, where even a glance at a white woman by a black man was considered an insult punishable by violence. After he made wolfish noises and comments to a white woman, two men tracked Till down and brutally beat him to death.

 This case made national headlines and revolted many white people that began to look favorably at the pursuit of the rights of blacks. It was not a revolutionary movement by any means, but it was a turning point. From the support that northern whites were now giving for black rights, the leaders of the civil rights movement knew that they had some significant support from a group that had begun to look at them with favor.

 This story is told with historical accuracy, from the kidnapping to the murder of Till, the arrest of the two killers and through their trial. Although J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant were acquitted in their trial, they later admitted their guilt and were essentially disavowed by the white society they killed to protect. It is impossible to understand the trials, tribulations and dangers of the civil rights movement as well as the brutal backlash without knowing the story of Emmett Till. This book tells it well at the YA level.

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