Thursday, November 15, 2012

Mourning Reconstruction, Mourning Emmett Till

I always saw the story of Emmett Till's murder as the epitome of all Reconstruction's shortcomings.  While Southern industry made strong moves to catch up with the Northern economy, it did so by reasserting white supremacy over society.  What is worse is that the federal government, wrapped up in economic woes, westward expansion, and imperialistic development, did nothing to protect the civil rights of African Americans.

Till's story also brings us full circle, in the sense that it raises the issue of freedom, and the way that it applies to modern America.  In the 19th century, it was clear that freedom was not an absolute right awarded to all Americans because of the number of bodies that were deemed as property by the federal government.  By 1955, the year of Till's murder, one would think that freedom would expand to all those protected by the 14th Amendment.  But it did not.  Till's violated body, that his mother insisted upon showing to the world, displays the degree to which black Americans were still not given the freedom that Reconstruction policies had promised them.

As we leave this unit behind us, we must consider what freedom actually is.  While slavery is over, the ability of the federal government to grant equal rights to all citizens seems to be a continuing battle.  The government's conception of freedom will change in our next unit to the idea of economic equality and what happens when capitalism is in crisis.

So why should we mourn Emmett?  In what ways does his death demonstrate the degree to which the federal government conceptualizes natural rights by the mid 20th century? What went wrong?

12 comments:

  1. There is just no explanation for things like this. For someone to take this kind of action is beyond me. Emmett symbolizes a figure of innocence murdered for no reason only due to the color of his skin. I guess freedom really isn't free. Just because you are protected by the law obviously does not mean you have the freedom to live your life without the worry of being discriminated or in this case: killed. I think we still mourn Emmet because his story is a striking example of the realization that that no matter how much our government can try to improve and protect our rights as humans, we will never be completely safe from harm.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think Emmet Till is mourned because he was an innocent representation of how African Americans were still not free. Not only do we mourn his death, but we also look at his mother's bravery and willingness to show everyone what racism did to her son. The government honestly could care less about natural rights of African Americans. Black people were still seen as inferior to white people. It is even more horrifying that still today these kinds of things happen. A perfect example is Trayvon Martin.

    ReplyDelete
  3. i think that the story of Emmett symbolizes the racial hatred in the country, especially the south. This was a young, smart, black man whose life was cut sort for having different color skin and being the target of these white supremacists. I think that this act truly symbolizes that fact that the reconstruction era just didn't fail in rebuilding the south or helping the soldiers and the people get back to their live, but failed in properly establishing the Black community as one that is prosperous and one that can contribute to the the nation as a whole. i dont think we mourn the loss of Emmett as much as we did in the past but look at the sacrifice of his life as the start of a movement that has taken this country to new heights. that has taken this country from being segregated to being completely unified in most of the country.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I also agree that Emmett Till's murder was the "epitome of all Reconstruction's shortcomings. We, Americans as well as people from other countries, should mourn this tragedy because of its cruelty and immorality; how could this have happened? The article even states, sadly, that “no matter what long bloody trail led to Emmett’s death, the boy’s body annihilates the white racist panic of miscegenation, and in a moment of shattering silence the southern lie, the chivalrous storytelling ceases to exit.” The death of Emmett doesn't appear to demonstrate the government's alterations for racial equality, although that was the case. Rather, it demonstrates what can potentially happen behind closed doors, despite this whole "reconstruction" ordeal.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I agree with Nicki when she said that you cannot live without fear just because you are considered free by law. There were still plenty of people who opposed pro-slavery policies at this time who were willing to do horrific things to black people in order to display these beliefs eg. KKK.
    In terms of Till's murder, well it was clearly a point in history where people can see the change in attitudes between the northern white people and the southern people at this time period.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Like we have said so many times in class, if your free, your still not really free. That is exactly what happens here, Even though african americans were free by the law, they still were't free. They still had so much to worry about.
    Emmett Till's murder was a major point in american history in terms of segregation. It was a real eye opener to the blacks. They find that they still have many rules even though they are free.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Emmet Till represents everything white southerners hate d about reconstruction. It gave blacks the ability to do things that were normally reserved their race, like talking to their woman. Reconstruction failed for numerous reasons, but one of them is just that southerners were just not ready to have their former property be treated as equals. No one in America has complete freedom, but they can do just about anything that fondant infringe on other people's freedom or safety, and often they can even get away with that. But for black people to ever achieve the same level of freedom that white people had, the public had to buy into the idea and it would prove tout effective for the government to try to jam equality down the public throats because it just won't. At the end of the day, government is for the people, or the "important" ones at least, and if the people don't want something to happen, they'll find a way to prevent it. Some would argue that if you're a poor minority living in a urban area with a poor public school system that your not truly free because you don't really control your fate. But equal opportunity is not necessary for freedom as long as the opportunity is there.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Emmet Till was feared by the whites. He was very influencing towards black people, proving to them that they can now do anything that they were emancipated. I think Southerners (whites) were afraid of the blacks. They were afraid with this newly given freedom, the black race was going to take over. Many use the term "racist" but I don't believe that was the whole reason behind the KKK and other white supremacy groups. They're are afraid of what the black man could achieve when given as much freedom as a white man.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Emmett Till's death should be mourned in every sense of the word. Emmett was killed unlawfully, as a free black citizen, for flirting with a white woman. His murder was 100% unwarranted, and his mother made the right choice in showing his body to the world. Without cases like these showing the world the effects of racism and segregation. African Americans have been free for 70+ years at the time of Emmett's death, so the concept of "you're a free black man, you're not really free" that we covered in class is exemplified in this story. The government let Emmet's white killers walk free, simply because the white jury saw this as a "White vs. Black" case, and were probably afraid to rule against their race.

    ReplyDelete
  10. It took me some time to realize that this horror happend in 1955, and when I did I was much more terrified. That this senseless violence happened to a child not even a hundred years ago, just leaves me without words. It is so sad and frightened to see that the law was not at all enough to finally end the brutality towards African Americans. That the state Missisipi tried to cover it up and not let Emmets mother see the body of her dead son, made me really angry because it shows that a state that was part of the United States only pretended to stick up with human rights and consider blacks as equal to whites, but in reality is covering the murderers.

    I also have to say that I really think that Emmets mother was really brave when she exhibited his body for four days in public. It must have been a terrible experience of showing her child to the world in this degrading state. But shook the world up and this is important, althought it it said that a fourteen year old boy has to be slaughtered to make the world realize something is going really wrong.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I had no idea about who Emmett is and what happened to him since last night's reading,and i am not surprised it actually happened.
    Compare to his death, i am more curious why did it happen,how did the young lady feel that a man was murdered because of her?I think it happened because despite black people get citizenship lawfully,they still seems to be the group in the corner of the room and no one would like to talk about the issue of racial problem.The awkward feeling of interracial relationship would not disappear forever.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I believe that the story of Emmett Till was an example of human nature at its worst. Every racist cliche was present, a person of color being brutally murdered for something so trivial it makes you question the very humanity of his assaltantes. But the one thing that was different was that the victims, Emmett's family, his mother, their reaction was to make this atrocity known in stead of being forced to cower in the corner.

    ReplyDelete