BACKGROUND. W e reprint the editorial on this page not be cause of its theology but because it tells in a simple, basic way a fundamental truth that even Chris tians sometimes overlook. As you know, Emmett Till was a 14-year- old Chicago Negro lad who was sent by his Government office worker mother on a family visit to her home town of Sumner, Miss. Em mett stayed with his mother’s uncle, Mose Wright, a sharecropper and sometime preacher. Before Emmett left for his visit his mother warned
lahatchie River. The skull was smashed by blows and pierced by a bullet, and a heavy cotton-gin fan was lashed to the neck. Bryant and Milam were brought to trial (before an all-white jury, although the county is 63% Negro). The white people in the region raised a defense fund of $10,000. It didn’t take the jury many minutes to declare the smugly arrogant, cigar-puffing defendants not guilty. And for the deep South another blot was added to its already ugly record in the field of human justice.
him “ to be very carefu l. . . to hum ble yourself to the extent of getting down on your knees.” She told him Chicago wasn’t like Sumner. One day Emmett and a cousin went to nearby Money, Miss, to buy 2c worth of bubble gum. As they left the store Emmett whistled at a white woman. The white wom an’s husband, Roy Bryant and his half brother, J. W . Milam, later went to Mose Wright’s cabin and took Emmett Till away at gunpoint. Three days afterward Emmett’s body was found in the muddy Tal
Emmett Till n Mississippi the murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till still goes unpunished. It will be punished, nevertheless, for there is a higher law than Mississippi’s. Emmett Till was a child. One of the South’s traditions is the religion of Jesus, who said: “ But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a mill stone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” Men can be forgiven for prejudice, as a sign of ignorance or imperfect understanding of their religion; no righteous man can condone a brutal murder. Those in Sumner, and elsewhere, who do condone it, are in far worse danger than Emmett Till ever was. He had only his life to lose, and many others have done that. Those who condone a deed so foul as this are in danger of losing their souls. The soul of Emmett Till himself was known but to few, but it was a thing of value. It was fashioned on July 25, 1941 by the Lord God who placed on it this distinctive seal: This is M y son, akin to all others, but unlike any one of them. Like each of M y children he is unique, irreplaceable, immortal. I hereby send him among other men, who are his brothers. He went, and was slain. In the dark night of this deed his childish cries for mercy fell on deaf ears. But they were heard, nonetheless, and the Hearer made an entry, that night, beneath certain names, writing once more: “ It must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.” Sleep well, Emmett Till; you will be avenged. You will also be remembered, as long as men have tongues to cry against evil. It is true now as it was when Christ said it almost 2,000 years ago: “ For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed; neither hid that shall not be known . . . Whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light . . . Be not afraid of them that kill the body . . . Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell . . . Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? . . . Fear not, therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.” ( Courtesy Life Magazine. Copyright Time Inc. 1955.)
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